YUFA deplores the York University administration's decision to summon police to the Keele campus on June 6, 2024, in a huge show of force and intimidation against a small group of students who were peacefully exercising their rights of political speech and protest on the university 'common'.  In alliance with York security staff, dozens of police roughly dismantled the York students' encampment and arrested one student.  

This action has, in the most shocking way, undermined campus security, academic freedom, and faculty colleagues' attempts to build and maintain a learning environment of respectful communication across differences. It has produced a climate of fear on campus that is extremely damaging to our academic community as a whole.  

We call on the York University President, Provost, and Chair of the Board of Governors to meet with us and with student representatives in a public assembly,  as soon as possible, to discuss this outrageous decision and attempt to address the damage that it has caused.