On January 23, 2017, members and supporters of Fordham Students for Justice in Palestine rallied on the university’s Manhattan campus, before marching to nearby Columbus Circle and back, to protest the Fordham administration’s refusal to register SJP as a student organization. (Photo: Joe Catron / Flickr)
Fordham University has recently been awarded the dubious distinction of being named one of the 10 worst campuses in the United States when it comes to free speech and academic freedom. Its sin? To have, in an unprecedented move, overturned its own process for approving student groups and unilaterally denied recognition to one student organization alone — Students for Justice in Palestine.
According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education,
On November 17, 2016, the Fordham United Student Government (USG) Senate and Executive Board approved Students for Justice in Palestine’s application for recognition, noting that SJP “fulfills a need for open discussion and demonstrates that Fordham is a place that exemplifies diversity of thought.”
But after USG’s approval, Dean of Students Keith Eldredge notified SJP members that he wanted to review the group’s status before finalizing official recognition. On December 22, Eldredge informed the students that he would not grant SJP official recognition, writing that he “cannot support an organization whose sole purpose is advocating political goals of a specific group, and against a specific country” and that “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict … often leads to polarization rather than dialogue.” He also notified them that his decision could not be appealed.
Fordham is a private Jesuit institution, and as such, it cannot be sued for infringements of free speech like a state institution can. But the lawsuit filed by Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of four students — Ahmad Awad, Sofia Dadap, Sapphira Lurie and Julie Norris — argues that the manner in which the university denied…