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........