WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – Over 45 Columbia Law School professors have signed a letter calling for a Columbia University Senate inquiry into the controversial departure of their colleague Katherine Franke, marking an escalation in the dispute over academic freedom and protest rights on campuses.
The 15 January letter, addressed to Columbia’s senior leadership, including the interim president and board of trustees, requests an investigation into what the signatories describe as Franke’s “constructive termination” following her stance on pro-Palestinian protests.
While acknowledging diverse views regarding the Middle East conflict and campus protests, the faculty members united around two core positions: that the allegations against Franke don’t warrant termination or its equivalent and that the university’s handling of the matter may have undermined protections for academic freedom and political speech.
“We do not know the full details of Franke’s disciplinary case,” the letter states, emphasizing that the signatories hold “no common position” on whether her remarks violated university policies. However, they express unified concern that the process was “deployed to chill and punish [her] advocacy”.
Academics, activists and alumni criticized Columbia University this week after tenured professor Franke announced that the institution pressured her to retire over her vocal criticism of the Zionist regime and support for pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
Franke founded the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law and served on the executive committee of Columbia’s Center for Palestine Studies.
Late last week, she announced in a statement that she had “reached an agreement” with the university to retire after serving 25 years as a law faculty member. But while the university may call this change in status “retirement”, Franke said, it should be “understood as a termination dressed up in more palatable terms”.
“I have come to regard Columbia Law School as a hostile work environment in which I can no longer enter the classroom, hold office hours, walk through the campus, or engage in faculty governance functions free from egregious and unwelcome harassment on account of my defense of students’ freedom to protest and express views that are critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.” 
The agreement was reached after the university decided that Franke’s statement during a January 2024 Democracy Now! interview - in which she condemned students who were former members of the Israeli army for spraying pro-Palestine students with a chemical - violated equal opportunity and affirmative action (EOAA) policies.