The Executive Committee of the Doctoral Students’ Council has recently been informed that the administration at CUNY central, including Vice Chancellor Frederick Schaffer, continues to work on a proposed policy on ‘Freedom of Expression and Expressive Conduct’ this year. Similar policies have met with widespread criticism and rejection by the CUNY community, even as recently as this past summer. The DSC Executive Committee stands opposed to this and any other proposed policies that curtail and prohibit freedom of expression and free speech at CUNY.

Moreover, the DSC Executive Committee questions the motivations and timing behind this proposed policy, which is being considered at a time when students of color, and working-class students, as well as precarious adjunct faculty are organizing for a better university at CUNY and across the United States. Instead of increasing opportunities of engagement for students of color and precarious workers, the CUNY administration seems determined to restrict their inalienable rights to free speech and assembly. The DSC Executive Committee maintains that the proposed policy undermines, rather than protects, freedom of expression and free speech at CUNY. The Executive Committee asks that the Board of Trustees reject this assault on free speech at CUNY, by not considering the proposal now or at any time in the future.