Seven Syracuse University students who protested for a ceasefire in Gaza are facing disciplinary action from the university.
The students camped on the Shaw Quadrangle to demand SU call for a ceasefire and refused to move the encampment during commencement weekend in May. University officials deemed the encampment a public safety concern.
The university’s proposed academic and disciplinary sanctions have raised questions among affected students, legal observers, and faculty members about academic freedom on campus. The sanctions include a six-month probationary term and a public presentation on civil disobedience in the face of directives from SU officials.
The seven students received emails in mid June from the office of Community Standards alleging that failing to relocate the encampment at the Shaw Quadrangle on May 8 was a violation of the student code of conduct. The office of Student Experience’s executive team had presented protesters with a letter asking them to relocate because of commencement ceremonies happening at the quad that week.
The complaint claims that protesters defied a directive from university officials issued to maintain the safety and security of students, violating the student code of conduct.
The encampment was raised by protesters in late April, lasting until around mid May. It was one of more than 100 campsites at universities across the world. At its height, it consisted of dozens of tents with about 200 demonstrators peacefully protesting the war in Gaza. More than 39,000 Palestinians have died, according to a recent report from Reuters.
In addition to calling for a ceasefire, the protesters insisted the university conduct an accounting of their investments in companies and industries that propel the armed conflict, among other demands.
They eventually packed up their tents on May 15.
Cai Cafero, one of the students going through the disciplinary process, is facing two types of sanctions. One is a six-month conduct probation term that can result in expulsion on repeated breaches of the code of conduct.; The other is an academic presentation that she feels runs contrary to her views on civil disobedience. Cafiero said the other six students, five graduate students and one undergraduate, also received the same sanctions.
Both disciplinary actions, Cafiero, faculty members, and advocates seeking Palestinian liberation say, violate notions of academic freedom, free speech, and could potentially thwart future protests.
“The university taking disciplinary action sends a really chilling message to students,” said Matthew Huber, a geography professor at SU and a former president of the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. “I just find it disturbing, because students have a right to protest. They have a right to free speech, and this is just gonna make students feel like they don’t have that.”
SU Senior Associate Vice President for Communications Sarah Scalese declined to comment on Cafiero’s case.
“We do not comment on student conduct cases,” she said.
How does the process work and what do the sanctions entail?
The seven students who received the email were told to attend individual Zoom meetings 11 days later to discuss the allegations made against them with a conduct officer appointed and employed by the university. Students are not allowed to bring in legal counsel to the meeting, but are allowed a procedural advisor, typically a student, or staff/faculty member who can prepare the student for the meeting ahead of time.
At her first meeting, Cafiero said she argued with her conduct officer that the university violated protestors’ rights by asking them to relocate.
“The directive to relocate was not lawful and was trying to disband a peaceful protest that is an expression of freedom of speech and academic freedom,” said Cafiero, a doctoral student at the school of education.
Cafiero’s next three meetings, scattered across July, were spent negotiating over the two different sanctions with a university conduct officer. Ultimately, the conduct officer presented Cafiero with the following:
- Conduct probation until mid December. That status prevents students from holding or running for elected or appointed leadership positions in several organizations like student government and fraternities/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.
Cafiero declined to accept the sanctions, which moved the process into a formal hearing. Kyle Dailey, the administrator at the office of Student Experience who filed the complaint back in June, and Cafiero will to present their cases to a panel of three faculty, students, or staff. Members of that panel are selected by the office of Community Standards and are trained yearly to resolve these disputes.
Both parties are also permitted five witnesses who can support their case. These witnesses can be cross-examined by either party.
Cafiero’s hearing is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 9, but she said she has requested additional time to prepare. She learned of the proposed date for the hearing last week.
“This has taken up a lot of my mental bandwidth,” Cafiero said.”Having to focus on my dissertation topic and all of this going on in the background has been next to impossible.”
What do the sanctions mean for the future of protests at Syracuse against the war in Gaza?
Faculty members at SU say the sanctions university officials are proposing are draconian, could curtail future protests, and cut at foundational ideas in academia.
Mario Rios Perez, a professor at the school of education and Cafiero’s procedural advisor, said the prospect of conduct probation could likely deter students from participating in future protests out of fear of being expelled.
“This is a conflict that is not going to go away,” Rios Perez said. “The university… are getting things in motion so that the student organizers who were part of the encampment and now have a record with the university can be suspended for violating their probation.”
Having to devise a presentation arguing against points she does not believe in or agree with is also antithetical to the ethos and general perception of college campuses in America, Cafiero said. Caifero called the presentation a violation of her academic freedom because the point of view of the presentation opposes Caifero’s own beliefs.
For Huber, the presentation as a sanction feels incomprehensible.
“I have a hard time understanding what the purpose of the presentation is other than some kind of cruel hazing ritual aimed at the public humiliation of the student, and thus sending a chilling message to other students who might consider speaking out or protesting about political events or university policies,” Huber said.
Ultimately, Huber said the university’s decision to pursue disciplinary action against protesters is somewhat surprising. He questioned why the university would target only seven students out of the dozens who were in the encampment every day, and why letters containing disciplinary notices were sent a month after the incident outlined had occurred.
Huber said he was also puzzled by the university’s decision to pursue disciplinary outcomes at all. SU administrators had largely allowed protesters to peacefully express themselves until asking them to relocate their encampment.
“I thought the university was pretty smart,” he said. “Now this, punishing a select group of students with sanctions and disciplinary hearings months after the encampment has been gone seems like rubbing salt in the wound. They are really raising a lot of questions with this sort of draconian response to student protest by actually seeking to sanction them.”
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