After 20 years at San José State University, a professor is resigning in response to the administration's actions toward pro-Palestinian activism on campus.
Rochelle McLaughlin, an adjunct faculty in the college of health and human sciences, sent a formal resignation letter out to the administration and others on Thursday.
“I am shocked and outraged by my university’s restrictive and punitive response to our community’s urgent public outcry for human empathy, understanding, integrity, and accountability,” McLaughlin wrote in her letter.
Several administrators were included in the letter such as SJSU president Cynthia Teniente-Matson and the Vice President of Student Affairs Mari Fuentes-Martin.
The Spartan Daily reached out to SJSU administration, but as of the publication, they do not have a response.
McLaughlin said it was a combination of things that led to the decision to resign from her position. “I've been studying the history (of Palestine and Zionism) since Oct. 7,” McLaughlin said. “While at the same time witnessing how the university has perpetrated harm on our faculty and the students who have been speaking out against the university.”
Following pro-Palestinian encampments in the Spring 2024 semester, the administration suspended justice studies professor, Sang Hea Kil, according to a May 27 NBC Bay Area article.
Sang Hea Kil, a member of the Caucus of Rank-and-file Education Workers within the California Faculty Association, was forwarded the letter.
“Having this total stranger write this incredible resignation letter,” Kil said. “And cc’ing some pretty powerful people on our campus and mentioning me as an example of injustice that's happening on campus in terms of the silence of genocide and its effect on the Palestinian people was truly mind-bogglingly touching for me.”
McLaughlin called upon the university to do several things; look at Sacramento State and San Francisco State University’s response to negotiations around divestment, apologize to Kil, end her suspension and call for immediate intervention in arms embargo, divestment, and sanctions from Israel.
SJSU Associated Students (A.S.) Board of Directors, the official body that represents the student population, passed a resolution supporting the boycott of companies who contribute to Israel's military-industrial complex, according to an April 29 SJSU A.S. resolution.
Mentioned within the resolution were the companies Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Divestment is when assets, investments, or divisions of a company are sold, according to a March 20, 2021 Investopedia article.
“We have models of how to do (divestment), it's possible,” Kil said. “You just have to have the will to love and care and that’s what's lacking in this world towards the Palestinians.”
Sacramento State University became the first university in California to divest from companies doing business with Israel, according to a May 9, ABC 7 News San Francisco article.
San Francisco State’s president Lynn Mahoney held an open bargaining session with student activists during a pro-Palestinian encampment back in May, according to a May 6 Golden Gate Xpress article.
McLaughlin also added to her letter that the SJSU administration has conflated Zionism with Judaism.
Zionism is a form of Jewish nationalism and the belief that Jewish people should receive national rights based on their religious identity, according to a Jan. 9, 2015 Foreign Policy Research Institute article.
The Spartan Daily contacted SJSU’s Jewish Studies Program coordinator but she declined to comment.
“Any critique of Zionism is seen as a critique of Jewishness and this is a false conclusion,” Kil said.
She said that when activists are critiquing Zionism they are critiquing colonial protections, apartheid systems, occupations, and the killing of Palestinian people.
Kil said that it’s more about the national debate that’s happening and about the Department of Education adopting the stance.
“I feel like mostly on campus the culture has been pro-Zionist,” Kil said. “I’ve been the one that has been pro-Palestinian and have just gotten the shit kicked out of me.”
McLaughlin said that it is an ideology that the university appears to be perpetrating upon the faculty and students.
McLaughlin’s resignation begins at the end of the Fall 2024 semester on Dec. 20.
“I hope that my resignation gives (students) energy for their work in continuing to mobilize,” McLaughlin said. “They truly are on the right side of history in their advocacy…”
