The University of Wisconsin-Madison Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards (OSCCS) completed disciplinary investigations against 30-40 students for alleged non-academic misconduct during the pro-Palestine encampment and recommended sanctions against several protesters.
Four students were recommended disciplinary probation for a year, a status that shows up on official transcripts and could affect access to study abroad, employment and scholarship opportunities. Eleven students were recommended a less severe written reprimand. One student was found not responsible and one outcome is unknown, according to a statement from 17 students and faculty who were under OSCCS investigation.
They said UW-Madison was attempting to “silence students and staff who have stood in solidarity with Palestine” in their statement.
UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas said in a statement to The Daily Cardinal that UW-Madison could not release information about particular conduct cases because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) but confirmed that there were approximately 30-40 student misconduct cases regarding the encampment.
“We recognize that other institutions facing similar situations around the country may have handled student conduct differently and that some members of our campus community may have liked a different outcome as well,” Lucas said.
The 17 students and faculty formerly under OSCCS investigation also accused the university of recommending harsher probations and initiating investigations with limited evidence on Palestinian students and those associated with UW-Madison Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Students plan to request hearings to challenge these preliminary decisions.
“The purpose of these sanctions is to silence students and prevent further protests against the university’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the students and faculty said. “In its refusal to divest from genocide, UW-Madison and its administrative body is acting against its stated principles in the Wisconsin Idea.”
From April 29 to May 10, students and staff called on the university for “financial and social” divestment from Israel while camping and holding peaceful community events and hangouts on Library Mall.
Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin authorized police to raid the encampment on May 1 after refusing to negotiate with student protesters, which led to the arrest of nearly 36 people, four of whom were booked to the Dane County Jail.
The encampment ended after SJP and UW-Madison administration reached an agreement, including that the OSCCS consider “the ending of the encampment and commitment to future compliance with our rules on protests as a favorable mitigating factor in the resolution of student disciplinary processes.”
Those facing investigations were told that future misconduct could result in “more serious disciplinary response” and permanent reprimands or probations, according to the statement. UW Freedom Badgers, a new pro-Palestine organization, released a guide for addressing university retribution.
Student organizations including SJP and the now disaffiliated Mecha de Teejop, were under separate UW-Madison Committees on Student Organization Investigations.
Mecha and Anticolonial Scientists, another organization that disaffiliated during the CSO investigation in June 2024, were later found not responsible for wrongdoing for an investigation into antisemitic chalk messages left at the Dane County Farmers market, according to the CSO website.
College News Editor Noe Goldhaber contributed to this report.
Mary Bosch is the photo editor for The Daily Cardinal and a first year journalism student. She has covered multiple stories about university sustainability efforts, and has written for state and city news. Follow her on twitter: @Mary_Bosch6
