Amid the brutal police crackdowns at more than 100 campus protests against the war in Gaza the spring, one university in California stood out for its especially harsh treatment of student protesters. The school effectively eliminated any due process for the students by suspending them without making specific allegations of misconduct or allowing the students to respond to vague charges.
Last month, student protesters at University of California, Irvine sued the school regents and chancellor for suspending them without any notice or a chance to present evidence in their defense. On Tuesday, plaintiffs in the suit filed a motion to ask the Superior Court of California to step in.
The five students are asking the court to force the school to halt the suspensions and allow students to resume their studies, register for fall classes, go back to campus jobs, and regain access to campus housing.
More than 3,000 people were arrested during brutal police crackdowns on campus protests this year, according to a protest tracker developed by The Appeal. UCI is still an outlier — it’s one of the only schools in the country that issued interim suspensions banning students from campus before they had a chance to respond. The university’s approach was, a representative for the students said, unprecedented.
“That’s outrageous — that’s not how due process is supposed to work.”
“That’s outrageous — that’s not how due process is supposed to work,” said Thomas Harvey, an attorney representing the students in the suit. “They seem to be punishing our clients with a method that not only is unprecedented in UCI’s use in terms of responses to protests or student conduct issues, but also it stands out as unusual among the entire UC system.”
Tom Vasich, a spokesperson for UCI, said, “The university does not comment on lawsuits.”
At least two of the students were prohibited from graduating in the spring because of the suspensions. They will eventually have to take and pay for another semester of classes but are still barred from registering for courses for the upcoming fall semester.
The UCI chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine also received an interim suspension. SJP chapters at schools around the country have been targeted under bans and suspensions in crackdowns on campus protests. SJP at UCI was also told as a result of the suspension that the club could not post on their own Instagram page.
Students suspended at UCI this spring received notices from the school that listed no specific allegations against them but said they were present at protests where the school claimed that violations of campus policy had allegedly occurred.
The students said they were not given an opportunity to have a hearing on the claims against them or to present evidence in their defense before the suspension went into effect. Students who received the suspension notices were told that they could not attend classes in person or online, access student housing, or be on campus at all, effective immediately.
Interim suspensions have never been used in this way at UCI or at any other schools in the UC system, said Harvey, the plaintiffs’ attorney.
“You think about the draconian ways they cracked down on dissent at UCLA, and UCLA still hasn’t used interim suspensions to punish their students,” he said. “They’re not saying, ‘You can’t come on campus indefinitely until we resolve your student conduct hearing,’” he added. “They’re not issuing the punishment in advance of the hearing, which is what they’re doing at UCI.”
Students are hurting emotionally, financially, and otherwise. But the suspensions haven’t discouraged them from speaking out against the war on Gaza.
“This is nothing but a scare tactic to intimidate and shake our resolve,” one of the student plaintiffs, who requested anonymity to avoid reprisals, told The Intercept. “The university hopes to shift our attention away from our demands for divestment. But these suspensions are not going to deter us from fighting for the liberation of Palestine. If anything, it’s strengthening our resolve.”
No Due Process
When a student at UCI is accused of violating school policy, they go through a student conduct process before any kind of punishment is meted out.
In this case, however, students were punished with interim suspensions before any evidence against them was presented, according to Harvey and another faculty member who supported the students. None of the suspended students have yet been adjudicated to have violated any student conduct rules. That decision is pending and will be made at the resolution of ongoing student conduct processes. While that proceeds, the students are stuck in limbo.
Students who received suspensions notices were notified that they could appeal their suspensions by setting up a meeting with a school administrator. Students met with the chancellor to appeal their suspensions but were not presented with specific evidence against them, according to Harvey and two members of the UCI faculty who spoke to The Intercept. After the meetings, the vice chancellor issued decision letters upholding their suspensions.
Students were told they’d get an update on the process at the beginning of the summer, but said they have not gotten any information on where the process stands.
The UCI faculty senate and graduate student body have expressed dissatisfaction with the administration’s handling of student protesters. In June, the UCI Associated Graduate Students passed a vote of no confidence against the chancellor.
School faculty also put forth a resolution to censure the chancellor for involving 22 different law enforcement agencies in addressing student protests, which goes against UC policies regarding the circumstances under which outside police should be called in.
Although the resolution narrowly failed, a motion to initiate an independent investigation into the police response did pass. Additionally, a motion criticizing the administration’s handling of interim student suspensions, calling for an investigation into the suspension process, and advocating for the lifting of suspensions was approved.
Professor Cecelia Lynch, part of the ad hoc faculty group Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, highlighted the lack of due process in the immediate student suspensions and the chancellor’s violation of UCI and UC procedures. The contrast in accountability between the chancellor and the students facing punitive actions was emphasized.
“Almost all of the UCs have reacted badly and several of them extremely violently. Our campus was apparently the worst, unfortunately.”
Several faculty members attended lengthy meetings expressing various viewpoints on the encampments and the school’s response. However, there was a consensus among faculty regarding concerns about free speech on campus and the transparency of administrative decisions, as noted by Annie McClanahan, associate professor of English and chair of the Irvine Faculty Association.
“On the interim suspensions and the issue of the student conduct process, there was really near unanimous agreement,” she mentioned, referencing support for an ACLU of Southern California amicus brief in favor of the students.
While Lynch acknowledged that none of the UC schools handled the protests well, she singled out UCI’s response as particularly concerning. “Almost all of the UCs have reacted badly and several of them extremely violently,” she said. “Our campus was apparently the worst, unfortunately.”
History of Crackdowns
UCI has a history of crackdowns on protests, such as the Irvine 11, a group of students arrested and convicted for disrupting a public meeting in 2010. The school has also attempted to disband protests in support of the United Auto Workers strike. The severity of UCI’s response to protests in support of Palestine was noted by a suspended student.
“We’ve seen student encampments happen throughout history as well, and it’s always been in the form of anti-war and it’s always been pro-people. And it’s always been challenging the university as an imperialist institution. Particularly with the UC system, we’re seeing a mass militarization across all the UCs,” they stated. “It’s in particular because this is so pro-Palestine. And in terms of UCI history, this is not the first time they’ve done something like this to repress student voices speaking up for Palestine.”
Despite anticipating a crackdown, student protesters remain focused on their goal. “All the students did not go into the encampments thinking they would be safe from the university,” the student explained. “They understood that whatever we face, it’s nothing compared to what Palestinians are facing on the ground.”
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