An adjunct professor at DePaul University was fired halfway through her first quarter of teaching. Anne d'Aquino taught Health 194: Human Pathogens and Defense. 

What set her sideways with the university administration was an optional assignment that asked students to explain “the impact of genocide/ethnic cleansing on the health/biology of the people it impacts.” 

Students complained when they received an email from d'Aquino that focused on Palestine. She used terms like genocide and ethnic cleansing. 

This case is different than what happens on most campuses. Many faculty members on college campuses have been investigated, suspended, or fired for anti-Israel speech. Freedom of speech and academic freedom for professors has been a hot topic since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Professors and other faculty members have participated in social media posts, rally speeches, supported encampments, and other activities outside classrooms. Many colleges have come under fire for too much leniency in protecting radical left-wing professors. 

The firing at DePaul appears to be unprecedented. The adjunct professor wasn't participating in a protest or posting anti-Israel statements on social media. She presented an optional assignment. 

Professor d’Aquino said that DePaul violated her academic freedom with the termination. 

Classroom instruction comes with a particular set of academic freedom considerations. Teaching is a fundamental part of being a faculty member, and the classroom is an arena they’re supposed to control day-to-day. But it’s also an arena where students may be a captive audience to teaching they disagree with or find to be lacking.

And when students or others do complain, it’s much easier for a university to get rid of a faculty member who doesn’t have tenure protections. But academic freedom defenders say that doesn't make it right to do without due process, which DePaul and other universities promise in their policies. D’Aquino said she had appealed her quick dismissal.

DePaul may have felt justified to quickly terminate d'Aquino because students complained about the language in her email. Complaints make it easier for schools to eliminate professors, especially those without tenure, like d'Aquino. She is appealing the decision.

The professor was new to the school. She began teaching on April 1, the start of the spring quarter. Pro-Hamas students set up an encampment on campus on April 30. She taught across from the encampment on the quad.

During her sixth week of teaching, Israel began its routing out of Hamas in Rafah. That was on May 6. At DePaul, President Robert L. Manuel voiced safety concerns about the encampment. Police dismantled the encampment on May 16. 

During Week 6, d'Aquino's course topic was infection and epidemiology. The original assignment centered around the first known case of a human catching avian flu from a nonhuman mammal. That is when she emailed students about the optional alternative assignment.

“Today, Israel rejected a ceasefire deal and continues to bomb Rafah, where over 600,000 children are currently sheltering,” read the description she sent. It went on to state that “many view this as the last phase of the genocide/ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinian people,” and added: “I encourage students to use scientific analysis and critical thinking to understand and communicate the impacts of genocide on human biology, and the creation of a decolonized future that promotes liberation and resists systemic oppression.”

D’Aquino listed seven links for students to read “on decolonizing science, and the intersections of biological sciences, health and history in Palestine.” They included a Guardian article that said “Israel has admitted pathologists harvested organs from dead Palestinians, and others, without the consent of their families—a practice it said ended in the 1990s.”

It's easy to see why students complained. This is political activism, not professional teaching. This is promoting Hamas propaganda in her classroom teaching. She said she wanted to show “solidarity to all those who are actively supporting Palestinian liberation (and the liberation of all colonized people), resisting the normalization of ethnic cleansing and demanding divestment from genocide,” She ended the email with an emoji of a Palestinian flag and a watermelon slice. The flag has the same colors as a watermelon. It's been used as a Palestinian symbol for many years.

Allegedly, the professor wanted to study the spread of infectious disease in Gaza. 

The professor said that Sarah Connolly, DePaul’s health sciences chair, notified her of the complaints from students. Connolly said discussing ethnic cleansing and genocide “might make some students feel unsafe in that classroom.” Ya think?

On May 8, just two days after d’Aquino sent out the optional assignment, Connolly sent her a two-paragraph termination letter. “You added an assignment … that was unrelated to the course objectives and microbiology,” Connolly wrote. “Students have expressed significant concern about the introduction of political matters into the class. This has negatively impacted the learning environment.” Connolly wrote that “after consulting with the dean’s office, I am terminating your adjunct faculty appointment effective immediately.”

D'Aquino said that Connolly previously told her that d'Aquino had the freedom to do as she wished with the course. I assume that will be the focus of her appeal. 

I want to think this is a step in the right direction. The pendulum seems to be swinging to a more sane place lately, with normal people voicing frustration with the far left and their grip on higher education. After what has been seen on college campuses since the start of the war, color me skeptical.