THE rector of St Andrews University has said she has been excluded from attending graduations following her removal from certain roles due to her criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Stella Maris expressed her “disappointment” with the university’s decision on Tuesday claiming she was told she would not be allowed to attend the winter graduation ceremonies.
She explained that she received an email from the university’s principal in November informing her that it would be “inappropriate” for her to attend the ceremonies due to her ongoing judicial review of the university court’s decision to remove her trustee status.
Maris was elected as rector in November 2023 and was suspended in August this year following a message she sent to students when she first took office describing Israel’s attacks on Gaza as “genocidal”.
In the email, she condemned practices including “apartheid, siege, illegal occupation and collective punishment” but also denounced “war crimes” by Hamas.
St Andrews University has since been accused of “political censorship” as Maris lost her position as a trustee due to repeatedly declining to accept the University Court’s conclusion which suggested she had made some students “fear for their safety”.
Maris (below) told the university students in a letter this week that she was “deeply saddened” that she has been excluded but offered her congratulations to the graduating class of 2024, praising their achievements.
“I deeply regret to inform you that I have not been invited to attend the winter graduation ceremonies over the next few days,” she wrote.
“Due to the on-going process of appeal, I have been compelled to initiate judicial review in the decision made by the university court. As a result, the principal has informed me that she believes it would be 'inappropriate' to extend me an invitation to the graduation ceremonies or associated events.
“I have challenged this decision, as I believe it represents a continued and unjustified restriction on my ability to carry out my responsibilities as your elected Rector.”
She added: “While I am deeply saddened and disappointed by this decision made by the principal, I remain immensely proud of all your achievements.”
The news of Maris’s exclusion from the graduation ceremonies follows the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) calling for her reinstatement to the university's ruling body.
In a statement, alongside an online petition which has been signed by more than 500 academics worldwide, the BCUP claimed that the university “is trying to silence the rector’s voice of conscience”.
The statement argued that international courts, along with respected human rights bodies, have confirmed that Israel is plausibly accused of ethnic cleansing, war crimes and genocide.
It also claimed that in the university’s “determination” to make an example of Maris it “ignored the finding of the senior lawyer it appointed to review the university’s case against the rector, that dismissal would be inappropriate”.
It added that Maris’s case is the latest instance of the “misuse of disciplinary processes by UK university authorities to target and silence critics of Israel”.
Some of the people who have signed the petition calling for Maris to be reinstated include the Glasgow University's rector, Ghassan Abu-Sitta (below).
Glasgow's university rector is regarded as a world-leading expert on war-injured patients and children and has worked in hospitals in Gaza during the ongoing conflict.
He also worked in hospitals in the area in the immediate wake of the October 7 attacks on Israel and his experience working as a medic during Israel’s siege in Gaza saw him cited in South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Signing the petition Abu-Sitta wrote: “A televised genocide has continued unhindered for over 13 months.
“Universities like St Andrews which have tried to silence voices of conscience like those of Stella Maris are complicit, having chosen to be part of the genocide enablement apparatus.”
Neve Gordon, Professor of human rights and international humanitarian law at Queen Mary University of London, also joined the 500 signatures.
He wrote: “When a renowned university like St Andrews decides to dismiss a black woman for speaking truth to power one cannot but notice the spectre of imperial racism emerging.
“The university’s treatment of student-elected rector Stella Maris is shameful.”
Ivar Ekeland, the former president of the University of Paris-Dauphine, in France, said Maris is a credit to universities worldwide.
“It would be hard to devise a statement more compassionate and balanced, while based on irrefutable evidence and recalling universally recognized norms of human behaviour, than the one rector Stella Maris sent to the university’s students,” he wrote.
“She is up to the highest standards of intellectual life, and she is a credit to universities worldwide.”
A University of St Andrews spokesperson said: "It is disappointing that Ms Maris has chosen to focus on herself on a day on which the university is celebrating the hard work of our graduates.
“Ms Maris is currently engaged in legal action against the university. In these circumstances, the principal considered it was not appropriate to invite her to attend graduation, which should be a day focused on the achievements of graduates. She was informed of this on November 18.
“It is concerning that Ms Maris and her advisers continue to repeat the false assertion that she was discharged from University Court because she spoke out against Israeli aggression in Gaza.
“That is completely untrue, Ms Maris and her advisers are well aware of that, and we believe it is a claim which is intentionally designed to mislead.
“The BRICUP petition is based on the same entirely false assertion.
“The rector was discharged because she repeatedly and knowingly placed herself in breach of the code of conduct for members of Court, and her legal responsibilities as a Court member and charity trustee.
“The University Court has made very clear that the rector is entitled to freedom of speech and was entitled to make the statement she did, and that parts of her statement were an important source of comfort to some students and staff in our community.
“This was acknowledged by the report following the independent external investigation into the rector’s actions and activities by Morag Ross KC, and has also been repeatedly acknowledged by the university.
“If a trustee is in persistent and serious breach of their responsibilities, the law states that fellow trustees must take action to resolve the breach, and if that is not achieved, to remove the trustee from office.
“The decision to discharge was unanimous, with one abstention, and that the 24 governors of Court include student, staff and trade union representatives, several of whom are committed personally to the Palestinian cause.
“BRICUP may disagree with the decision of Court, but as an academic organisation, it should respect the facts.”
