PhD student Prahlad Iyengar who was barred from entering the MIT campus following a pro-Palestine essay last month has now been suspended until January 2026 which would terminate his 5-year NSF fellowship. MIT Coalition Against Apartheid launched a protest against the decision calling this a blow to free speech.
The essay in question appeared in Written Revolution, a multidisciplinary student magazine about the pro-Palestinian movement.
Iyengar, a PhD student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, was also suspended last year following the pro-Palestinean rallies.
The October issue of the magazine included the article “On Pacifism,” which featured imagery and language that “could be interpreted as a call for more violent or destructive forms of protest at MIT,” according to an email sent by MIT Dean of Student Life David Warren Randall to the editors of the magazine.
The email also cited the inclusion of several images in the article, including one that incorporates the logo of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which has been designated by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization.
As the editors of the magazine faced disciplinary action, Prahlad Iyengar said it was a gross violation of free speech. The purpose of the magazine was to “put out in our words, what we were doing, why we were doing it and what was happening on campus,” he said to WBUR.
The MIT Coalition Against Apartheid said Iyengar’s suspension is effectively expulsion as his academic career will be disrupted and his readmission will have to be allowed by the same panel that suspended him. “Prahlad is now appealing his case with the Chancellor to revoke or reduce the unjust sanctions against him. We have launched a campaign to put pressure on MIT’s administration to stop criminalizing students who stand on the right side of history. We call on all organizations and institutions of conscience to sign on and stand up to MIT’s repression,” the coalition said in a petition.
