NYU Law About-Face: Students Can Take Exams Without Swearing Off Protests

On Sunday morning, less than 24 hours after The Intercept reported on the issue, New York University School of Law walked back its demand that 31 pro-Palestine students give up their right to protest in order to sit for in-person final exams.

The school had said that the students, under disciplinary investigation for participation in sit-in protests earlier this year, had to sign a so-called “Use of Space Agreement” that included a pledge not to protest on law school property if they wanted to be allowed into academic buildings to sit their exams.

“Should you decide not to sign the Use of Space Agreement, you will still be able to take your in-person exams in the law school buildings in which they are scheduled,” Maggie Morrow, the law school’s senior associate director of community standards and processes, wrote in an email obtained by The Intercept. “That would just be the only purpose for which you would have approved access to the law school buildings.”

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The 31 law students who received the email were assigned interim “personae non grata,” or PNG, status following peaceful sit-ins on campus on March 4 and April 29.

The school’s new email to students did not offer relief from their broader PNG status; they remained barred from most buildings on campus whether they renounce protests or not.

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NYU Demands Law Students Renounce Protests or Be Barred From Sitting Final Exams

Citing privacy provisions, NYU Law did not respond to specific questions about what serious disciplinary violations the sanctioned students are alleged to have committed or why the school has reversed its decision to bar them from final exams. 

“Universities have the responsibility to ensure that the vast majority of students, who are engaged in studying for and taking final exams, may do so without disruption,” wrote Shonna Keogan, chief communications officer and an assistant dean at NYU Law, in an email to The Intercept. “It is not the case that any student is prohibited from taking in-person exams or accessing student health centers as a result of engaging in protest activity. In cases concerning reports of serious disciplinary violations, some students have been asked to sign a use of space agreement which restates the Law School’s policy prohibiting disruption during the reading and exam period.” 

The letter sent to PNG students with the “Use of Space Agreement” reiterates the total ban from law school buildings with the exception of housing and health centers. It goes on to say, “The following additional exceptions will be granted subject to your signed consent to the conditions of the attached Use of Space agreement.” If students sign, they will be granted “Access to Furman Hall and Vanderbilt Hall for the following purposes related to academic requirements ONLY” — with “in-person exams” listed as one of the reasons.

Keogan also did not address whether students will still have to sign the Use of Space Agreement in order to access academic buildings for the additional exam-related activities outlined in the document, including undertaking review sessions with faculty, printing outlines and notes, and accessing designated rooms for take-home exams. 

On May 5, a group of students and alumni from NYU and Columbia Law School rallied in the rain outside of NYU Law’s Vanderbilt Hall to demand that the school reinstate the PNG students’ full access to campus.

“I think law students across the country are talking about this,” said a first-year student at Columbia Law who helped organize Monday’s protest and asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. They pointed to a public call to action put out by Harvard University’s Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine coalition as one example. 

“I think this is part of a growing trend of repression, and what it shows is that there’s no level of protesting a genocide that will be respected,” the student said. “I think it shows the importance of standing in solidarity with all students protesting to end the genocide.”

A current NYU law student who didn’t participate in the sit-ins and was not barred from exams said, “We’re at a law school. We’re literally taught to uphold the rule of law, which is in large part founded on notions of due process and freedom of speech.” 

“The administration can’t get themselves out of this mess through these draconian forms of punishment,” the student said. “I feel like the only way out of this is by actually addressing the concerns of the students and recognizing that what students are asking for is reasonable. The only way out is divestment.”