Academic Freedom Win
Arbitrator Orders San Jose State to Reinstate Professor Kil Fired for Pro-Palestinian Activism
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An arbitrator has ordered San Jose State University to reinstate tenured professor Sang Hea Kil, ruling that her November 2025 firing was "excessive" KQED. The arbitrator reduced the punishment to a one-month unpaid suspension and ordered SJSU to pay Kil full back pay covering roughly seven months of lost wages.
Kil, a Justice Studies professor and faculty advisor for Students for Justice in Palestine, was one of the first tenured professors at a public U.S. university fired in connection with pro-Palestinian campus protests The Guardian. Her case has become a flashpoint in the broader national fight over academic freedom, campus activism, and federal pressure on universities.
A Firing the Faculty Panel Had Already Rejected
The road to Kil's firing began on February 19, 2024, when a campus protest disrupted a guest lecture by a visiting professor. SJSU placed Kil on paid administrative leave in May 2024 and cited three separate campus demonstrations as grounds for termination California Faculty Association. A Faculty Hearing Committee reviewed the case in October 2025 and unanimously recommended no discipline at all, saying Kil had already "endured significant negative consequences."
SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson overrode that recommendation on November 26, 2025. In her termination letter, she accused Kil of a "consistent pattern" of violations that put "the education and physical safety of our students at serious risk" The Guardian. The arbitrator's June 22, 2026 ruling rejected that framing, finding termination was too harsh a penalty.
Professor Says Firing Was Meant to Silence Pro-Palestinian Voices
Kil called the arbitrator's ruling "a victory for academic freedom." She said, "I feel what happened to me was to silence any pro-Palestinian solidarity in academia and also in this nation" KQED. Kil served as co-chair of the California Faculty Association's Palestine, Arab, and Muslim Caucus, making her a visible target for critics of campus activism.
The faculty union pointed to unequal treatment as evidence of retaliation. History professor Jonathan Roth was recorded grabbing a student protester's wrist at the same February 2024 event. Unlike Kil, Roth was briefly returned to the teaching schedule before quietly retiring Spartan Daily. CFA President Margarita Berta-Ávila said, "We have never seen such an overreach in punishing faculty" California Faculty Association.
Federal Pressure on CSU System Looms Over the Case
The firing did not happen in a vacuum. In September 2025, the Trump administration's Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission launched a systemwide investigation into all 22 campuses of the California State University system over antisemitism complaints LA Times. The CFA accused CSU leadership of "complicity" with the federal probe, suggesting the university fired Kil partly to avoid losing federal funding.
CAIR-SFBA Executive Director Zahra Billoo called the original termination a "calculated move" to punish political speech. The Middle East Studies Association and the American Association of University Professors both warned that bypassing faculty governance in a case like this sets a "dangerous precedent" for universities across the country Middle East Studies Association.
Ruling Reinforces High Bar for Firing Tenured Professors
The arbitrator's decision rests on a key legal standard: tenured faculty firings require "progressive discipline," meaning universities must show a pattern of irredeemable misconduct before taking the most severe step KQED. By cutting Kil's penalty from termination to a single month's unpaid suspension, the ruling signals that political activism — even when disruptive — rarely clears that bar.
SJSU now faces a significant financial penalty in the form of full back pay owed to Kil for the period from November 2025 through her reinstatement in June 2026. The California Faculty Association called for stronger protections for academic speech across the CSU system and warned that federal investigations into campus antisemitism continue to subpoena faculty records California Faculty Association.
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