SAN JOSÉ — An arbitrator has ruled that the California State University system violated the law by dismissing Sang Hea Kil, a tenured justice studies professor at San José State University. The ruling orders the system to reinstate Kil with backpay and reduces her termination to a one-month suspension.

Kil was dismissed in November 2023. She became the first tenured faculty member to be dismissed from a U.S. public university following nationwide campus protests regarding the war in Gaza. She filed a lawsuit against the state university system in May, arguing that her dismissal violated employment law and the First Amendment.

San José State University accused Kil of making remarks that encouraged students to stage an encampment in violation of university policy, and of participating in a student-led encampment. Kil is a faculty adviser for the university's Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. She attended a campus protest in February 2024. Kil stated she attended the protest in a personal capacity. She also stated she joined a student-led encampment for three nights.

A faculty committee reviewed the incidents involving Kil and found that while she had violated some university policies, the dismissal was disproportionate and not justified. San José State University terminated Kil against the recommendation of this faculty committee. The arbitrator ruled that the charge against Kil did not rise to the level of dismissal for a tenured faculty member.

Kil said she was "relieved" to regain her job. She added that she intended to continue speaking out for Palestinian rights and free speech. "The arbitration hearing outcome in my favor shows that the first amendment of the constitution is not dead at San José State University," Kil said. She further stated, "Which was in question when they targeted me for merely showing up to anti-genocide events on my campus to support students protesting the Israeli destruction of Gaza and its people."

Rebecca Brown, one of Kil's attorneys, stated that this case was "one of the most egregious and extreme examples of repression of pro-Palestine speech that we've seen." Brown added that Kil's situation involved a tenured professor fired for free speech activity, a punishment typically reserved for conduct like sexual assault or physical violence. In a separate instance in 2014, Steven Salaita was fired from the University of Illinois following social media posts critical of Israel's bombing of Gaza. Kil also stated she witnessed another faculty member assault a student during the February 2024 protest; that faculty member was briefly suspended and later reinstated.