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Authored by Lisa Schiffren via The College Fix,

A tenured professor is suspended throughout the rest of the semester after writing an essay celebrating Hamas’ attack on Israel.

“McCarthyism is real. I’ve been relieved of teaching responsibilities,” Hobart and William Smith Colleges Professor Jodi Dean wrote Saturday on X. “Don’t stop talking about Palestine.”

“The images from October 7 of paragliders evading Israeli air defenses were for many of us exhilarating,” the New York political scientist wrote the week prior in a blog post for Verso Books.

She wrote further:

Mark Gearan, the president of HWS Colleges, wrote, in a letter to the college community, “I deeply regret that as a result of Professor Dean’s comments, there now may be students on our campus who feel threatened in or outside the classroom.” 

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that a follow up message from the provost, Sarah Kirk, explained that “the colleges are obligated under Title VI, a federal antidiscrimination law, to investigate potential ‘hostile environments’ involving national origin, shared ancestry, or other protected classes.’” 

Some defended the professor’s right to speak freely, even if disagreeing with her views, according to The Chronicle.

Princeton University Professor Robert George “said that while he found the views Dean expressed in her article appalling, the colleges’ response seemed to conflict with their own endorsement of the American Association of University Professors’ principles on academic freedom, which are included in the faculty handbook.”

“None of the unprotected categories of speech are relevant here,” the conservative professor said. “Jodi Dean did not threaten anybody. She did not harass anybody. She did not engage in defamation or accuse somebody of a crime falsely.” 

However, Cornell University law Professor William Jacobson had different views.

“You endorse the academic boycott of Israel depriving Israelis and American students and scholars who want to study in or with Israelis of their academic freedom,” Jacobson wrote on X, responding to a post from Professor Dean. “You’re not just a ghoulish depraved communist supporter of Islamist terrorism, you’re an academic freedom fraud.”

The news outlet also reported Dean will continue to be paid.

She also “has access to her office, and can continue to do research. [The spokesperson] rejected any suggestion that Dean’s academic freedom had been violated, and added that the professor had made comments similar to the controversial essay at a campus lecture on March 28.”