SSU President Mike Lee placed on leave for controversial email detailing pact with pro-Palestinian campus protesters

Sonoma State University was rocked Wednesday afternoon when President Mike Lee announced he is stepping aside, at least temporarily, in the wake of a controversial email he sent to students and faculty regarding the demands of campus pro-Palestinian protesters.

It’s not known how long Lee will be away. In a Wednesday statement, California State University Chancellor Mildred Garcia wrote:

“On Tuesday evening, Sonoma State University President Mike Lee sent a campuswide message concerning an agreement with campus protesters. That message was sent without the appropriate approvals ... because of this insubordination and consequences it has brought upon the system, President Lee has been placed on administrative l​eave.”

SSU spokesman Jeff Keating did not address the question of how long Lee will be away or whether he will return to the job. Lee was appointed interim president 20 months ago after the resignation of Judy Sakaki and was elevated permanently a year ago.

In his Tuesday memo, Lee had announced details of an agreement with students and community members who’d been camped on the school’s Person Lawn since April 26, mirroring scenes at other universities across the nation protesting the Hamas-Israel war.

Among the four “points of agreement” he described was for the school to disclose university vendor contracts and seek “divestment strategies.”

In another section, under the heading “Academic Boycott,” Lee detailed how the school will not pursue formal collaborations that are “sponsored by, or represent, the Israeli state academic and research institutions.”

‘Morally reprehensible’

Stephen Bittner, chair of the Sonoma State history department and director of its Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, said he was “completely blindsided” by those provisions and finds them highly problematic.

“The academic boycott of Israel is atrocious and morally reprehensible, in my view,” he told The Press Democrat Wednesday, before Lee was placed on leave. “It is contrary to the values of scholarly freedom, and free exchange, that are supposed to be at the center of any university.

“We do not shun people we disagree with. We interact with them. I am deeply disappointed in President Lee for caving to pressure to participate in a boycott of Israel.”

In an email late Wednesday afternoon announcing his immediate departure, Lee acknowledged he’d made a mistake.

“My goal when meeting with students at the encampment was to explore opportunities to make meaningful change, identify common ground and create a safe and inclusive campus for all. I now realize that many of the statements I made in my campus-wide message did just the opposite,” he said.

“In my attempt to find agreement with one group of students, I marginalized other members of our student population and community. I realize the harm that this has caused, and I take full ownership of it.”

He went on to say the “points outlined in the message were mine alone, and do not represent the views of my colleagues or the CSU.”

“As I step away on a leave, I will reflect on the harm this has caused and will be working with the Chancellor’s Office to determine next steps. Meantime, I look forward to supporting Dr. Nathan Evans, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs and Chief Academic Officer, as he serves as Acting President of Sonoma State.”

In a statement issued Wednesday evening, Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, whose district includes the university, said, “I appreciate Chancellor Garcia’s quick response to this situation. We need stability and thoughtful leadership at Sonoma State.”

In exchange for the concessions, the protesters who’d occupied an encampment since April 26 on Sonoma State’s Person Lawn agreed to pack up and leave by 8 p.m. Wednesday.

By 3 p.m., all 26 of the tents in the encampment were gone.

Now, with Lee on leave, it’s unclear if the terms will be honored.

Even with the agreement, there was going to be some form of protest during SSU’s commencement ceremonies Saturday.

“We don't want to ruin anybody's graduation or cause mass disruption,” said student and protest organizer Julianna M., before news broke of Lee’s ouster. “However, protest, resistance is not meant to be convenient and it is meant to be disruptive, at least visually.”

The Rohnert Park campus was among the earliest of the 23-member California State University system to reach such an agreement with its administration. The first, last week, was Sacramento State. Levine said that agreement was mentioned during the SSU negotiations.

The protesters, organized by SSU Students for Palestine, identified four demands relating to what they identified as the university’s connections to the occupation of Palestinian territories and Israel’s ongoing military actions in Gaza.

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The student group posted screenshots of the email from Lee to its Instagram account and included a graphic that said “SSU demands met.”

“We did it,” exclaimed Albert Levine, 21, an organizer of the encampment.

Meeting demands?

In the email, Lee addressed all four student demands. For some of the demands, including “disclosure and divestment,” he did not promise to immediately meet them but establish a path toward doing so.

According to Lee’s Tuesday statement, the school would disclose university vendor contracts and seek “divestment strategies” for the Sonoma State Foundation, a nonprofit charged with raising funds for, and managing the university’s endowment.

The students demanded divestment from Israel or those benefiting from the occupation, said Levine, who added that they intend to discuss other “unethical” investments, as well.

For reasons that would become clear later, Lee did not respond Wednesday morning to follow-up questions, including a query regarding his promised changes in the school’s divestment strategies.

The “Academic Boycott” section of Lee’s email stipulates that “SSU will not pursue or engage in any study abroad programs, faculty exchanges, or other formal collaborations that are sponsored by, or represent, the Israeli state academic and research institutions.”

Bittner, the SSU history professor, said such a boycott “is not a hypothetical to me.”

The university’s Holocaust and Genocide Lecture Series, which he directs, often draws on scholars who have affiliations with Israeli institutions. “Most recently, we had Jeff Kopstein from UC Irvine. He visited in January of this year. Kopstein is also a recurring visiting professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

“So, what am i supposed to do? Does Kopstein have to renounce his affiliation with Hebrew University in order to participate in our lecture series?”

According to his reading of Lee’s email, Bittner said, Sonoma State would be prevented from cooperating with state institutions in Israel.

“So, if we invited a professor from a public institution in Israel to speak, that professor would have to speak in a private capacity. Or let’s take the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel. That is a state-funded institution. Am I allowed to cooperate with Yad Vashem?

“I mean, surely that is not what President Lee envisioned. Which is why academic boycotts are so stupid,” he said. “We have to be free to interact even with people we disagree with.”

Bittner pointed out that he would be opposed “to any similar litmus test” being applied to scholars of Palestine. “I do not think that any scholar of Palestine needs to clarify what their position is vis-a-vis Hamas, before they participate in an event on campus. It's just wildly inappropriate. I will press to have the boycott ended. It’s ridiculous.”

Bittner is “not unsympathetic to the Palestinian cause, or to the extent of suffering in Gaza since Oct. 8, the day after the massacre,” he added.

“I, too, am a proponent of a two-state solution. I am a proponent of an immediate cease-fire. However, universities have to be free places. The president’s statement infringes on some of the core freedoms of university life.”

New program on Palestinian Studies promised

In a section vowing to “Recognize Palestinian identity and Introduce Historic Curriculum,” Lee agreed to “provide support and resources to develop curriculum and programming on Palestine and a future Palestine Studies program.”

The statement also called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

An advisory council, made up of members of the encampment, faculty, staff, administrators, Palestinian alumni and other interested students, would hold the university to account for the agreements, according to Lee’s email.

Keating, the university spokesperson, told The Press Democrat the agreement was reached after multiple conversations between the students and student affairs officials, Provost Karen Moranski and Lee.

Most of the conversations, he said, began with the student affairs office.

“It’s crazy realizing that there’s going to be an ethnic studies program that focuses on Palestine because of this, because of some tents on a grass lawn,” said Levine, part of the group that worked extensively with faculty on the new curriculum.

Jen Johnson, an SSU associate professor of English, said she and other faculty are proud of the students and what they were able to accomplish.

“That was a really well-developed curriculum demand that identifies a critical absence in the curriculum, to recognize Palestinian identity history,” said Johnson, who said she believes that addition represents “a move to being more responsible and the way that we've positioned ourselves as a liberal arts institution.”

Julianna M. said she was pleasantly surprised, even shocked, by the students’ success in reaching an agreement. She was also nagged, she said, by some skepticism that the university will be good to its word.

“But this is an excellent first step and we will continue to hold the administration accountable,” she said.

Lee in his statement underscored his support for students' right to engage in peaceful activism without fear for their personal safety or any form of retaliation.

“We understand that many people feel anxious and fearful, particularly when standing for what they believe,” he continued. “We ask that everyone do their part to support one another, to ensure that Sonoma State is a safe and inclusive place for all.”

You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @ausmurph88.

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