After pushback from faculty, Cal’s provost says he wants to open a dialogue on academic freedom. Students circulated a petition to reinstate Peyrin Kao and a few have fasted in solidarity.
by Felicia MelloDec. 23, 2025 (Berkeleyside.org)
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Faculty and student groups are calling on UC Berkeley to reinstate a lecturer suspended over his in-classroom comments about the war in Gaza, while the university’s provost pledged Friday to work with faculty members to clarify policies on academic freedom.
The university told computer science lecturer Peyrin Kao earlier this month it was placing him on six months of unpaid leave, citing an optional post-class session in which he talked about the relationship between tech companies and the Israeli military — ending with “Free Palestine” — and a separate incident in which he said during class that he was on hunger strike for a cause he believed in.
Kao’s suspension is one of the biggest flashpoints yet in an ongoing debate over how best to preserve free speech at Cal as universities across the country face political pressure from the Trump administration. Students have launched hunger strikes and held a teach-in to protest UC Berkeley’s move, and about 1,200 students, faculty and alumni have signed a petition urging Kao’s reinstatement. The student newspaper, the Daily Californian, slammed the decision in an editorial Monday.
Kao became a prominent campus critic of Israel’s campaign in Gaza during his 38-day hunger strike earlier this year. He was among the 160 people named in documents related to antisemitism investigations that the university shared with the Trump administration.
In recommending that he be disciplined, Provost Benjamin Hermalin cited a University of California policy that bars “misuse of the classroom” and “political indoctrination” of students.
Critics of the decision say the little-known policy, Regents Policy 2301, is being unfairly applied to target pro-Palestinian speech.
“We believe that discipline on this basis threatens the faculty’s fundamental political freedoms as citizens,” the Berkeley Faculty Association, a progressive group that represents about 20% of the university’s tenure-track faculty, wrote in a letter to Chancellor Rich Lyons.
The Faculty Association noted that other University of California policies grant professors freedom of expression and the right to present controversial material, as long as there is not “significant intrusion of material unrelated to the course.”
And it took issue with the university using Kao’s hunger strike and comments he made about it to the press as part of the case against him, since those activities took place outside the classroom.
Celeste Langan, an English professor who sits on the association’s board, said faculty are especially troubled because Kao — who had been previously cautioned by administrators not talk about the war during class time — had taken pains to make his comments in an informal session after class had officially ended and he had told students they were free to leave.
“He tried very hard to obey the rules, and then he was accused of violating their spirit,” said Langan.
Hermalin’s review of Kao’s case said that while the lecturer’s five-minute-long comments about Gaza took place after class time, students might have been blindsided by their content, or had trouble leaving the room before they began. And he said Kao’s hunger strike amounted to in-class advocacy because students could “presumably” see the physical toll it was taking, and because he shared a link to a website where they could learn the reason for his protest.
Provost solicits faculty input on interpreting UC policies on academic freedom
A report by UC Berkeley law students on anti-Palestinian discrimination at Cal cites one other instance of an instructor being disciplined under Regents Policy 2301. A teaching assistant in a socio-cultural anthropology course reported receiving a warning letter after she shared a statement with students on Zoom that criticized the omission of Palestine from class discussions about colonialism.
Berkeley Faculty Association leaders said they were not aware of any other cases. UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore did not respond to a question about whether other faculty had ever been disciplined under the policy, saying the university doesn’t comment on confidential personnel matters.
In a letter sent Friday to the chair and vice-chair of the university’s Academic Senate, a separate body that officially represents tenure-track faculty, Hermalin acknowledged that the university’s policies around academic freedom needed clarification.
“I want to thank you for sharing your understandable concerns about our commitment to academic freedom,” he wrote. Without directly addressing the Peyrin Kao case, he asked faculty members to work with him to make sure that guidance to instructors about Regents Policy 2301 is clear and “cases of classroom misuse, while infrequent, can be handled in a principled and consistent manner.”
Among the questions he said faculty and administrators should discuss: Who gets to decide whether statements made by an instructor are relevant to a course? How much can professors communicate their views without students feeling pressure to agree with them? What about non-verbal communication, like having a Zoom background that advocates for a particular point of view?
Hermalin also hinted at the pressure university administrators are under in a politically polarized environment.
“We continually manage complaints from students, parents and others about course content,” he wrote. “Because we do not wish, in any way, to be seen as chilling academic freedom, we rarely share these complaints with instructors, because even a simple heads up from (administrators) can be misconstrued as pressure.”
“We are all aware of calls, including from elected officials, for us to discipline or dismiss faculty for their writings and social media posts,” he added. “We have never done so, nor will we.”
The university has cited student complaints as one reason for Kao’s suspension. Academic Senate chair Mark Stacey said Hermalin’s letter came after an in-person meeting, though he didn’t say what was discussed or who was included in the meeting.
Lecturers, who tend to be earlier in their careers and have less job security, are subject to different disciplinary procedures than tenure-track faculty.
The university’s Academic Senate investigates and makes recommendations on discipline for tenure-track faculty in a complex, multi-step process. Lecturers accused of misconduct are entitled to a hearing in which they can respond to the charges, and can dispute them through their union. Kao’s union, the University Council-AFT, has filed a grievance arguing UC Berkeley did not have just cause to suspend him.
Some student protesters fasted in solidarity with Kao before attempting to deliver petition to Chancellor Lyons
On Friday, about a dozen student protesters from the group STEM 4 Palestine huddled in the rain outside California Hall, the building that houses the chancellor’s office, and taped a copy of the petition calling for Kao’s reinstatement to the door.
“UC Berkeley’s administration has exhibited a dangerous willingness to interpret regents policy at whim to punish faculty for their activity, speech, and intentions as observed outside of the classroom,” read the petition. It also called on the university to divest from weapons manufacturing and “entities directly involved in the apartheid and genocide in Palestine,” and was signed by former NFL player Marshawn Lynch and philosopher Judith Butler, among other faculty, alumni and students.
A member of the group rang the doorbell and asked if they could enter to deliver the petition to the chancellor.
“No, you cannot,” a voice answered. “Have a nice day.”
Some of the protesters had fasted for several days in solidarity with Kao, including third-year philosophy and computer science major Stephen Okita. “Peyrin is genuinely loved by the students,” Okita said in an earlier interview with Berkeleyside, pointing out the lecturer’s 4.9 rating on the site RateMyProfessors.com. “He’s a really nice guy and it’s just a really big shame, it’s just complete injustice from the university.”
He added that he thought the ethics of STEM were an appropriate topic for classroom discussion. “It’s really sad seeing CS students just go into exams and come out and work for Palantir or Google and just participate in the destruction of the world.”
Kao himself stood quietly at the side of the group, holding a sign that read “No Tech 4 Genocide.”
“I don’t think this is really for me,” he said. “It’s for the cause. What we’re here for is to show that the university has a double standard where they claim to be pro-free speech but at the same time uphold the Palestine exception to free speech.”
Berkeleyside partners with the nonprofit newsroom Open Campus on higher education coverage.
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Felicia Mello covers UC Berkeley and other East Bay colleges as Berkeleyside’s senior reporter for higher education. She works in partnership with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on strengthening… More by Felicia Mello
