MIKE LEE, the president of Sonoma State University has retired from his role after being placed on leave for issuing a controversial campuswide email about striking a deal with pro-Hamas protesters that included an embrace of an academic boycott of Israeli universities, which led California State University system officials to accuse him of insubordination.

InsideHigherEd  Lee agreed to several of the pro-Hamas student demands, including a review of contracts to consider divestment possibilities, the introduction of a Palestine studies curriculum and the inclusion of Students for Justice in Palestine on an SSU advisory council. Lee also agreed to what is effectively an academic boycott of Israel, though he noted that Sonoma State has no current institutional ties to Israel.

The move to put him on administrative leave, followed by his resignation, marks a rare public rebuke from the CSU system over how campus presidents have handled the protests.

“Student activism, protest and dissent in service of social and political change are key democratic principles that allow us to imagine a more perfect union—not only for ourselves, but also for others,” Lee wrote in the email announcing a deal with protesters.

While various universities that have made deals with protesters have agreed to be more transparent about endowment funds, weigh divestment and offer more resources for Palestinian students, Lee’s agreement takes the unusual step of agreeing to an academic boycott of Israel. While Sonoma State does not have any current affiliations with Israeli universities, he promised not to “pursue or engage in any study-abroad programs, faculty exchanges, or other formal collaborations” representing or sponsored by Israeli “academic and research institutions.”

Blowback to Lee’s email was swift, including this one from Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat, who has accused campus protesters broadly of engaging in antisemitism.

Yesterday the President of Sonoma State University aligned the campus with BDS, a movement whose goal is the destruction of Israel, home to 7M Jews.

Several other UC & CSU campuses are doing this more subtly. Sonoma State simply said the quiet part out loud.

The mask is off. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/DDUiIzKcTG

— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) May 15, 2024

Stephen Bittner, chair of Sonoma State’s history department and director of its Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide told Inside Higher Ed by email that he was “disappointed and angry” when he read the announcement, which he called “unusual and unprecedented and deeply flawed.” Of particular concern to Bittner was the agreement to an academic boycott of Israel.

“In embracing an academic boycott of Israel, President Lee sacrificed freedoms that are core to the mission of a university, namely the free and unfettered exchange of ideas. He did so with little to no input from faculty members,” Bittner wrote, adding that the center he directs at Sonoma State frequently brings academics affiliated with Israeli institutions to campus for a lecture series.

In response to García’s announcement that Lee had been placed on leave, the Sonoma State chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine posted on Instagram: “We choose insubordination.”