The Faculty Senate endorsed the “Statement by Provost on Support of Academic Freedom” and motioned to create separate resolutions on three proposals in response to the letter of faculty concern brought to the Senate in September.

Written in August, the statement from the provost was previously discussed by the Faculty Senate in September and formally endorsed at the Nov. 19 meeting. An amendment to the motion for endorsement, brought by John Havard, a professor of English, was added to indicate that the senators were endorsing the statement as part of a response to the discussion of the faculty letter of concern. The amended motion passed reads, “The faculty senate endorses the ‘Statement by Provost on Support of Academic Freedom.’ This is in response to the discussion of the letter of concern.”

Authored by Provost Donald Hall, the statement affirmed the University’s commitment to upholding academic freedom and free expression of thought and opinion. Condemning all forms of violence and hate speech, it called for respect and civility in difficult conversations and emphasized the importance of guarding these principles in times of unrest, referencing Palestine and Israel and the U.S. presidential election. It called for faculty and staff to “contribute their research and expertise to bear on the most salient questions of our time.”

“I am very happy to partner with my faculty colleagues to emphasize our campus’s commitment to protecting the rights of our faculty, students, and staff,” Hall wrote to Pipe Dream. “BU stands strong in making sure our campus is a safe space for teaching and research on the toughest questions facing us today as a nation and international community.”

Brought to the Faculty Senate at its Sept. 17 meeting, the faculty letter of concern was written in response to the treatment of student protesters during last semester’s Peace Quad Encampment. At that meeting, senators were urged to present the letter to their departments for continued debate and deliberation before returning for this Tuesday’s meeting. The letter included demands for a commitment to academic freedom and for the University to refrain from bias.

The letter contained three proposals for resolutions. The first would express support for free speech and assembly protections for faculty, students and staff when discussing Israel and Palestine, the second would express the Senate’s concern over the deployment of police at the encampment and the third would caution administrators against involving law enforcement and threatening punishment in response to peaceful student protest.

“We’d like to see increased faculty involvement when there are questions around whether or not to call the police in and when questions around campus safety are being determined, whether that’s formal or informal,” said Surya Parekh, an associate professor of English who was among the faculty members who initially brought the letter to the Senate.

The Senate’s leadership will now decide which committee or committees will draft the articles of resolution.

Before the letter could be fully discussed, the meeting’s allotted time ended. Marina Sitrin, a faculty senator and professor of sociology, described the importance of passing the three resolutions in anticipation of Donald Trump’s second term.

“We urge the leadership within the Faculty Senate — that can determine whether or not this comes up to be voted on in the Feb. 11 Faculty Senate meeting — that these come forward as full proposals so they can be discussed and voted on, because of the urgency, not only for Israel-Palestine discussions and freedom, [but] also for potential post-Jan. 20 freedoms and restrictions, so to protect all students in all ways and all faculty and staff in all ways,” Sitrin said.

Sitrin said the sociology department unanimously supported the three resolutions. Other departments also engaged in “debates and discussions” around the three resolutions, and Sitrin added that there exists strong support for academic freedom for students, faculty and staff.

In a statement to Pipe Dream, the local chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America commended Hall and the Faculty Senate for their commitment to academic freedom.

“Palestinian voices have been silenced in American academia to delegitimize their existence and struggle for liberation from Western colonial occupation; defending intellectuals who stand up to this institutionalized oppression must be a priority of the University,” YDSA wrote to Pipe Dream. “However, the University must indeed live up to the Provost’s statement. These must not be empty words as repression spreads across the country, especially with the looming presidency of Donald Trump, who has promised to attack the pro-Palestine student movement.”