JVP Academic Council Calls on UC Irvine to Dismiss Disciplinary Charges Levied Against Professor Tiffany Willoughby-Herard

Dear Chancellor Gilman and Vice Provost Hayes:

The Academic Council of Jewish Voice for Peace calls for the dismissal of the erroneous disciplinary charges and extreme punishments levied against University of California, Irvine Professor Tiffany Willoughby-Herard. We recommend that you join us in lauding Professor Willoughby-Herard’s commitment to student safety and support. The disciplinary actions she is facing – including a letter of censure to be put in Professor Willoughby Herard’s file for 5 years; one quarter of suspension without pay, including her health insurance; and (contrary to the hearing committee’s recommendation) disallowing her interaction with or mentoring of her students – are unwarranted. 

When the UC Irvine administration called in police from 21 agencies to confront a peaceful encampment protesting Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, Professor Willoughby-Heard arrived on campus to protect students and bring her de-escalation skills to bear on a situation escalated by an overwhelming police presence. It was the heavily armed police who militarized the campus and enacted violence, not Professor Willoughby-Herard or her colleagues and students. As Professor Willoughby-Herard attempted to de-escalate the situation – an action for which UC publicly advertises training – police shoved her to the ground, jumped on top of her, and tied her up. Her reflexive reaction to her attackers was a normal response to the unjustified and senseless violence inflicted on her. We find it incomprehensible that the institution subsequently refused to consider in the hearing the police behavior that triggered Professor Willoughby-Herard’s reflexive reactions when she reasonably tried to put out a hand to stop the blows in a gesture that only a cynical inversion of reality would construe otherwise.   

The judgments against Professor Willoughby-Herard were clearly made in a prejudicial manner. The violent behavior of the police was excluded from consideration in both the initial report on the events and the Privilege and Tenure committee’s hearing against her. The committee also ignored the testimony of several faculty members who were at the protest that evening. The police themselves who testified in the hearing admitted that she had little if any impact on the operation of police clearing of the student encampments. 

This entire process appears to be prejudicial, from the moment Professor Willoughby-Herard was assaulted, and then arrested, and then accused of assault, through the entire disciplinary process.  Several UCI faculty have described this process as engaging in racialized prejudice. 

This case, brought over a year after the student encampment of May 2024, puts the premier UC Irvine campus at risk of establishing authoritarian governance that represses academic freedom, especially when it comes to the academic freedom to discuss, or protest against, Israel. Wittingly or not, in this case, UC Irvine strengthens the Trump administration in its aim to undermine the university as an institution governed by liberal principles (see Project 2025 and Project Esther).

Unfortunately, targeting faculty members in proximity to protests against Israel is not unique, but instead represents a broader trend of weaponizing the false threat of antisemitism to repress pro-Palestine speech. 

As the Academic Council of Jewish Voice for Peace, we take seriously our responsibility to affirm again and again that criticisms of neither the state of Israel nor Zionism equate to antisemitism. Rather, they reflect a stance against a political ideology that privileges one group – Jews – over others with rights to live on the same land – Palestinians. Antisemitism, on the other hand, is bigotry against or hatred towards Jewish people based on stereotypes. Antisemitism homogenizes all Jews, who are turned into “the Jew.” These dehumanizing stereotypes were born in medieval Christendom and further forged through nineteenth-century European colonial theories of race. The weaponization of antisemitism (the instrumental use of the charge of “antisemitism” so as to install right-wing politics of control into the universities) that the Trump administration has pursued should be clearly and thoroughly rejected. 

The purpose of higher education, especially at a leading R1 university like UCI, is to educate students to become thoughtful citizens in public debates so that they can make a meaningful contribution to improving our democracy, not to tearing it down. Chancellors and presidents are responsible for fostering and protecting the university’s principles. When a chancellor decides to violently punish students who protest peacefully and the faculty who show up to protect them, he has failed.  He has strengthened authoritarian rule instead of democratic debate. We ask you to take seriously your responsibility to serve your students, faculty, and democracy and immediately end your disciplinary pursuit and punishment of Professor Willoughby-Herard.

We urge you to dismiss all charges and all punishment against Professor Willoughby-Herard. We further urge you to establish a committee of faculty that first assesses whether any charges against a faculty member meet the minimal threshold of probable cause. This decision should not remain within the administration only, as it currently does. Finally, the Chancellor and other administrators should develop and follow a set of guidelines designed to minimize police responses to protests, and to limit the use of force against protesters wherever possible with annual training of UC personnel in de-escalation techniques. 

Sincerely, 

The Academic Council of Jewish Voice for Peace

Contact: Dr. Jonah Rubin, Sr. Manager of Campus Organizing, Jewish Voice for Peace.

The Jewish Voice for Peace Academic Council is a network of scholars dedicated to furthering JVP’s vision and values. Drawing upon our shared commitment to both progressive Jewish values and Palestinian liberation, we organize in solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle in educational and academic settings. We draw upon our skills as scholars, educators, and writers to develop critical analysis of contemporary censorship on Palestine. We oppose the deployment of the charge of antisemitism to censor or criminalize speech critical of the State of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.