Suspended prof receives hearing

Editor’s Note: This will be a five-part series documenting the hearing of suspended professor Sang Hea Kil. This first part will give a general overview of the hearing. 

On Friday, four faculty members found themselves in an eight-hour statutory dismissal hearing on Zoom that will decide whether a tenured professor will continue to be employed at San José State. 

Sang Hea Kil, a justice studies professor and a co-founder and member of the Caucus of Rank-and-file Education Workers within the California Faculty Association, was suspended in May 2024, following five alleged violations of established policies. 

A faculty hearing committee is formed for hearings regarding faculty grievances and typically is made up of 3 full-time academic-related faculty, according to the CFA Statutory Hearing manual. 

The statutory hearing relies on faculty hearing committees as the first line of appeal, which gives a chance for the employee to deny grievances, according to the same source.

Susan Westover, the assistant vice chancellor & chief counsel, litigation at the CSU Office of General Counsel, argued for the termination of Kil on behalf of the administration.
“Dismissal is the appropriate in this case,” Westover said in her opening statements. “The conduct was repeated. It was knowing, it was intentional disruption, not accidental. It directly undermined instruction and university operations.” 

The faculty hearing panel has two weeks following the hearing whether Kil committed any actions that may have breached conduct and policy during a series of Spring 2024 incidents. 

The events noted include a Feb. 19, 2024 protest where Jonathan Roth, a retired history professor, was recorded grabbing and twisting the arm of a protester, according to several media outlet reports. 

Roth worked at SJSU for 30 years before being placed on administrative leave following the February 19, 2024, incident and later quietly retired, unrelated to the incident, as the Spartan Daily reported on Aug. 20.

“My suspension was lifted in June of this year, as the investigation found that the allegations made against me were not sustained, in other words, I was innocent of the charges made against me,” Roth wrote in an email sent to the Spartan Daily on Aug. 26.

Aside from the first incident, Westover noted two other separate incidents associated with the May 2024 pro-Palestinian encampment on the SJSU campus at the end of the Spring semester

She later presented a criteria document for the faculty committee that alleged Kil encouraged disruption of university business operations in Sweeney Hall on Feb. 19, 2024, participating in an encampment on the Smith and Carlos lawn and putting personal interests above students. 

The policies allegedly violated included: 

Time, Place and Manner

The California State University (CSU) introduced a revised systemwide policy change, titled Interim Freedom of Expression and Time, Place, and Manner Policy (TPM), on Aug 15. 2024 and it went into effect on Nov. 20, 2024, according to the SJSU Freedom of Expression and TPM Policy webpage. 

The revised TPM policy established a better way to regulate forms of advocacy and expression regarding assembly and activism, while still allowing for students to exercise free speech rights, according to the CSU interim systemwide policy change document. 

San José State’s revised TPM policy went into effect for both students and non-represented employees on Aug. 16, 2024, while an initial directive by SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson went into effect for represented staff and faculty on Jan. 1, 2024, according to the Freedom of Expression and TPM Policy webpage. 

The CSU Interim TPM policy stated forms of demonstration or action prohibited include no camping or overnight demonstrations, no temporary or permanent structures, no disguises or concealment of identity, no weapons or explosive materials and many more, according to the CSU Interim TPM policy document. 

Universities are allowed to charge students and student-led organizations with misdemeanor offenses for violating the policy, in accordance with Title 5, which is established to promote safety and good citizenship, according to the same policy document. 

Professional Responsibility (S99-8)

SJSU policy S99-8, or Professional Responsibility, is intended for faculty with academic professions, as a way to maintain professionalism between students and teachers, according to the S99-8 Policy Recommendation document. 

The Professional Responsibility document asks teachers to serve as intellectual leaders by keeping intellectual honesty in mind, freedom of inquiry and instruction, and free expression on and off campus, and to treat students fairly and respectfully, according to the same document. 

The Professional Responsibility document states that faculty members must recognize that breaking legal and civil codes for academic gain is a violation of professional ethics, as well as the policy, according to the same document. 

Executive Order 1068

CSU Executive Order 1068 established that campus student-led organizations were to provide a non-discriminatory space and recognize the enrolled student body, according to the Executive Order 1068 policy document. 

Diversity & Equal Opportunity (S01-13)

SJSU policy S01-13 document is intended for campus faculty to ensure a healthy social climate that values equal and diverse opportunities and values of students, according to a S01-13 meeting document from May 14, 2001, released by the Academic Senate’s Professional Standards Committee. 

Education Code Section 89535

The California Education Code EDC §89535 states that employees can face numerous repercussions, including termination, for actions like immoral and unprofessional conduct, dishonesty or incompetency, according to text on EDC §89535 from the website Justia.

During the initial four hours of the hearing, Westover presented a series of eight testimonies from current and former SJSU faculty/administrators, a student, and CSU Long Beach lecturer, Jeffrey Blutinger.  

The testimonies gave perspective on Kil’s alleged conduct at each event annotated during the hearing.

In the case of a disciplinary statutory hearing, it falls to the administration to prove the “just cause” to impose the disciplinary action, according to the Feb. 2017 CFA’s CSU statutory hearing manual. 

While the administration has the burden of proof, hearsay should have limited weight and the faculty hearing committee will make the determination of the weight, relevance and authenticity of the evidence, according to the same manual. 
Westover argued that Kil knowingly violated and admitted to disrupting Blutinger’s talk on Feb. 19, 2024, misused her advisor role and endangered students by participating in the May 2024 encampments and used her influence over students for her personal gain.

“It (Kil’s alleged conduct) exploited students and it destroyed the trust essential to any faculty-student advising relationship,” Westover said.
Kil was faculty advisor for Students for Justice in Palestine, according to the SJSU faculty directory. 

The Spartan Daily made an attempt to reach SJSU Students for Justice in Palestine, but did not receive a comment in time for publication.

Kil represented herself, along with CFA staff member to the Black Caucus, V. Jesse Smith. 

“ What’s really going on here is that SJSU and CSU admins are attempting to make our policies like prisons,” Kil said in her opening statements. “Made to criminalize the very academic practice we were hired to do because it does not align with money and political interests driven by geopolitical, militarized colonial conditions under the (Joe) Biden and (Donald J.) Trump administrations.” 

In Westover’s argument portion of the hearing, Kil and Smith had a time-constrained cross-examination. 

Following a lunch break, before Kil and Smith began their argument, Westover attempted to deduct time from their argument.
“I had eight witnesses and the CFA did do five minutes or more for cross (cross-examination),” Westover argued. “So that’s actually 40 minutes that was taken out of my time for the cross (cross-examination).” 

The faculty chair countered Westover, stating there was an email exchange in which Westover could have brought this to the attention of the committee before the hearing. 

Each side has an opportunity for cross-examination during the hearing, according to the February 2017 CFA’s CSU statutory hearing manual. 

The chair offered the resolution of an extra 20 minutes to Westover, to which Smith immediately countered and said that it was not what they originally agreed upon. 

“We agreed on what the process would entail (and) counsel (agreed) as well,” Smith said. “Right now we’re eating into time that CFA and Dr. Kil has to present its case and I think that’s not fair to us.” 

This ended with Westover receiving an additional 20 minutes to her closing argument. 

In the 59-slide presentation, Kil directly countered the exhibits presented in the investigation, citing several contradictions in the evidence along with due process errors in the procedure. 

Kil said for previous hearings the Zoom link was provided weeks in advance, whereas this hearing link was provided at 10:45 a.m., 24 hours before the meeting took place. 

“We didn’t get the location of the hearing until less than 24 hours before the hearing,” Kil said. “Typically in the cases of Zoom hearings in the past four back we had the link weeks in advance.” 

She said that this did not allow her to advertise widely and truly make this a public hearing. 

In addition to her presentation, Kil called up three witnesses of varying degrees of association to the case. 

Henry Reichman, professor emeritus of history at CSU East Bay, who chaired the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) committee from 2012 to 2021 has participated in several investigations regarding dismissal. 

AAUP is a union and membership association for academic faculty, providing professional values and standards for higher education and advocating for academic freedom, according to the AAUP website. 

Aside from vocal support, the AAUP offers the Policy Documents and Reports book, unofficially titled “The Redbook,” which offers basic statements on academic freedom, tenure and due process, according to the AAUP Redbook website. 

“It should come as no surprise to the university administration that a professor they have tenured in justice studies is likely to participate in events on campus where members of the campus community, students, faculty or staff are protesting what they believe to be injustice,” Reichman said. 

This is a brief overview of the hearing. The next part is scheduled to be published on Tuesday, Nov. 4 which details the events of Feb. 19, 2024 based on witness testimony, source interviews and further research.