The day before a two-day symposium called “Critical Conversations in the Humanities: The War in Israel/Palestine” was supposed to start at the University of Florida, university officials told its organizers they would be pulling its support and the event could not take place on campus.
A spokesperson for the university said the event, which ultimately took place Friday and Saturday at a Gainesville church and on Zoom, was “wrongly marketed” as a UF-sponsored event, and therefore “was not compliant with the university’s use of space policy.”
But organizers say they had approval and a pledge of financial support months ahead of time.
Malini Schueller, a professor in the English department, received a letter in February from Jaime Ahlberg, the chairperson of the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere, congratulating her that her proposal for the speaker series had been selected.
The letter congratulated Schueller for finding “a balanced panel of participants to explore this culturally charged topic.”
The letter also asked Schueller to use the center’s logo on publicity and sponsorship materials.
Schueller said she obtained an additional $3,000 in funding for the event from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Office of Research, which would be used to cover travel, hotel and speaker fees.
The speakers included philosopher Judith Butler; Palestinian journalist and poet Plestia Alagad; professors from the University of Michigan and University of California, Los Angeles; and representatives from Jewish Voices for Peace and the Arab American Community Center in Jacksonville.
In a letter to the university, Schueller’s lawyers said she received a call Oct. 30 expressing concern over advertisement for the symposium, and that the event was not “balanced.”
On Oct. 31 — a day before the event was to start — Schueller received an email from her department chair, Sid Dobrin. He wrote that he’d received a call from the university’s general counsel and the interim dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences saying the symposium “is not a university event and is not compliant with the university’s use of space policy.”
Dobrin wrote he was asked to convey that the event organizers “need to cancel the event as currently arranged.”
“No university resources, including any UF space or funding,” would be permitted, he wrote. He wrote that he was supposed to “terminate any department funding for the event” and “disallow any expenditure of department or other UF funds for the event, including any speaker honoraria.”
“If the event organizers intend to convert this to a non-UF event, they need to ensure that no UF resources are utilized and that any marketing materials make it clear it is not a university event,” the email said.
“I recognize that this is deeply problematic given that the event starts tomorrow,” Dobrin wrote.
Dobrin wrote that he made clear to university leaders that he supported “the academic freedom that encourages such events to be held on campus, but that, they said, is not the issue.”
Schueller said she believes it is.
Last year, the state university system passed a new regulation prohibiting the use of public money on activities that “promote or engage in political or social activism.” The rule was criticized at the time for being overly broad.
UF has since seen other speakers on issues related to the Israel-Palestine conflict, including a prominent pro-Zionism speaker and Israel Defense Forces veteran. The events were sponsored by student organizations, which are exempt from the rule, and by the campus’s Hillel chapter — a nonprofit that does not receive university funding.
Schueller said she’s been involved in organizing other symposia in her more than 30 years at UF, and said the process has always been the same.
“I think this is a clear violation of both the First Amendment and of academic freedom,” she said “This is the university that (brought) Richard Spencer, the right wing white nationalist to campus to talk. Lots of people protested, but the university said they support academic freedom, so they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in security to have this xenophobic fellow.”
Marilyn Wende, a health education and behavior professor, questioned who would come to UF for future panels.
“It is unprofessional on the side of University of Florida, and it is discriminatory,” she said.