Five students who were suspended indefinitely from UC Irvine after participating in various pro-Palestinian protests on campus this summer are suing the UC Regents and UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman in state court, claiming the suspensions “represent a clear violation of the university’s rules and the minimum standards of due process applicable to public institutions.”
Amid a wave of protests on U.S. campuses over the war between Israel and Hamas, tensions between student protesters and UCI reached a fever pitch on May 15, when a small group barricaded themselves in the physical sciences lecture hall. University officials then called in officers in riot gear from more than 20 Southern California law enforcement agencies to disperse the protesters, as well as a much larger group of about 500 demonstrators in a pro-Palestinian campus encampment outside the lecture hall.
Ultimately, police arrested 47 people, including 27 students, while clearing the protests. On May 21, the university issued interim suspensions to those students, according to the complaint. Additional student suspensions are related to events before and after May 15.
University administrators had previously maintained the camp for more than two weeks, despite Gillman’s statement on May 3 that it violated “important and common sense policies.” However, several students in the lawsuit said they were “suddenly” suspended on May 8 for allegedly violating campus rules and regulations related to their involvement in the camp. They were “suspended without prior notice or opportunity for a hearing.”
The plaintiffs argued that other students were suspended from classes after May 15 “solely because they were arrested.”
According to the lawsuit, at least two students were suspended for the first time in June and three students received a second interim suspension after participating in at least one of two car caravans that month in which students honked their cars on campus streets and displayed Palestinian flags, including during the June 14 graduation ceremony.
Southern California-based attorneys for the UCI students filed their lawsuit on July 30 in Superior Court in Alameda County, where the UC regents are based. The American Civil Liberties Union also filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the students, arguing that the interim suspensions violate due process.
“In the absence of due process, the interim suspensions appear arbitrary at best,” ACLU lawyers wrote in their brief. “At worst, in a case such as this one, they may give rise to credible allegations that the university is cracking down on speech it disapproves of.”
The students, all of whom are unnamed in the case, said UCI upheld their suspensions after hearings where they claimed the university “failed to present any evidence” to justify the decision. They said the university barred them from all on-campus activities because of their suspensions, including classes, work, graduation ceremonies and on-campus housing.
“UCI’s failure to ensure due process has resulted in enormous costs to our clients’ education and physical and emotional well-being,” said Julia Harumi Mass, a partner at Rothner, Segall & Greenstone and part of the pro bono team representing the students. “UCI has violated its own policies and the Constitution by effectively denying its students access to campus life. The suspensions must not stand.”
A UCI spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit Monday morning.
However, when the OC Register reported in early August that students suspended from UCI due to protest activity had been waiting for months without news on their academic status, university officials explained that delaying student conduct proceedings was a matter of fairness.
“While initial estimates for completion of the student conduct process may be available, each allegation is investigated separately and various factors may affect the timeline,” said Michael Uhlenkamp, UCI’s associate vice chancellor for communications and media relations. “The university is committed to working with students on these matters and ensuring that our policies are enforced in accordance with the University of California’s guidelines for disciplinary action.”
Students who filed the lawsuit say they were told they would receive a decision on their cases as early as June or early July, but that is not the case. As their cases drag on, they complain that the university is unfairly punishing their free speech.
“Our clients have courageously spoken out against genocide and are now paying an unprecedented price for it,” said Thomas Harvey, another attorney for the plaintiffs.
The students are asking the court to lift the suspensions and are seeking a declaratory judgment and an injunction that would prevent UCI from taking similar actions in the future, their lawyers said.
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