Straus RESIGNS from the NYU Law Board of Trustees

Thanks to your support  and the mounting pressure on the NYU Law administration to address Mr. Straus’s attacks on free speech on campus and on worker’s rights outside our gates, we are happy to announce that Daniel E. Straus will no longer be a member of the board of trustees.

We consider Straus’s departure from the Board an indication that the administration and Board have taken seriously the harmful impact of the subpoenas on free expression and vigorous debate, which you have declared are deeply-held values of this Law School and welcome this development and its implicit acknowledgment of the concerns raised by hundreds of NYU students, faculty, and alumni over the past two months.

Nevertheless, we note that the administration has not yet taken a leadership role in fostering an open community dialogue about ethical guidelines for all members of our community, including those who govern this institution. We maintain our position that the school must create a transparent process to adjudicate concerns that Trustees or others have violated NYU’s code of conduct. We also believe that all stakeholders in the Law School should have an opportunity to express concerns about a range of issues directly to the individuals who govern this institution. Many universities around the country already have regular open board meetings with student and faculty participation. NYU Law has an opportunity to lead other law schools by example. We look forward to a continuing dialogue on these issues next fall.

The subpoenas against Leo and Luke still stand, however, and we’ll be updating this site with legal developments as they arise.