The Executive Board of the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union voted on Monday, August 25, 2025 to endorse the following statement.
The Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union Executive Board condemns the recent non-reappointment of three adjunct faculty members and termination of a fourth at the City University of New York (CUNY), in what clearly appears to be retaliation for their public opposition to the ongoing Israeli genocide in Palestine.
These dismissals, carried out in direct contradiction to unanimous departmental recommendations and without any due process, not only constitute a grave violation of academic freedom and a dangerous encroachment on faculty governance; they are also another chilling example of the campaign to target—through suspensions, firings, and other disciplinary measures—students and workers who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
“Let’s be clear,” said Corinna Mullin, one of the four adjuncts, “our firings had nothing to do with our job performance or our teaching records. The [PSC-CUNY faculty and staff union] has warned that this has ‘all the appearances of an ideological purge,’ echoing the shameful McCarthy-era attacks on CUNY faculty in the 1950s. That history is repeating itself.”
The terminations at CUNY are part of a broader assault on higher education. For the Trump administration and its bipartisan allies, universities are “lost territory” to be reconquered and purged of all “deviant” writing, speech, and curriculum.
Instead of obediently falling into lockstep with this agenda, as other universities have been doing, CUNY should defend the rights of its educators and students whose opposition to genocide and the ongoing Nakba is being smeared as antisemitic.
The City University of New York faces a critical choice: it can either continue to align with the forces of authoritarianism and political repression, or it can recommit to its identity as a people’s university dedicated to justice, academic freedom, and critical inquiry.
We join with others calling on the CUNY administration to:
- Immediately reinstate all four faculty members and restore their rights as educators and members of the CUNY community.
- Issue a public apology for the emotional and material harm caused by the firings, and provide a full and transparent explanation of the decision-making process behind these terminations, including who made the final call and under what justification.
- Uphold the First Amendment rights of all members of the CUNY community and end CUNY’s complicity with the McCarthyite repression of CUNY students and workers who express public support for Palestine.
As contingent workers, adjunct faculty are often the first to be targeted—but they will not be the last. In firing these four adjunct faculty members, CUNY administration is not just targeting individual educators, but sending a clear message to all that dissent and academic freedom have no place at CUNY. With this in mind, we strongly urge other academic unions and faculty organizations concerned with the protection of academic freedom to demand that CUNY submit to an independent inquiry into this matter.
To send a union-sponorsed letter to CUNY administrators demanding the adjuncts be reinstated, click here.