Republican state legislators on Thursday demanded Gov. Kathy Hochul withhold taxpayer funds from any City University of New York campus that allows incendiary rhetoric at school-sponsored events as the fallout from a law graduate’s infamous “hate-filled” commencement speech continues.
Senate GOP Leader Rob Ortt and a handful of other Republicans fired off the letter to Hochul after footage of CUNY law school graduate Fatima Mousa Mohammed’s May 12 commencement speech went viral.
In addition to withholding taxpayer funding from CUNY schools, the GOP lawmakers called on Hochul to hold back cash from SUNY campuses, too.
“The freedom of thought, inquiry and expression at our institutions of higher education is a value that most Americans hold dear,” they said.
“However, we are deeply troubled by what appears to be a misguided and potentially destructive shift toward enabling, embracing and even celebrating radical, intolerant and hate-filled political viewpoints on our CUNY and SUNY campuses.
“In particular, there have been repeated episodes that promote anti-Israel, anti-cop, anti-law and
order, and anti-US viewpoints and philosophies that are clearly inappropriate for any credible
institution of higher learning — and particularly ones that are funded with the taxpayer dollars of
hardworking New Yorkers.”
They demanded public funds be stripped from any SUNY or CUNY campus that “supports, condones or allows hateful, antisemitic and intolerant speech to take place.”
The Republicans added that any college employees or administrators involved in such incidents should be fired.
It comes after Mohammed took to the stage during the law school commencement and called for a “revolution” to take on the legal system’s “white supremacy.”
She also blasted the NYPD as “fascist” and accused Israel of indiscriminately murdering Palestinians.
In addition to the Mohammed hate-speech saga, the Republicans listed off a slew of other recent “troubling incidents” that they say points to a pattern of behavior at the public institutions.
Among them was the recent arrest of Hunter College Professor Shellyne Rodriguez, who held a machete to a Post reporter’s neck when he tried to ask her about viral footage of her unleashing on pro-life students.
Hochul didn’t immediately respond to The Post when asked about the GOP letter.
She did, however, say Wednesday that she condemns “all forms of hate speech” in the wake of the CUNY saga.
“It is divisive. It is hurtful. It is cruel. And I’m calling on everyone across the state to join with us in saying no more. No more hate in our state,” she said at an unrelated press conference in Brooklyn.
“This is a place where we embrace everyone, and especially in a higher education institution, our expectations are that you will be more tolerant of other views. And that is why we have to make sure to call out the hate speech, which is exactly what happened on that stage.”