The University of Southern California has dismissed the complaints against economics Professor John Strauss over anti-Hamas comments he made at a pro-Palestine campus protest last November, the LA Times reports.
We covered the controversy over Strauss’s verbal clash with the demonstrators here.
Strauss, who said he heard the protesters at the November 9 rally shout “death to Israel,” told them they were all “really ignorant.” “Hamas are murderers,” he went on to say as he walked back from class. “That’s all they are. Every one of them should be killed, and I hope they all are.”
Strauss says his remarks were misrepresented in an online video that went viral that omitted his reference to Hamas, giving the impression he had called for the death of all Palestinians:
But an unedited version of Strauss’s exchange with the protesters was captured and posted at Annenberg Media. It includes his initial reference to Hamas—and puts his words back in their true context:
That context didn’t matter to the campus mob that coalesced to cancel Strauss the same day. What mattered is that he dared to challenge the protesters’ attack on the Jewish State. Within hours of the rally, students reportedly filed multiple complaints against him for discrimination and hate speech. And the next day, a student group filed a petition to terminate him.
USC then banned Strauss from campus for the rest of the semester, relegating him to teaching on Zoom. Though the school allowed him to return to school in December, he remained under investigation for discrimination and harassment over his remarks, an investigation that finally concluded last week, as reported in the LA Times:
USC administrators informed Strauss on Tuesday that the case against him was closed, the complaints by students would be dismissed and that he will face no formal discipline, according to the professor and his attorney….Summarizing the probe’s findings, [Strauss’s lawyer] said USC determined it had insufficient evidence that he was deliberately targeting any student and that his words — uttered in the span of less than a minute — didn’t create a hostile environment.
But while Strauss’s ordeal is officially over, his lawyer, Samantha Harris, told the paper she was “’frustrated that it took seven months to reach an obvious conclusion’ that Strauss did not engage in harassment or discrimination”:
“This was an exchange of opinions in a public area of campus on an issue of public concern that rose nowhere near to the level of conduct that constitutes harassment, which is severe, pervasive and persistent,” said Harris, referencing the formal criteria for evaluating harassment.Although Strauss won’t face sanction by the university, his lawyer said that the length of the probe has been its own form of punishment.“Living under a cloud for seven months is not nothing, and it has a chilling effect broadly speaking on faculty’s willingness to express themselves on matters of public concern,” Harris said.
It also bespeaks a double standard for Jewish students and faculty, says USC Professor Anna Krylov, a coordinator for a networking group called “Circle Against Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism at USC.” In a recent post for the group, she asks:
What about the miscreants who doctored videos of Professor Strauss’ encounter with the protesters, launched the vicious social media campaign against him, doxxed him and flooded his email with threats, and lodged frivolous and false complaints against him? What is their punishment?
Krylov told me she believes Strauss deserves an apology. “I am disappointed that USC did not use this case to affirm their commitment to free speech and to USC’s Unified Values,” she said.
Meanwhile, maybe (just maybe), other schools will start paying attention. For his part, Strauss hopes that his vindication “will serve as a reminder to universities across the country that professors have a right to free speech both inside and outside the classroom.”
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