We work for you \u2014 and we\u2019re matching your donation 1:1! <\/strong>Our journalists attend city council and school board meetings, follow tips and make the calls to keep you informed on the important issues in Berkeley. Will you chip in today?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, double my Berkeleyside donation with your matching gift!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Just a few months after UC Berkeley said it had released the names of 160 students, faculty and staff<\/a> mentioned in antisemitism complaints to the Trump administration, the university has suspended one of them for sharing his pro-Palestinian political beliefs with his students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peyrin Kao, a computer science lecturer whose 38-day hunger strike<\/a> made him one of the campus\u2019s most high-profile faculty critics of the war in Gaza, said he learned Thursday that UC Berkeley is placing him on six months of suspension without pay beginning in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The suspension, first reported by The Daily Californian<\/a>, comes after student complaints, according to a letter<\/a> signed by Professor Jelani Nelson, chair of the university\u2019s Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department. Several academics within and outside the university decried it as an assault on academic freedom that is likely to chill political speech on a campus already at the center of the Trump administration\u2019s crackdown on colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At issue are two lectures Kao delivered, one in April 2024 and the other in August 2025, that university officials say violated a University of California policy<\/a> barring \u201cmisuse of the classroom\u201d and \u201cpolitical indoctrination\u201d of students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the first, which took place as UC Berkeley students were protesting the Gaza war, Kao took about five minutes after the last class of the semester had officially ended to talk about political dialogue and the role of technology companies in providing tools used by the Israeli military<\/a>. He called the war a genocide and said conversations about the ethical use of technology were important to engage in as part of recruiting and retaining diverse people to computer science. He ended by expressing solidarity with student protesters and Palestinians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the second instance, Kao told students, \u201cI might be a little fatigued because I\u2019m doing a starvation diet for a cause that I believe in.\u201d He did not say what the cause was, but provided students with a link to his personal website, where they could find additional information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo one can deny that, outside the classroom, Mr. Kao\u2019s First Amendment rights allow him to advocate for causes he supports,\u201d Executive Vice Chancellor Benjamin Hermalin wrote in a review of Kao\u2019s conduct<\/a>. But Kao\u2019s hunger strike, he wrote, qualified as a \u201cnonverbal\u201d form of in-class advocacy due to \u201cthe visible physical toll it presumably was taking and the adverse consequences it may have had on the quality of his instruction.\u201d Kao also drew attention to the strike by mentioning it in class and being interviewed about it in the press, Hermalin wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hermalin said Kao\u2019s teaching should be \u201cmonitored\u201d until the suspension takes effect and that he had \u201cno objection\u201d if the department chose to terminate Kao.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kao said in an interview that he believes he was specifically targeted because of his pro-Palestinian views, and that the university had not raised any questions about the April 2024 lecture until late October 2025, when he was summoned to an investigatory meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe timing of this one raises some very serious questions about whether the university is capitulating to the demands of the Trump administration and using me as bait,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After being warned by the university in 2023 to keep his pro-Palestinian advocacy out of the classroom, Kao said he had been careful not to run afoul of university rules. He said the April 2024 conversation<\/a> took place after an end-of-term class session that had been billed as optional, in which other topics of conversation included what books he and his co-instructor were reading, and that he had told students before he began speaking that they were free to leave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI explicitly said, \u2018It\u2019s OK if you don\u2019t agree with me,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I talk about these things to students, it\u2019s not like I\u2019m trying to indoctrinate them or coerce them to think a certain way. It\u2019s really just that I think students are capable of thinking critically and having these conversations among themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That distinction is key, said Jonathan Zimmerman, a historian at Penn State\u2019s Graduate School of Education who focuses on free speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExpression and indoctrination are not the same thing,\u201d Zimmerman said. \u201cThis professor has a right to say anything he wants about Palestine. He doesn\u2019t have the right to impose his views on his students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the absence of any evidence that Kao was grading his students in a biased manner or otherwise pressuring them to agree with him, Zimmerman said, the suspension \u201cseems really draconian.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But he said it fits a nationwide pattern of increased restrictions on in-class speech, pointing to a September incident in which a Texas A&M professor was fired<\/a> after a student recorded her making comments about gender identity that incensed Republican lawmakers. The Trump administration is currently investigating allegations of antisemitism at dozens of colleges and universities, including UC Berkeley, a campaign that has been welcomed by some conservative and Jewish scholars but that critics \u2014 including other Jewish academics \u2014 describe as a thinly veiled effort to exert control over higher education and silence political dissent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore said the university doesn\u2019t comment on confidential personnel matters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe university will always take a viewpoint-neutral approach when it comes to supporting freedom of expression and actions that align with policy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She did not answer whether the university has disciplined any other professors this year for violating the same policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UC Berkeley faced a public backlash in September when it announced it had shared the names of the 160 students, faculty and staff with Education Department officials investigating the campus\u2019s handling of antisemitism complaints. This appears to be the first publicized case since then of the university disciplining someone named in the documents. UC Berkeley officials have said they were directed by UC system leaders to share the unredacted documents and notified those named in the interest of transparency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judith Butler, a prominent gender studies scholar whose name was also forwarded to the Trump administration, called Kao\u2019s suspension a \u201cterrible decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe consequences will not only be to chill political speech on campus, but to further ruin UC Berkeley\u2019s reputation as upholding the principles of free speech,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the letter announcing the suspension, Nelson told Kao that his failure to comply with university policies \u201ccontinues to make students in your courses very uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI received reports that your actions made CS 61B a hostile environment for them and they disguised their identity for fear of retaliation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other students spoke out in support of Kao. A spokesperson for the student organization Stem4Palestine said it was planning campus demonstrations in Doe Library on Wednesday and Sproul Plaza on Thursday to protest his suspension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeyrin\u2019s suspension shows that the university will selectively retaliate against pro-Palestine speech, even if it means depriving EECS students of an educator who has always prioritized his students and the quality of their education,\u201d the group said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some members plan to launch an extended hunger strike Wednesday to demand Kao\u2019s reinstatement, the group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A field representative for the University Council-AFT, which represents campus lecturers, said the union planned to file a grievance over Kao\u2019s suspension. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe don\u2019t find that UC Berkeley had any just cause for this suspension,\u201d said the field representative, Jessica Conte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kao said he planned to continue speaking out about Palestine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you make a choice not to talk about something, that\u2019s also a political decision,\u201d he said. \u201cYou are making a decision to uphold the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n October 3, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n September 12, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n July 15, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n felicia@berkeleyside.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Felicia Mello covers UC Berkeley and other East Bay colleges as Berkeleyside\u2019s senior reporter for higher education. She works in partnership with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on strengthening… More by Felicia Mello<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Peyrin Kao, who went on a hunger strike for Gaza, said he believes Cal \u201cis capitulating to the demands of the Trump administration and using me as bait.\u201d The university said it was responding to student complaints. by\u00a0Felicia Mello Dec. 9, 2025 (Berkleyside.org) We work for you \u2014 and we\u2019re… Continue reading ![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/assets.citysidejournalism.org\/asset\/ec399ac9-bf1a-43e1-bd91-dfa193194421\/large\/20251002_PeyrinKao_EG_03.jpg?w=780&ssl=1\")
Kao says he\u2019s been careful not to run afoul of university rules<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newspack-berkeleyside-cityside.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image.jpeg?w=1600&ssl=1\")
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/assets.citysidejournalism.org\/asset\/3cce1b28-573e-49ab-bfa9-e3cf9c4b82ec\/large\/20251002_PeyrinKao_EG_04.jpg?w=780&ssl=1\")
Planned hunger strike would protest the suspension<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newspack-berkeleyside-cityside.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/large-Natera_231025_CAL-Palestine-Walkout_02.jpg?resize=1536%2C1025&ssl=1\")
Related stories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Cal](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newspack-berkeleyside-cityside.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251003-234759.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nCal sent his name to the Trump administration. He\u2019s still kept up a 38-day hunger strike for Gaza.<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"UC](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newspack-berkeleyside-cityside.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AP24123761679537.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nUC Berkeley shares 160 names of students, staff with Trump administration in \u2018McCarthy era\u2019 move<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"UC](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newspack-berkeleyside-cityside.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AP25196642026998.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nUC Berkeley chancellor tells Congress \u2018more work\u2019 is needed to fight antisemitism while defending free speech<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n