A professor at New York University is facing a Title VI complaint after cancelling the final class to attend an anti-Israel protest outside of the school’s library, and encouraging students to “join me at the picket line.” 

Doctor Linda Luu, a fifth year PhD student in American Studies, informed the Visual Culture/Science and Technology class on the morning of December 12 that the final class would be canceled — despite it including student project presentations — to protest the ongoing “genocide” in Gaza.

In the message, which was provided to the Sun by the author of the complaint, Linda Luu writes that the decision was made out of “recognition that carrying on with business as usual while a genocide has been unfolding is a maddening business and a choice to turn away from mass atrocities that are setting the bar for what violence we will all accept.” 

The professor continues by claiming that “there are no universities left in Gaza” and cites students’ demand that there is “no work as usual during a genocide.” Linda Luu also calls for students to join “in the picket line where I’ll be.” 

A parent of an undergraduate student who was in Linda Luu’s class posted about the incident in pro-Israel Facebook group, Mothers Against Campus Antisemitism. One group member, Adam Drisin, felt compelled to file a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. 

Mr. Drisin’s complaint, which he shared with the Sun, accuses the professor of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits federal funds recipients from discriminating on the basis of “race, color, or national origin.” The protection was clarified in 2004 to include religious groups, including Jews. 

“In short,” Mr. Drisin writes, “as representative and an employee of NYU, and as part of her official duties, Professor Luu asked NYU students to join her in an action that was in and of itself anti-Semitic, Anti-Zionist. Professor Luu’s communications and actions (done as part of her official duties) are clearly anti-Semitic, and Anti-Zionist.” 

Mr. Drisin further condemns the university for allowing Linda Luu to cancel the class that “she was contractually obligated to hold” and instead “use her class’s time period to join the disruptive antisemitic and anti-Israeli  protest disturbance in NYU’s Bobst Library.”

The anti-Israel demonstration took place outside of the university’s main library on the morning of the last day of the fall semester with the purpose of demanding that the university divest from Israel. Dozens of keffiyeh-clad agitators attempted to block all entry to the building, inconveniencing NYU students hoping to study for their finals. Videos of the protesters show them chanting slogans like “intifada revolution” and “Tel Aviv is stolen land.”

Mr. Drisin, in his complaint, criticizes the university for failing to shut down the disturbance “in a timely manner” and accuses the school of flouting “its own policies on student conduct” and “its own policy on discrimination.” 

The police eventually arrested eight protesters, including two faculty members, who refused to disperse. NYU released a statement condemning the demonstration shortly after, noting that they rejected that it was a “peaceful protest.” The school further criticized the “harassing behavior” of the demonstrators, who ultimately disrupted “academic operations at a particularly critical moment in the semester (as finals start), ignored the rights of students who wish to study in the library, and interfered with safe passage into and out of a core academic building.” 

An investigator for NYU’s Office for Equal Opportunity reached out to Mr. Drisin after he filed his complaint, confirming that the office would be “assessing the information that you provided to determine the most appropriate next steps.” 

NYU has not yet responded to the Sun’s request for comment.