Hours after being arrested last week, Sarah, a Barnard College student, received an email from Barnard’s vice president for campus life notifying her that she had been placed on interim suspension.
She no longer had access to campus spaces or dining halls. Her student ID had been deactivated, and she could not get into her dorm.
Sarah was one of more than 100 pro-Palestinian student protesters at Barnard and Columbia University who were arrested by the New York Police Department last week for their involvement in a “Gaza solidarity encampment.”
“The email did not outline which policies I had specifically violated, but it said that I essentially was a threat to the campus community,” said Sarah, who asked that her last name be withheld due to fear of retaliation. Sarah has not returned to the Columbia encampment — or her dorm room — since.
Roughly 50 Barnard students have been placed on interim suspension and evicted from student housing since Columbia’s initial encampment was cleared by police last week. Now, encampments and sit-ins have appeared at nearly 50 campuses, and colleges have struggled to respond effectively. The protesters largely have the same demand: that their colleges cut ties with companies that they say are enabling Israel’s military to strike Gaza.
Over the past week, as many students have set up tents and refused to leave, administrators have said repeatedly that they must enforce the rules. What does that mean for students who violate them?
Students who run afoul of campus codes of conduct face a litany of potential disciplinary actions — including a warning, suspension, eviction from campus residence halls, or expulsion. But the language that administrators use is often vague, and the consequences of protesting can vary significantly.
The Chronicle talked to experts in student conduct about the hazy fate of student protesters.
‘A Temporary Action’
Resolving student-conduct issues can take months, if not longer, depending on a college’s staffing levels and the complexity of the case. Delays can also occur when a college is waiting on court proceedings, because administrators don’t want a campus decision to influence the criminal-justice process.
When a student is arrested, a college will examine if the allegations that led to the arrest also violated any policies in the student code of conduct, said Craig R. Enyeart, director of student conduct and integrity at Indiana State University.
At Yale University, the 44 students arrested at an encampment on Monday will be referred for disciplinary action, the student newspaper, the Yale Daily News, reported. And at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, where eight students and one staff member were arrested after putting up an encampment Tuesday, a spokesperson confirmed with CBS News that students would be “subject to the university’s process for assessing additional consequences” after they were allowed back on campus for work and classes.
“We look to see, are there policies the university has put in place that mirror … law? Does it have an impact on the campus community?” Enyeart said.
Financial Strategy
Financially and academically untangling colleges from Israel is not as easy as it looks. Protesters vow they won’t let up.
That is determined through a disciplinary hearing, which typically takes about 10 days, Enyeart said. During the hearing, a conduct officer will present evidence that a student violated an established policy. The student can defend themselves or accept responsibility.
But when a student is placed on interim suspension, as was the case for Sarah and dozens of her peers, a student has not yet gone through any hearing process. Interim suspensions, sometimes called emergency actions, are used when a college believes that a student poses a significant risk of harm to the community. Typically, students can’t come onto campus property.
“It’s a temporary action that just allows there to be some space,” Enyeart said. “It’s only usually a removal from campus. … It just allows us to get more information. But again, it’s used sparingly — it’s not a go-to that people use all the time.”
At Columbia and Barnard, students placed on interim suspension were reportedly offered a 15-minute window to gather belongings from their dorm rooms, accompanied by a community-resource officer, who works in the campus-safety department.
In some cases, professors will work with students on interim suspension to continue learning remotely, Enyeart said. In other cases, students are prohibited from attending classes altogether.
Colleges generally try to speed up the disciplinary process when there’s an interim suspension, Enyeart said, because if that student is found not responsible, the goal is to get them back into classes as soon as possible.
In general, courts are usually OK with a college taking up to a year to process a student-conduct case, said Kristi Patrickus, a co-chair for the Association for Student Conduct Administration’s public policy and legislative issues committee. Otherwise the institution risks becoming “deliberately indifferent” — a legal term essentially meaning that the college violated a student’s rights, Patrickus said. The exact parameters of the law and student conduct vary by state, she added.
Tensions have been rising on campuses since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. Patrickus said she expects that student-conduct offices have been preparing for a possible increase in disciplinary issues for student protesters. Still, conduct offices may be working with as little as three staff members to handle cases.
Expulsion is the most extreme of punishments for students who violate a code of conduct, Enyeart said — and the most rare.
Expulsions, or suspensions of a year or more, are plausible if a student causes “a significant disruption to the ability of the university to function,” he said.
“If you’re blocking every single door and staff are afraid to even walk into the building, that’s going to be a concern,” he said. “If students who pay to go to that school can’t go to their classes, that’s going to be a concern.”
Understanding the Rules
Colleges have the right to enforce certain restrictions on protests, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free-speech advocacy group — particularly if students are demonstrating inside a campus building, or if students pitch tents.
“In short, colleges can regulate around-the-clock encampments, even removing or arresting protesters who refuse to leave them,” FIRE’s guidance states. “Students occupying campus spaces in violation of reasonable, content-neutral rules risk punishment.”
Figuring out where to draw those lines amid surging campus activism remains a challenge. FIRE has raised concerns over the past week about some colleges’ aggressive responses to protests, as well as the use of force by law enforcement.
Campus Activism
Encampments and sit-ins proliferated across the country in April, May, and June. Our map has been updated to include recent encampments at Wayne State University, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and a handful of other institutions.
But questions about use of force are beyond the scope of student conduct. Getting arrested, even by a campus police department, is completely separate from the campus disciplinary process.
Students should understand how their colleges define legal terms, as well as campus guidelines for demonstrations, said Briyanna Jenkins, a member of the Association for Student Conduct Administration, or ASCA.
At Yale, students are subject to disciplinary action if they commit offenses such as rioting, which has a legal definition. But the university has its own definition, too: “Participation in or attendance at riots or mass disturbances on the city streets or on any area of the campus.”
Facing any kind of punishment can be stressful for students. Earlier this week, The Chronicle spoke to David, a student protester from Emerson College who was arrested last month by his institution’s police department during a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the inauguration of Emerson’s new president.
David, who asked to be identified by his first name only due to safety concerns, said he spent over eight hours in a cell with 11 other Emerson students. During those hours, he wondered about his future. As a student on a visa, he thought he’d never be able to return to his apartment or see his classmates again.
Throughout the conduct process, students should be offered resources and guidance, Enyeart said.
They can have legal representation, or they can request support or advice from a campus-conduct officer. They may ask questions, see the evidence that is being presented against them, and have a discussion with the person making a decision in their case. In some states, such as Florida and North Carolina, lawyers are allowed to speak on behalf of students in such proceedings.
Brian Glick, a member of the ASCA, said conduct offices usually want to hear a student defend themselves instead of a lawyer. Ultimately, the conduct process is supposed to be educational, Glick said.
“The whole purpose of student-conduct programs is to provide agency for the student and to help them advocate for themselves,” he said. “We really want the student to be the one to participate on their own behalf.”
