Nathan Phillips regularly uses his office window on the fourth floor of the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences to display political messages to passersby along Commonwealth Avenue — a practice inspired by a 1986 court case where four BU students successfully sued the University for the right to hang banners from their windows in protest of South African apartheid.
On March 13, the ecology professor and activist replaced his signage, which previously read “Normalize love” in protest of Elon Musk, with a new message: “Free Mahmoud.”
The signage refers to Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who was detained by federal immigration authorities March 8 for his involvement in pro-Palestine protests at the university.
However, when Phillips returned to his locked office March 17, he reported the “Free Mahmoud” signage had been removed from his window.
“I’m disturbed and upset by that occurrence, and I think it’s significant in several different ways,” Phillips said. “I don’t want to really speculate, but I am very curious who reported it, who saw it, who ordered it and who removed it. Also, could they not have contacted me first to express concern?”
BU Spokesperson Colin Riley did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
With the recent executive crackdown on universities for pro-Palestine activism, the incident with Phillips’ signage sparked dialogue among BU faculty and students over administrative responses to free speech on campus.
Phillips said the Trump administration aims to “silence administrations and censor speech” on issues like Palestine, so it’s vital to speak out.
“When silence is imposed on others, including rank-n-file students and faculty, that’s not acceptable,” Phillips said. “People can be silent for themselves, but they can’t make the choice to silence political speech by others on campus.”
Mary Battenfeld, president of the BU chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said AAUP guidelines surrounding faculty free speech clarify that “extracurricular speech,” speech that isn’t made in the classroom, is protected.
Battenfeld said Columbia is “ground zero” for the suppression of pro-Palestine protests in tandem with attacks on higher education, and while the same hasn’t happened at BU, she has not seen an indication that the University will resist encroachment from the federal government.
BU President Melissa Gilliam sent an email to faculty and staff March 19 addressing several concerns affecting BU and universities across the country, one being free speech.
“I want to reaffirm that our commitment to free expression is unwavering,” Gilliam wrote. “Since our inception, we have been steadfast in our commitment to the importance of free speech, and this commitment will continue to guide us.”
The email includes a link to a FAQs page about the University’s plans for navigating shifting federal policies, which Battenfeld said she found less reassuring.
One question asks if one’s job title or duties will change if it includes DEI activities. The answer says BU “continues to evaluate the impact of the recent executive orders” and “will inform you if it is determined that changes are required.”
“Their answer to that should be, ‘Academic freedom, diversity and inclusion is a bedrock of Boston University, and we will defend it,’” Battenfeld said.
Spencer Piston, an associate professor of political science, said students who participate in pro-Palestine protests outside of BU’s campus may also face repercussions from the University.
When Boston police conduct mass arrests at public protests, they forward the police reports of students to the BU Police Department, Piston said. BUPD then forwards the report to BU Judicial Affairs, starting a process of disciplinary hearings with the students.
Piston said he has been in on many of these hearings and sees the toll they take on students.
“This takes a lot of time and drains them emotionally,” Piston said. “The process itself they experience as condescending and threatening.”
Zachary Bos, president of UAW Local 2324, the union representing higher education staff at BU, said the apparent suppression of political speech on campus is “highly problematic.”
“If [signage depicting the flag of Israel] were up, I dare say it would not be taken down, because the University has no reason to fear federal repression for pro-Israeli or pro-Zionist voices on campus,” Bos said.
Phillips questioned why signage with pro-Palestine connotations was removed from his office window as “unacceptable speech,” and not signage calling for divestment from fossil fuels or the normalization of love.
Meiya Sparks Lin, a third-year doctoral student, said it has become “increasingly clear” that Palestine is the “exception” to the University’s devotion to free speech.
Lin, who is also a steward for the BU Graduate Workers Union, said the practice of BU entering offices to remove signs of political speech is not unfamiliar.
During the BUGWU strike in the spring 2024 semester, graduate workers’ locked offices were entered overnight and pro-union paraphernalia including pins, bandanas and signs were confiscated, Lin said.
Jacksyn Bakeberg, a fifth-year doctoral student in mathematics said the Duan Family Center for Computing and Data Sciences, whose offices have glass walls, was hit the hardest by this practice.
CDS workers received an email from CDS management saying it would begin enforcing a rule that the glass walls of offices had to be “unobstructed,” Bakeberg said. He said it specifically targeted union material, since posters unrelated to the union were left up, even though they violated the new policy.
“It created an extremely hostile environment designed to kill and limit support for the union,” Bakeberg said.
Bakeberg said BUGWU filed an unfair labor practice charge against the University. To resolve the charge, the University was required to post signs in CDS assuring management will not remove any signage.
Lin said it seems like the same strategies BU used to shut down union organizing are being employed against pro-Palestine student activists now. They said the University is financially motivated and will “sell their students out” for federal funding.
BUGWU posted a rank-n-file statement condemning Columbia for its “active collaboration with ICE” in Khalil’s detainment and for escalating disciplinary action against student protest organizers.
“Our strike was costing the University a lot of money,” Lin said. “Boston University receives a lot of money from the Department of Defense, and organizing for a free Palestine threatens that profit … I don’t trust the University’s commitment to free speech when money is involved”
Bos said the Trump administration is using its “power of the purse” and, in the case of Khalil, the threat of deportation to impose silence using intimidation.
“The University, like all of our civic institutions, must rise to the occasion and resist those pressures,” Bos said. “It has got to reaffirm its role as a space where dissent is not only tolerated but protected.”
Piston said administrations of higher education institutions are “trying to keep their head down” to avoid becoming a target of the Trump administration.
More than 3,000 Jewish university faculty and staff nationwide — many from Boston-area schools — drafted a letter, titled “Not In Our Name,” to denounce the use of “cynical claims of antisemitism — to harass, expel, arrest, or deport members of our campus communities.”
Jonathan Feingold, an associate professor in the School of Law, was one of the first to sign the letter.
He said the Trump administration has justified “authoritarian moves” — such as “abducting students” or threatening to revoke federal funding — as efforts to protect Jewish students and combat antisemitism on campus.
“By using Jews essentially as pretext in order to attack our institutions, as pretext to target other marginalized communities and as pretext to silence political opponents, the Trump administration is using us as a shield,” Feingold said. “Nothing that he does should be understood as being on our behalf or to our benefit. Universities need to call that out as well.”
Feingold said the University community must receive a clear explanation for the removal of Phillips’ signage given the “broader repression of speech, particularly speech that is either critical of Israel or advocating for Palestinian human rights,” to prevent a “spiral into speculation.”
Phillips’ advocacy has not just been noticed by the University.
Phillips said two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents visited his home while he was away March 6. He said his spouse told him the agents were asking about Phillips’ whereabouts.
Phillips called the FBI to ask if they were searching for him and received no answer after having to verify his personal information. He said he believes the search relates to his activism in the Boston area, such as leading a string of weekly “Tesla Takedown” protests.
“When my spouse said that I was not at home, they were the ones that offered, ‘Oh, he must be at school,’” Phillips said. “So, they actually invoked my place of work.”
Regarding the signage being removed from his office window, Phillips said while he has not retained legal counsel, he had “informal discussions” over the legality of the action.
Phillips said he will continue using his window to explore his freedom of speech. He replaced his missing sign with one saying “Say his name” March 22.
“[This message] on one level is cryptic, but on the other level would press the issue in a way that made it difficult for the administration to do anything because then, what would it be that they were policing?” Phillips said.
He replaced the new signage four days later with a new message: “Free Rumeysa,” referring to the March 25 detainment of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk for her participation in pro-Palestine protests and activism on campus.
Bos said he has a “deep stake” in academic freedom at BU and knows it is impossible to have without the freedoms of speech and protest.
“If that same freedom isn’t afforded to those individuals, then academic freedom is shown to be an illusion,” Bos said.