Two union educators at MassArt are under threat of being fired for participating in a peaceful protest in support of divestment from weapons and an end to the genocide. Demand that MassArt immediately bring these two workers back to work without punishment. Those in the MassArt community should have the right to free speech, assembly, and protest; pro-Palestinian protests should not be an exception!

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President Grant and Provost Molife,

We are writing to express outrage over the actions taken by the Massachusetts College of Art and Design against Peggy Wang and Isaac Watts in response to their participation in a peaceful Palestine Solidarity action on campus on April 24, 2025. Your decision to place them on leave on May 5, 2025 and to threaten them with termination over exercising their right to free speech, assembly, and protest is an outright act of repression against those speaking up against an ongoing genocide. It undermines core values of justice, equity, and freedom of expression, as well as puts in question whether members of the MassArt community can freely exercise their first amendment rights at all at the college.

As members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and as student, alumni, and community supporters, we stand in support of Peggy and Isaac and their right to free speech, assembly, and protest at MassArt. We call on you to bring them back to work immediately without discipline, and to ensure they can continue to exercise their rights to free speech and protest without fear of retaliation or intimidation when they return.

Peggy and Isaac peacefully participated in this protest on their own time and did not – as you falsely accuse them of doing – push anyone, say threatening things, or disobey orders. Demanding that they accept a false narrative, waive all claims against the school, agree to a cease and desist, take a 2-week suspension without pay, and agree to be immediately fired if they act in any way that is “unbecoming” when they return, is outright punitive and hostile and not just unwarranted but unacceptable. We are also completely against your threat that they agree to these terms or they will be fired. Pro-Palestinian protests should not be an exception to the rights of free speech and protest.

Peaceful protest and political engagement are fundamental rights, particularly in academic spaces that should foster critical thinking and civic engagement. Retaliatory actions of this nature not only contradict the principles of the justice, equity and transformation you are charged with upholding, but also threaten the integrity of MassArt’s long-standing role as an independent, artistic, public institution that welcomes political engagement as part of the responsibility of all artists and creatives. We want to see Peggy and Isaac immediately brought back to work as members of the MassArt community who embody these values. And we ask MassArt to demonstrate that it is a space in which students, staff, faculty, and the public can engage in their rights to free speech and protest, which are so vital and crucial to democracy and to those advocating for peace and justice.