Approximately 40 students, staff, faculty and community members from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) protested outside Gordon dining hall on Sept. 11 during a disciplinary hearing for a student involved in the May 2024 pro-Palestine encampment.
The student was appealing UW-Madison’s recommended academic sanction, according to protest organizers. Approximately 30 to 40 students have faced non-academic misconduct investigations by the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards (OSCCS) for their role in the encampment, according to an August statement from John Lucas, UW-Madison spokesperson.
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 attempted to “silence students and staff who have stood in solidarity with Palestine” in their statement.
“We just want to show the university that we're not going to take this lying down,” said Shafiq, who did not share his last name for fear of retribution. “We're still fighting against genocide. We're still fighting for divestment.”
Shafiq, an organizer of the protest and SJP board member, told The Daily Cardinal many pro-Palestinian protestors from last year faced disciplinary actions with “minimal evidence.”
“We call on students to call the chancellor and tell them that you are outraged about how this is proceeding, how they are trying to silence students, how they're trying to shut down pro-Palestinian organizing on campus, how they're placing sanctions on students for absolutely ridiculous reasons,” Shafiq said.
Shafiq, who said he was out-of-state during last spring’s pro-Palestine encampment, faced disciplinary proceedings by the university. Shafiq said he and three other Palestinian American students on the SJP board were put on disciplinary probation. He plans to appeal his recommended sanction since he was not on campus during the encampment.
Shafiq said other students were reprimanded for writing an op-ed to the Cardinal, speaking with media or appearing in photos protesting. He called the disciplinary proceedings “ridiculous” and said they disfavored pro-Palestine and Palestinian American protesters.
In response to allegations that Palestinian American protesters faced stronger repercussions than non-Palestinian Americans, Lucas said “all student misconduct hearings are judged impartially according to our process.”
Lucas also said he could not detail specifics of misconduct cases because the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act prevents disclosure of academic records, including disciplinary proceedings.
Demonstrators gathered on the lawn outside Gordon dining hall at 8:30 a.m. and chanted pro-Palestinian slogans through a megaphone. At 9 a.m. the group moved to the tables outside Gordon dining hall and watched the live-streamed hearing on their phones. For the next hour and a half, demonstrators quietly sat at the tables until the hearing concluded.
Outside Gordon’s on East Campus Mall, two marked and two unmarked police cars parked nearby. Across Johnson Street, another group of police officers set up a table advertising “coffee with a cop”. Passersby were offered free coffee, pizza cutters, toy cop cars and an opportunity to socialize with local police. At 9:30 a.m., a police officer brought his dog to play on the Gordon lawn, and repeatedly brought him near the sitting demonstrators over the next half hour.
Lucas said the university would take the ending of the May encampment as mitigating circumstances for students associated with SJP, as stated in the agreement between SJP and UW-Madison to end the encampment.
Demonstrators criticize updated university expressive policies
According to Shafiq, before the protest even began, Associate Dean of Students Kathy Kruse approached Shafiq to remind him of the new “expressive activity” and protest policies.
The new policies include restrictions on “expressive activity” with 25-feet of university building entrances, restrictions on sign size, specific noise restrictions, allow for usage of small bluetooth speakers and prevent obstruction of university buildings.
An ACLU of Wisconsin lawyer, and free speech expert Howard Schweber questioned the constitutionality of the rule that prevents “expressive activity" within 25 feet of university facilities.
Barret Elward, president of the UW-Madison faculty union, United Faculty and Academic Staff (UFAS), told the Cardinal the university made their decision without consulting faculty, staff and students through shared governance — the system in which student and staff groups, including the Associated Students of Madison and the Faculty Senate, advise and participate in university decision making and policy development.
“The way the policy can be implemented, they don't actually need to involve shared governance,” Elward said.
Elward also said the adoption of the policy discredits “the whole idea of shared governance that it is strictly an advisory body.”
“There's no actual decision making authority with shared governance,” Elward said.
Lucas said the updated policies were reviewed with the University Committee and with ASM chair Dominic Zappia.
“The university is committed to protecting and promoting free expression, with reasonable time, place and manner restrictions in place to ensure the university can continue to fulfill its responsibilities to teaching, research and service.” Lucas said.
Lucas also said that most of the updated policy “consolidates and clarifies existing UW-Madison rules under one umbrella.”
Zappia told the Cardinal he was not allowed to bring a copy of the updated policy with him and was only given 45 minutes to provide feedback. Zappia, who is also a member of the Protest Administrative Review Team (PART), expressed disappointment that the PART was not consulted.
“I do find it concerning that this shared governance committee, whose purpose is to hear updates to the Protest Administrative Review Team, was not consulted in the updated protest policy,” Zappia said.
Demonstrators, including UW-Madison professor Amadi Ozier, expressed disappointment about the policy change and were unconvinced the new policies would be applied fairly.
“I do think that particular kinds of expressive activity are more disciplined and more punished than others. So Charlie Kirk came to campus without any sort of incident. Matt Walsh came to campus, but there are particular groups that get disciplined for expressing themselves,” Ozier said.
Shafiq called the new policies a “big metric” to meet for a peaceful protest.
“I think you can be as loud and disruptive as you want, it’s still peaceful,” Shafiq said.
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.
SJP protested another student disciplinary hearing Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. at Union South, according to their Instagram.
College news editor Noe Goldhaber and Campus news editor Gavin Escott contributed to this report.
Amari Mbongwo is the community outreach coordinator for The Daily Cardinal. She has also written in-depth for campus news.
