A nonprofit advocacy organization focused on free speech rights has sent several letters to UTSA in the wake of student protests in recent months, during which students alleged that administrators forbade them from chanting in Arabic or using certain phrases — allegations the university has previously denied.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) sent one letter on April 29 and another May 14 to UTSA President Taylor Eighmy, citing statements students made to the San Antonio Report and other outlets, and demanding an investigation and public statement.
“If the students’ report is substantially accurate, the university’s direction raises serious First Amendment concerns,” Haley Gluhanich, campus rights advocacy program officer for FIRE said in the letter. “The First Amendment protects student expression at public universities, ‘no matter how offensive’ it may be to others.”
Student organizers say they were restricted from saying “Israel” and “zionist” at an April 24 rally, causing them to stop a march several times to ensure compliance when members used those terms.
When asked for evidence of the speech restrictions, student organizers provided an April 24 video of Dean of Students LaTonya “LT” Robinson warning students before their march not to use the phrase “from the river to the sea.”
The phrase refers to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and has become a divisive chant that some say is a call for liberation and peace for Palestinian people and others say it is an antisemitic call for the elimination of Israel.
In the video, which was shared with the Report, Robinson is shown standing before protesters and citing a March executive order by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, which directed higher education institutions to update free speech policies “to address the sharp rise in antisemitic speech and acts on university campuses and establish appropriate punishments, including expulsion from the institution.”
Robinson does not refer to Israel or Palestine in the video.
After that march, Joe Izbrand, a spokesperson for the university, disputed student organizer claims of restrictions and pointed instead to a statement made by Eighmy, which referred to having no tolerance for anitsemitism.
“That is not correct on certain words [being banned],” he said. “As President Eighmy indicated in his message earlier this week, the university will not tolerate antisemitic expression. That was not an issue today.”
Izbrand did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
In the follow-up letter on May 14, Gluhanich criticizes the university for not responding and says the executive order doesn’t excuse restriction of free speech.
“While these statements on USTA’s behalf appear reactive to Governor Abbott’s Executive Order … UTSA may not constitutionally abridge students’ First Amendment rights to effectuate the governor’s mandate,” she said.
Student organizers at various colleges and universities across the region, including UTSA, referenced the alleged restrictions during a recent “dis-orientation” event on June 4 and 5 where they distributed literature to incoming students “highlighting the campus climate of repression as it relates to Palestine.”
Despite the student allegations of repression, however, no administrative or public safety action was taken at another demonstration on May 3, when students openly flouted the university directives by chanting “from the river to the sea” repeatedly and taunting onlooking administrators.
