On November 1, 2024, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) administrators suspended Prahlad Iyengar, a second year electrical engineering PhD student, for an article he wrote that was published in a student-run magazine.
Iyengar’s article, “On Pacifism,” appeared in the October 2024 issue of Written Revolution, a bi-monthly student-led zine created in February 2024 to “to uplift the voices of the Palestinian struggle” and “global solidarity against capitalism-imperialism.” The publication became an MIT student organization in the fall of 2024. While Iyengar’s article in the zine calls for the Palestinian solidarity movement to “to begin wreaking havoc,” primarily critiques pacifism as a strategic choice, suggests that the Palestinian solidarity movement should “rethink” its “model for action,” and ends with a more general call for community and mutual aid. Two of the images featured in the article included the emblem of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Palestinian group that the US government has designated a terrorist organization.
On November 1, the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards sent Iyengar a suspension letter alleging that his article made “several troubling statements that could be interpreted as a call for more violent or destructive forms of protest at MIT.” The letter accused Iyengar of violating a university policy prohibiting “threats, intimidation, coercion, and other conduct that can be reasonably, objectively construed to threaten or endanger the mental or physical health or safety of any person.”
Additionally, the letter from MIT administrators claimed that Iyengar had engaged in “a series of continuing behaviors,” that had contributed to his suspension. These included his participation in an on-campus protest against a professor for taking on “projects sponsored by the Ministry of Defense of Israel” and an email to the lab’s grad students and postdoctoral researchers explaining the protest. MIT has alleged that Iyengar’s email violated its harassment policy.
In accordance with his suspension, Iyengar was barred from campus until January 2026.
Scholars at Risk is concerned about overly aggressive restrictions on free expression on campus resulting in the suspension of a student. While university authorities have an obligation to take all reasonable measures to ensure the safety of students and university personnel, they must do so consistent with their responsibility to ensure academic freedom and free expression on campus. Restrictions on student expression undermine academic freedom and democratic society generally.
Sources:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/free-speech/2024/12/03/pro-palestine-zine-cannot-be-distributed-campus-mit-says
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/mit-student-prahlad-iyengar-suspended-over-palestine-essay-sparks-outrage-7217976
https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/11/14/mit-student-protest-magazine-discipline
https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vR3B8s96vl6o9M5kGFRMpbOpY4MZP7mO-o8dNDTQ2-bdROguaSyqu5f-X3cbmrukh9dO_r7nH5nQswb/pub
https://mesana.org/advocacy/committee-on-academic-freedom/2024/11/16/letter-to-mit-expressing-concern-about-its-disciplinary-action-against-prahlad-iyengar