Earlier this month, the Contra Costa Community College District put CCC philosophy and humanities professor, Asad Kabir, on administrative leave for sending emails in faculty and staff email listservs detailing his thoughts on the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The district’s decision to punish Kabir has ignited a discussion about freedom of speech among district employees.

At the end of October, Kabir sent an email to all the faculty within the district stating his thoughts on the conflict between Palestine and Israel and encouraging others to take part in an act of civil disobedience.

“Dear All,

In the face of continuous atrocities and genocide in Gaza by Israel and with the support of the USA and our tax money and weapons, hereby I declare civil disobedience.   In the spirit of American transcendentalist non-violent movement and Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience (1849), I will stop paying taxes and will partake in nonviolent acts of civil disobedience in objection to inhumane atrocities which is being live streamed in front of our very eyes in Gaza and Lebanon.

I beg all of you to act on your conscience and participate in civil disobedience and stop paying your taxes.  The United States of Ameria must stop supporting and enabling genocide.  Let’s listen to our hearts: this is massacre, ethnic cleansing, genocide, collective punishment, and sheer unfolding of horror.

My grievances are expressed in ‘Haunted by Our Genocide From Half a World Away’ by Kevin Tillman.

https://scheerpost.com/2024/10/31/haunted-by-our-genocide-from-half-a-world-away/

Please spread the word.”

After sending the email, Kabir received a letter of reprimand from the district’s human resources department, detailing that he had lost his preferential staffing status and would be further punished if he sent out another email of a similar nature.

On Oct. 31, associate vice chancellor and chief human resources officer for the Contra Costa Community College District, Jeffrey Michels, also resent an email from October of last year to remind faculty to not share political beliefs in the district email lists.

“The complexities of climate change, of war in the Middle East and in Europe, of Pandemic policies and American politics generally are all important topics for some classes and for venues where colleagues can choose to gather to discuss and commiserate,” said Michels. “But please don’t share articles or political perspectives on the District email lists, as these tend to make some colleagues feel less safe at work.”

In objection to the response he received from district HR, Kabir sent out another email, this time commenting on the district’s decision to reprimand him for openly speaking about his political views in the “all faculty and staff” email groups. 

“Dear All,

The only thing that has made our all-employees email exchanges “unsafe” and “fearful” is the law that prohibits open exchange of ideas in our educational space.  When faculty and staff cannot openly share their views about the pitfall of our institutions and have honest conversation and debate in the spirit of free expression to a couple of thousands of their colleagues, those in authority can easily rule, divide, punish, and create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

If you look at other Districts, such as Peralta Colleges, that don’t have this draconian law to reprimand the faculty for speaking up in email exchanges you will notice that no one felt unsafe there.  On the contrary, different opinions and views have been expressed respectfully and a sense of mutual understanding of different ways of lives and concerns emerged.  Gradually, the heated debate receded and moved on.

Now in our district, such as so many other educational institutions, we are dealing with a space of fear and intimidation.  So many of faculty emailed me and praised my “civil disobedience” in the face of overt genocide happening in front of our very eyes, with our tax money.  Nonetheless, they are concerned about their jobs, and so do not speak up.

I encourage all faculty, specially full-time faculty, whose job is less in danger than part timers, collectively to speak up.  Change this suppressive law of fear and intimidation that has suffocated our educational space and reject the genocide that is happening by our own money and silence.  Living in a clear conscience in civil disobedience is much better than this life of intimidation and fear and guilt.

Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.

In Solidarity,

Asad Kabir

Department of Philosophy & Humanities”

After the publication of his second email, district HR took immediate action and on Nov. 1, placed Kabir on paid leave for the foreseeable future, in addition to revoking access to his district email.

Michels was unable to comment on whether other faculty members also received ramifications for responding to Kabir’s emails, how specifically professor Kabir’s emails violated the district policies or what the terms of professor Kabir’s leave were, citing confidentiality. 

In documents obtained by The Advocate, Michels described professor Kabir’s emails and acts of rebellion as constituting “unprofessional conduct” and “unsatisfactory performance,” largely citing that Kabir had violated relevant policies such as Implementation Guideline 2012.01 and Board Policy 5030.

According to Implementation Guideline 2012.01, the purpose of the email distribution lists “is to provide an efficient means of communicating general college or Districtwide information.” The guideline states that the lists are “not intended to be used as a discussion forum. These lists are specialized communication tools similar to voicemail announcements. Replies to such messages should be directed only to the sender and not to everyone.”

Board Policy 5030, which is of a similar nature and discusses the district’s acceptable technology use policy, states “E-mail or voice mail used for harassment, gain, commercial purposes or for promoting personal views is strictly prohibited.”

However, some faculty and staff at CCC claim that the regulations outlined in the aforementioned policies have not always been enforced, and feel that the district has been purposefully censoring conversations about Palestine and Israel to all faculty.

“It seems the Palestine exception is at work here. People were able to send messages of support for Ukraine after the Russian invasion, for instance,” stated academic senate president Gabriela Segade in an email. “We have sent and received dozens of emails in support of our undocumented students.”

More than one faculty member at CCC can recall having the ability to speak freely about other political and social justice related issues in the past.

“There have been emails over the years that I have seen at 4CD since 2016 regarding other social justice issues that have not been targeted and censored, ie. Black Lives Matter, Immigration, Asian Hate, LGBTQ hate, Violence against women in Iran, Oct. 7th, etc.,” said CCC counselor Camille Santana over email.

Kabir himself explained that he had written about issues such as structural and institutional racism, white nationalism and the alt-right multiple times in the past without repercussions up until the war between Israel and Palestine began.

“From last year, the administration started to strictly implement the rule that was set for using the [All Employee] email system in 2003,” said Kabir in an email. “Last year, I posted an email and received a warning email from the HR.  I told the District Board that this is a case of discrimination, as we always could talk about social and political issues before the recent Israel-Palestine conflict.” 

Several long-time CCC faculty members feel that the punishments professor Kabir received for his emails were unjustified due to how the district previously handled similar situations.

“The District claims the policy of revoking employees email privileges and putting them on administrative leave is ‘content neutral’,” said Segade. “But looking at the history of how the District has responded to people who used district email to promote their beliefs (and I’ve been at CCC for over 22 years), I have never seen such a drastic measure.”

Other faculty members within the district have commented on the political nature of Kabir’s emails and shared different sentiments on the situation. Some believe that such topics do not belong in work-related listservs.

“The college has disapproved of using the outlook as a political platform and has advised faculty and other employees about this directive,” said adjunct professor of architecture and engineering at Diablo Valley College Robert J. Walsh in an email. “Free speech can be expressed legally in appropriate settings, such as an arranged debate, and invite the interested public.”

One concern for 4CD faculty and staff is that faculty are already sent enough emails as is, and feel that political conversations within work emails are inappropriate and can affect their ability to work.

“Work email is for work and faculty is already inundated with emails we don’t want or need to do our jobs,” said Los Medanos CTE educator Kate Nelson in an email. “Political conversations should be between people who choose to be in those conversations, not sent to people you don’t even know at work.”

However, some faculty have suggested using SharePoint, an employee-facing platform that allows users to collaborate, share documents and create discussion boards, to allow for faculty and staff to have an appropriate place to speak about different topics that aren’t related to academia.

So far the usage of SharePoint has been encouraged by various faculty such as the Academic Senate Council, chancellor Mojdeh Mehdizadeh, and ESL adjunct professor Sandra Gardiner at DVC.

“When many people think of SharePoints, I believe they think of static SharePoints with a home page that just has a list of documents, but they can be designed to have a dynamic, interactive design, and a discussion board app can be added.” said Gardiner in an email.

While Gardiner believes that SharePoint has the potential to be an accessible way to have important discussions, she acknowledges the fact that many remain unaware of the platform and how it works.

“Meetings and events are great, but not everyone can go to a meeting or event, so a venue for accessible discussion is wonderful, and it’s there,” said Gardiner. “The problem is barely anyone knows about it or how to use it.” 

Issues regarding free speech of district employees have been further exacerbated by confusion regarding SharePoint and other platforms that have already been put in place for employees and faculty. Although SharePoint is already in use across the district, many concerns regarding the utilization of the platform have yet to be fully addressed.

“Other faculty who have responded to me are concerned with three points: 1) SharePoints and discussion boards are not widespread enough and would only be read by those engaged in the topics, 2) the district may have to provide guidelines for how to monitor the SharePoints and discussion boards, and 3) once again, who would maintain and monitor the boards?” said Gardiner.

Without having a widely recognized place for faculty to have open discussions about political topics Gardiner feels that neither the district nor employees who misuse the listservs should be at fault.

“I’m not sure I can directly fault either someone who has used an email for political reasons or the district for censoring us because the question of whether the district is curbing our free speech lies in what responsibility do employees have in knowing something that was mentioned once in an email a long time ago vs. what responsibility does the district have in promoting that information?” stated Gardiner.

Gardiner and many others feel that this issue is not something that can be ignored and instead believe that a solution must be found.

“I truly feel that we can move forward with healing as a community not by coming to a compromise but by coming to a solution,” said Gardiner. “This problem is much easier to solve than the problem of Palestine and Israel.”

Correction note: An earlier version of this story misstated the types of issues Kabir had written about in years past. It has been corrected.