Civil rights organization Palestine Legal called on the University of Wisconsin-Madison to drop “illegal and discriminatory” investigations against two students for alleged involvement in last May’s pro-Palestine encampment.
The UW-Madison Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards (OSCCS) completed investigations and disciplinary proceedings against 30-40 students believed to be associated with the encampment last summer. These included investigations against Dahlia Saba and Vignesh Ramachandran, the two students represented by Palestine Legal and a student who told The Daily Cardinal they were not in the state during the encampment.
“The university’s repression campaign against pro-Palestinian students is not only discriminatory and unconstitutional, but seeks to shelter its complicity in Zionist war crimes in Palestine from accountability. This draws attention to the lengths that the university is willing to go to in order to protect its moral bankruptcy,” Saba said in a statement from Palestine Legal.
Saba’s and Ramachandran’s disciplinary investigations are based off a Cap Times opinion article the students co-authored in May, according to investigations attached in a letter from Palestine Legal attorney Tori Porell to UW-Madison Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs Nancy Lynch.
Porell said Saba’s and Ramachandran's investigations infringe on First Amendment rights because their disciplinary investigations “clearly appears to be retribution for their public criticism of the university” in the letter.
Palestine Legal said the disciplinary investigations “create a chilling effect on rights to free speech and association when it comes to advocating for Palestine or critiquing the university” in a statement.
Palestine Legal also said the investigations were a part of a broader “cracking down" on students' rights to protest and exercise free speech, including new arbitrary restrictions introduced at UW-Madison that at least one free speech expert has described as unconstitutional.”
“One-sided scrutiny and censorship of speech related to student activism or Palestinian rights threatens to shut down robust debate on the most urgent political issues of our time, and undermines the pivotal role universities play in our society. It constitutes viewpoint discrimination, prohibited by the First Amendment,” Porell said in the letter to Lynch.
The advocacy organization’s letter comes after the OSCCS recommended one-year probation for UW-Madison Students for Justice in Palestine for conduct related to the encampment.
UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas said in August that student misconduct hearings are “judged impartially” after allegations from the students under investigation that Palestinian protesters receive harsher sanctions than non-Palestinians. The Palestine Legal letter similarly raises concerns about ethnic discrimination.
“While hundreds and perhaps thousands of students were present at the encampment at UW-Madison at some point between April 29 and May 10, 2024, only certain students have faced disciplinary action,” the letter said, pointing out Saba and Ramachandran’s respective Palestinian and South Asian heritages.
Mnookin told reporters at a student media roundtable that protest was a part of expressive activity, but there would be consequences for violating university policy or law.
“No student will ever face disciplinary consequences for protests and free expression activity that stays within our rules and regulations, but once it goes beyond those, then absolutely there can be consequences,” Mnookin said.
In Lynch's response to the letter, she said she was unable to speak on student disciplinary cases without a release because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and provided resources on the non-academic misconduct process.
Editor's Note: This article was last updated on Sept. 25 at 10:22 a.m. to add information from Lynch's response to the Palestine Legal letter.
College News editor Noe Goldhaber contributed to this report.
Sreejita Patra is a senior staff writer and the former summer ad sales manager for The Daily Cardinal. She has written for breaking news, campus news and arts and has done extensive reporting on the 2024 presidential race. She also covered the Oregon Village Board for the Oregon Observer.
