The discipline of a Syracuse University student who protested the war in Gaza with an encampment on the university’s quad has been moved to an appeal board.
Cai Cafiero, who was one of around 200 people to protest the war at the encampment, was punished by the university after a university official accused her of disobeying a public safety directive to relocate the encampment during commencement weekend.
Cafiero is one of seven students who could be placed in almost four months of conduct probation, as well as prepare a presentation on civil disobedience and public safety in front of a university conduct board. A panel of university officials and faculty members found on Aug. 16 she was in violation of the code of conduct.
A university executive determined an appeal board should hear Cafiero’s challenge to the sanctions. She alleged the penalties levied against her are unjust and that the university did not follow proper procedures in its own handbook.
“I’m angry that a university that I’ve put my trust in as a student, given them time, money, and energy… is more committed to protecting their image as a bastion of free speech rather than actually being that bastion,” Cafiero said.
SU Senior Associate Vice President for Communications Sarah Scalese declined to comment on Cafiero’s case and the penalties levied against the student.
“We do not comment on student conduct cases,” Scalese said.
The sanctions levied against the students have been panned by protesters involved in the encampment, university faculty and legal observers as the latest in a series of attacks on notions of academic freedom in campuses across the United States. Advocates calling for an end to the conflict in Palestine and Israel say sanctions at the dozens of American universities that formed encampments, like Syracuse, send a clear message to students and staff.
“It shatters notions that suggest college campuses are a priming place for engaged citizens,” said Corey Saylor, the research and advocacy director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “When you see universities using harsh disciplinary measures, the message that they’re sending is ‘shut up.’ It is really troubling.”
The sanctions have become somewhat of a toxic topic of conversation on and off campus. A Central Current reporter reached out to several Jewish community leaders and members of Jewish organizations on campus for comment, as well as faculty members involved in academic projects related to free speech. Some declined to comment on the matter, others said they could not comment due to their involvement in faculty committees directly related to the issue, and some others did not respond to requests for comment.
Cafiero said she is appealing the discipline delivered during a formal conduct hearing in mid August by a panel of three university staff members. They upheld the sanctions the university had negotiated with Cafiero back in July.
Under the sanctions, Cafiero will:
- Face conduct probation until late December. That status prevents students from holding or running for elected or appointed leadership positions in several organizations like student government and fraternities or sororities. Students can also be expelled if they violate the code of conduct while on this probationary period.
- Prepare a presentation, directed to Cafiero’s peers, that highlights the need to comply with requests from university officials to maintain a safe campus, as well as an understanding that acts of civil disobedience do not “absolve someone from accountability for their actions,” according to a copy of the rubric reviewed by Central Current.
It’s unclear who evaluated Cafiero’s appeal to the discipline, but appeals are typically vetted by the associate vice president and dean of students at the university’s Office of Community Standards or another designated university official. If they deem the appeal is valid within the guidelines in the code of conduct, an appeals board of three students, staff, or external professionals will evaluate the appeal.
In her appeal, Cafiero argued that the punishment is too severe for a first offense. She believes a warning would have been a fairer punishment given her lack of previous offenses and that the encampment “did not impede anyone’s ability to function as a member of the university,” she said.
For Cafiero, losing her appeal would mean adding a two “huge hindrances” to her life on campus during this fall term, she said
“That time and energy that I would rather devote to activism or to my PhD work, or toward teaching students … I’m instead going to have to spend memorizing the code of conduct to make sure that I’m never violating anything, to continue this appeals process, and to potentially prepare a presentation about how to be an activist within the confines of school policy,” Cafiero said.
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