Message about Gaza leads to removal of University of Texas at Austin teaching assistants

Two graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin were recently dismissed from teaching assistant roles after sending a message to students titled “mental health and violence in Gaza.”

University officials said the social work graduate students did not have permission to send out the message, but the students said Friday that they did and are being unfairly punished for exercising freedom of speech.

In the Nov. 16 message, Parham Daghighi and Callie Kennedy wrote that they wanted to acknowledge “the mental health implications of the current escalation of violence in Gaza” and clarify that they do not “support the university’s silence around the suffering many of our students, staff, and faculty are experiencing on campus.”

Along with that message, Daghighi and Kennedy provided links to mental health resources available to students on and off campus. They wrapped up the message by stating that they “firmly support the rights and autonomy of Palestinians, Indigenous people, and displaced peoples across the globe, knowing that oppression results in trauma and negative mental health outcomes that can span generations.”

Less than a week later, on Nov. 22, both graduate students received a letter from a dean letting them know that they were “effective immediately … relieved of this work assignment” and “will not be reappointed as a TA next semester.”

After The Dallas Morning News published its story online Friday, the university offered both graduate students the possibility of other, unspecified work for the spring 2024 semester.

“It doesn’t specify what the work will be and we will not be teaching again,” Kennedy said in a statement. “So this still functions as a punishment.”

Students across the university have drafted an open letter in support of the two graduate students, demanding the teacher assistants’ reinstatement and a public apology from the university.

In a statement to The News, UT Austin spokesperson Mike Rosen said that the two teaching assistants, “while acting in their role as employees, unprofessionally misused the official university classroom communication platform to send a personal political message to the students in a course.”

Daghighi and Kennedy told The News that they are being punished for addressing what’s happening in Gaza.

“Palestine has become the exception to freedom of speech,” Kennedy said, referencing a growing number of incidents that led to firings and resignations when students and faculty across the country have spoken their opinions about Palestine.

Inconsistencies

The letter sent to Daghighi and Kennedy from Allan Cole, the dean of the social work school, states that the graduate students did not receive approval from their faculty supervisor to send the message. But the two graduate students told The News that they did.

Kennedy said that the idea to send out a message to the class originated when a student approached her asking about mental health resources for Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students given the growing number of civilian deaths in the Israel-Hamas war.

“We took that request to our supervising professor and then together, the three of us, determined what we would do in response to that student’s request,” Daghighi said.

The faculty supervisor, Lauren Gulbas, has not responded to a request for comment.

“We received explicit, unambiguous permission from our supervising professor to send the message,” Kennedy added.

The removal letter stated that the two teaching assistants’ message was about “the war in Israel.” The message, which was reviewed by The News, focused on Gaza and did not mention Israel.

“As a teaching assistant, you occupy a place of trust on campus. Your recent behavior, however, shows that you lack the professional judgment required for this role,” Cole wrote, adding that the message sent to students was “unrelated to the course and inappropriate given the setting.”

The course is entitled “Women and Madness,” which focuses on mental health issues.

The university’s spokesperson said that the message was personal and political, and inconsistent with the teaching assistants’ assertion that it was “merely an attempt to share mental health resources and that the content of the message was related to the course.”

Kennedy said that the message was related to the course, which she said is about “the history of psychiatry and mental health and the impacts of institutional harm on oppressed groups of people.”

Aftermath

Daghighi said that the removal letter did not provide any opportunity for a hearing or due process and the two graduate students are still figuring out how to proceed.

“There are internal processes at UT for filing grievances that we’ve had to basically give ourselves an education about,” Daghighi said.

Daghighi and Kennedy said they’ve relied on teaching assistant work to fund their educations at UT Austin.

The letter said that they will continue to be paid for the current semester.

Since the incident, an open letter by UT students demands the school’s administration reinstate both teaching assistants and issue a public apology, as well as offer other support for Palestine, Arab and Muslim students.

Daghighi and Kennedy said that they are speaking out about this because they believe it’s a cause beyond their individual employment.

“The university needs to take material, actionable steps to safeguard the safety and well-being of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students,” Daghighi said. “And there have been those kinds of efforts more explicitly to safeguard the Jewish community at UT, which we stand behind 100 percent.”

The two graduate students said that they’re concerned that there’s bias and discrimination against Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students.