Five students are suing UC Irvine, alleging they were given harsher punishments than their peers for leading the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus earlier this year, dislodging their academic trajectories.
One of them told LAist she was part of a group of pro-Palestine students who’d supported encampments and were negotiating with campus officials in April regarding their demands for the university to divest from companies aiding Israel’s war in Gaza.
“And then at one point in the middle, as students were waiting and we were telling the university that we would get back to them with information about when we can meet again, our chancellor stated that we are refusing to meet with them and delaying too much,” the woman, who asked for anonymity because of fear of retaliation, said.
And that’s when she and other protest leaders received university letters telling them they had violated university rules and were therefore temporarily suspended.
The university alleges the violations included disruption, disorderly conduct, and overnight camping. The interim suspension included a ban from coming onto campus.
“Not allowed to go to class, not allowed to go to our campus job, not allowed to attend class online or in person,” the student said.
The group of five students are suing UC Irvine for allegedly violating their due process.
They just wrote a letter and said you are suspended, and then at a later date we can talk, and then when they talked, they produce no individualized, particularized evidence about anything our clients did.
— Thomas Harvey, lawyer for five UC Irvine students suing the university
The students are represented by Thomas Harvey and the Pasadena firm Rothner, Segall & Greenstone. Harvey said the university quickly lifted most other interim suspensions.
“They just wrote a letter and said you are suspended, and then at a later date we can talk, and then when they talked, they produce no individualized, particularized evidence about anything our clients did,” Harvey said.
The legal action comes as university officials across California attempt to prevent the protest tactics seen in the spring at some campuses that turned destructive and violent. UC President Michael Drake issued a letter reminding the entire 10-campus system that encampments, masks that hide a person’s identity, and blocking walkways are not allowed. The California State University, the nation’s largest public university system, was the first to issue new restrictions days earlier.
Are the protest methods free speech or violations of university rules?
Despite university rules that prevent overnight camping on campus, protesters’ encampments lasted weeks last academic year, while some faculty and students reported being blocked from using some walkways.
“[F]rom the onset and throughout the course of the unauthorized encampment, any students participating were repeatedly notified that their actions were violating university policy and that they would face sanctions including disciplinary measures such as interim suspension,” said UC Irvine spokesperson Tom Vasich in an email.
[F]rom the onset and throughout the course of the unauthorized encampment, any students participating were repeatedly notified that their actions were violating university policy and that they would face sanctions including disciplinary measures such as interim suspension.
— Tom Vasich, UC Irvine spokesperson
The university’s discipline against student protesters, he added, follow the University of California’s campus guidelines on disciplinary action. Vasich said he would not comment directly on the allegations in the lawsuit.
The students published the lawsuit here. Harvey said he’s asked the court to dismiss the students’ suspensions while the lawsuit makes its way through court.
This is how UC Irvine pro-Palestine arrests are unique
According to news reports, police arrested 26 students at UC Irvine when the encampment was cleared last May. Harvey said the university lifted most other interim suspensions within two weeks. He questions whether the lingering interim suspensions for his clients are harsher punishment because these students were at the forefront of protests.
Earlier this month, the Associated Press published a nationwide review of arrests related to pro-Palestine protests and unrest on campuses earlier this academic year. The report tallied 3,200 arrests of people related to those protests. Charges have been dismissed for many of the people arrested, but for hundreds of others, like the UC Irvine students, their cases are not yet resolved and may linger into the next academic year.
