A SCOTTISH university rector is set to make a discrimination claim after she was removed from the institution’s governing body when she called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
In November 2023, Stella Maris sent an email to students at St Andrews University where she condemned Israel's actions as “genocidal”.
An independent investigation led by Morag Ross KC found that removing Maris from her roles at St Andrews University was “disproportionate”.
She was dismissed from her roles as president of the court and charity trustee on the institution’s governing body, with bosses refusing to reinstate her.
Maris went on to win an appeal over the decision to remove her from the roles, and despite legal issues, will retain the title and office of rector until October 2026.
And now, Good Law Project (GLP) has revealed that they have agreed to meet the costs for Maris to take a discrimination case against St Andrews University.
In a crowdfunder, which has already raised over £3300 at time of writing, they said the £10,000 target would help to take Maris’s case forward as well as allow the law firm to “act for another high-profile victim of the campaign to silence critics of Israel’s genocide in Gaza”.
GLP said Maris’s email to students was “compassionate and balanced”.
“The principal of St Andrews, Sally Mapstone, said that her email had jeopardised a £2m donation to the University from the Wolfson Foundation", the crowdfunder read.
“The foundation denies the donation was ever at risk.”
It continued: “Stella fought back, and the chancellor reinstated her over the objections of the University Court. But her very public removal was a direct assault on our ability to speak out.
“It makes it all too easy to challenge speech that people think might go against some group’s treasured beliefs.
“She is bringing a discrimination claim against the university and that there was a breach of her right to free speech.”
GLP added that they had instructed Glasgow firm Cannons Law Practice to represent Maris.
We previously told how Maris had garnered support from students on campus, more than 500 academics from universities across 17 countries, the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom, and the University College Union (UCU), all calling for her reinstatement.
In September, more than 17,200 people signed a petition calling for the university to drop its action against her.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the British Palestinian Committee also wrote to the university to highlight the level of concern its decision has generated.
When Maris won her appeal in May, the university said it would “carefully consider” the decision, insisting that her dismissal was “never about free speech and only ever about governance”.
Maris, St Andrews University and Cannons Law Practice have been contacted for comment.
