Reinstate Professor Woodcock & Remove Eli Capilouto As UKY President

UKY Board Of Trustees

This petition is organized by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Kentucky to show solidarity with Professor Ramsi Woodcock, who has been unjustly suspended and banned from the law building by the University of Kentucky for his protected speech on Israel and Palestine.

The University’s wrongful action represents a clear attempt to silence decolonial analysis, suppress academic freedom, and intimidate those who speak truth to power. We will not stand for this violation of fundamental rights and the repression of scholarship that challenges systems of domination and colonial violence.

We invite students, faculty, staff, alumni, community members, and organizations — both within and beyond the University of Kentucky - to sign this petition in support of SJP @ UKY’s official statement. You do not need to be affiliated with the University or live in Lexington to sign.

This is a broad-reaching issue that transcends political, ideological, and institutional boundaries. Regardless of one’s views on any given conflict, all people committed to justice, human rights, and free speech should be appalled by the silencing of a professor for engaging in legitimate, evidence-based critique.

By signing the petition, you affirm your support for the statement released by SJP @ UKY and call on the University of Kentucky to reverse its suspension of Professor Woodcock, uphold academic freedom, and protect the right to free expression on campus and beyond.

To: UKY Board Of Trustees
From: [Your Name]

We demand that the University of Kentucky must reverse the suspension of Professor Woodcock and end retaliatory investigations. Academic freedom and the First Amendment demand the protection of faculty who challenge dominant power structures, including settler-colonialism.

We affirm that critiquing Israel as a settler-colonial project is a legitimate, evidence-based position shared by many scholars and institutions; disciplining faculty for articulating it is an attack on scholarship itself.

Palestine is part of a global decolonial struggle. Over 80 former colonies have achieved formal independence since the mid-20th century (e.g. India, Pakistan, numerous African nations including Algeria, Ghana, Kenya, etc.). To deny that decolonial efforts should always be possible is to imply that those 80+ nations do not deserve legitimacy or recognition, a deeply untenable position. From Algeria to South Africa to Ireland, liberation movements have faced attempts to delegitimize their voices. Silencing Palestinian advocacy at our university repeats this cycle of repression.

We also call on you, the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, to remove President Eli Capilouto from office for abusing his authority to silence protected speech, failing in his duty to uphold academic freedom, and creating an unsafe environment of repression at this university.

We call on the University of Kentucky's leadership to choose the side of justice, free expression, and decolonization rather than censorship and complicity.

Any attempt by the administration to retaliate against student organizations for their involvement in this matter would only reinforce the perception that free speech on campus is conditional- permitted only when it aligns with the preferences of those in power.