Sudden Termination of Beloved PSU Community

It’s come to our attention that in the past week two beloved PSU employees and valuable members of our PSU community were suddenly terminated. We find it no coincidence that both employees are unapologetic supporters of the fight for Palestinian liberation. They support student activists, organizing efforts, and Palestine-centered events on campus. Both employees are beloved by students.

One employee, who is an AAUP member, was told by admin that their position is being eliminated as a result of  “restructuring.” This comes after a lengthy year of bullying and harassment of the employee. The other employee, who is non-unionized, was terminated for no reason. Because Oregon is an “at will” employment state, PSU is not legally obligated to provide a reason for termination.

Both employees were put on administrative leave effective immediately and had all access to their email and PSU accounts suspended. While one employee does not have a personal workstation, the other was told they must be monitored while retrieving their personal belongings. The university is cold and calculated. They view these employees as threats and so treat them as such. PSU welcomes anti-trans speakers, but requires escorts for beloved community members. 

We cannot brush this off. We must pay attention. We anticipate more ‘terminations’ to come, particularly targeting members of our campus community who are pro-Palestine or who resist repression.

In the weeks to come, if you are someone who is ‘terminated’ please let us know, if you feel comfortable. We are tracking these instances. Stay tuned for a list of actions you can support to show PSU they can’t destroy our community.

April 14th, 2025

Dear PSU Students and SSW Dean’s Office,

We, Social Workers for Justice in Palestine (SWJP), are writing you today because the Dean’s Office of the School of Social Work has proposed a new policy governing "student advocacy displays" which will result in the removal of the Refaat Alareer Memorial Library (RAML) in the 6th floor hallway. We believe all PSU students have a right to know what brought us to this moment and what is at stake. We see this policy change as a product of ongoing political pressure to silence the voices of students advocating for Palestinian liberation.

RAML was created in Spring 2024 by a group of social work students and has served as a space of community, reflection, and education over the last year. Its been a spark of hope and resistance for students, faculty, and staff who are witnessing the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, grieving, and organizing for liberation.

In a December 2024 meeting with Dean Evaon Wong, SWJP members were told  that PSU's General Counsel had advised the university to take down RAML, as the installation violated a contract with the ASRC building management. Despite repeated requests for additional information, no evidence of the stated contract violation has been provided. At that time, Dean Wong proposed that SWJP members join an ad-hoc committee to consider and further develop a proposed "SSW Policy on Student Advocacy Displays." In early 2025, Dean Wong shifted the policy setting process and timeline in response to the U.S. Department of Education's politically motivated investigation into allegations of  "widespread antisemitism" (read: pro-Palestinian activity) on campus.  

SWJP was given until Monday, April 14 to provide feedback on this policy draft, however, we believe that offering feedback would implicate us in the suppression of free speech and pro-Palestinian advocacy on campus and perpetuate a culture of fear and repression for our Palestinian community members.

The policy setting process, and the policy itself, both reflect a biased stance rooted in the Palestine exception and falls far short of the integrity we expect from a school that claims to “value free speech and individual expression of ideas and opinions concerning a wide range of human thought, including those that are contested and morally complex.” For that reason alone, SWJP asserts this policy must be withdrawn.

SWJP has repeatedly called on the Dean’s Office to take a principled stance against the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Instead, Dean Wong has deliberately chosen and defended “neutrality.” They have appropriated the very values meant to support fighting for human rights and anti-genocidal resistance—values like equity, safety, and inclusion—to silence dissent, police political expression, and suppress advocacy and resistance.

For these reasons, we feel the need to remind the Dean’s Office of the mission of PSU’s SSW, as stated on the University website:

“To educate students for advanced leadership and practice that recognizes and dismantles systems of oppression; builds racial equity and social, political, and economic justice; and advances the well-being of diverse individuals, families, groups, organizations, communities, and tribal nations. We endeavor to deliver a social work education that is critically informed, theoretically driven, empirically supported, reflexive, ethical, vigilant, and resistive to colonial, heteropatriarchal, classist, and white supremacist agendas.”

We cite this in full because it directly affirms and justifies the presence of RAML in the SSW. If the SSW is sincere in its stated commitments then preserving a student-created space that centers grief, hope, community, and resistance should not be controversial. It should be supported. Encouraged. Celebrated.

We urge the Dean’s Office and all SSW leadership to reflect carefully on what it means to act in alignment with the values they profess. Policies designed to suppress resistance, eliminate community gathering spaces, and silence student voices are not neutral—they are acts of complicity and oppression—especially amongst the backdrop of rising fascism in our country. During these times, social work, at it’s most courageous, is about taking a stand for what we believe in and fighting injustice. It’s about protecting what gives us life, sustains our hope, and binds us to each other in our collective humanity and our fight for collective liberation.

For the Dean’s Office: 

• Please read student, faculty, and staff responses to our RAML Impact Survey on IG: Pt. One and Pt. Two.

• Palestine Legal’s report on The Palestine Exception to Free Speech 

• Columbia Spectator’s Institutional neutrality does not exist—and it shouldn’t

For Students: 

The SSW Policy on Student Advocacy Displays currently exists as a draft, which has been shared with various stakeholders, and will be voted on at a future All-School meeting, likely in May. There is still time to save RAML! To read the proposed policies and provide feedback and alternatives to proposed policy, please explore the following links:

• DRAFT: SSW Policy on Advocacy Displays on 6th Floor ASRC 

• Memo to all school: ad hoc library policy

• PSU Feedback Form: SSW Policy on Advocacy Displays

• The Refaat Alareer Memorial Library Impact Survey 

With hope and an unrelenting commitment to collective liberation,

 Social Workers for Justice in Palestine (SWJP)

Officially affiliated with Portland State University, School of Social Work as tuition-paying students

In Spring quarter 2025, PSU offered a free class!

We believe education should be free and love to see that PSU, despite claims of lack of funding, is offering a free class. The free class, HST 299 AntiSemitism, is an important topic and many in our PSU community are eager to see other free classes dealing with important topics such as Islamophobia, Anti-Palestinian hate, Anti-Blackness, and more. It's unclear how PSU funded this free course, but we look forward to PSU tackling other important timely issues by funding additional free classes.

Read the Committee on Socially Responsible Investments & Partnerships Report here and Ann Cudd’s response here.

The committee strongly endorsed that PSU establish a standing committee to help maintain thoughtful and consistent oversight of investments and partnerships that are in line with PSU’s core values.

We need to be sure that President Cudd is held accountable to making sure a standing committee is created and that the committee is transparent and includes students, staff, and faculty from PSU.

Resource: Understanding Recent International Student Visa Revocations and SEVIS Record Terminations: Guidance for Colleges & Universities (access resource here)

This May 2 and 3, the International Socialist League will host the International Anti-fascist and Anti-Zionist Forum. It will address the most important issues of the current world situation that generate intense and controversial debates. Learn more here.

Oregon Educators for Palestine are hosting a Teaching Palestine Community Teach-In on Saturday May 10th. Register at tinyurl.com/pdx-teaching-palestine.