Students for Justice in Palestine-UW Madison asks that we email Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori Reesor demanding the charges be dropped.

Omar Waheed, Madison 365, Sep 26, 2024  

A reconstituted encampment takes up Library Mall on the UW campus. Photo by Rodlyn-mae Banting.

Two students will face disciplinary hearings for their alleged involvement at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s encampment earlier this spring.

The two, Dahlia Saba and Vignesh Ramachandran, face disciplinary charges for allegedly “planning and carrying out an encampment on university lands.” Disciplinary charges were brought based on an op-ed co-authored by the two in The Cap Times where they critiqued the UW-Madison administration’s refusal to engage with protestor demands to divest from companies profiting off the genocide in Gaza.

Now, with soon-to-be-held disciplinary hearings, Palestine Legal, a legal organization that provides legal and litigation support for people who speak out for Palestine, requests that the university drop the case for violating First Amendment rights.

“The university is arguing that the content of the op-ed is evidence of violating school policies, but in the investigation, we clarified the intent and meaning behind everything that was written in the op-ed,” Saba said. “They did not take what we meant in writing the op-ed into account when they decided, the university investigator recommended that we should be found responsible for these policy violations.”

Backlash from the university has continuously followed those involved with the protest encampment. Over 30 students were investigated for alleged non-academic misconduct during the encampment, the Daily Cardinal reported.

The investigation from the university on Saba and Ramachandran relied solely on the op-ed as the evidence. It used the piece to bring disciplinary charges on the duo for non-academic misconduct.

The enforcement of non-academic misconduct is inconsistently enforced. In 2023, one student, Audrey Godlewski, was seen in a video making direct racist remarks towards Black students. Protests swiftly followed and students asked the university administration to take disciplinary action against the student. Her right to free speech was fervently protected and the university took a hardline approach to protect her First Amendment rights.

Protestors then outlined how the video fell under non-academic misconduct, but no disciplinary action was reported against her by the university.

When it comes to Saba and Ramachandran, who also engaged in the same protected act of free speech, they are being charged with non-academic misconduct.

“I think the university, for legal reasons, has to claim that they’re content neutral, but we have seen that they are not,” Saba said. “When it comes to Palestine in particular, then they start punishing students for speaking out publicly. They will claim all sorts of absurd things to justify these rules, justify these investigations.”

Saba notes the inconsistencies in investigations for her case. She alleges that a student openly made racist remarks to her publicly and the university chose not to open or pursue an investigation.

“[It] is an instance of discriminatory harassment. Instead, they are going after Palestinian students in particular, and also allies of Palestinian students on this campus, simply for expressing their viewpoint loudly,” she said.

Madison365 reached out to the university for comment. It is unable to provide more details due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), according to UW-Madison strategic communication representative John Lucas.

“The university is committed to protecting and promoting free expression, with reasonable time, place and manner restrictions in place to ensure it can continue to fulfill its responsibilities to teaching, research and service. All student misconduct hearings are judged impartially, according to our process,” said Lucas.

Palestine Legal claims UW-Madison’s actions are part of a broad nationwide pattern of universities “cracking down on students’ right to protest and exercise free speech.” The group also highlights a new policy from UW-Madison that limits “expressive activity” within 25 feet of university facilities.

“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,” said Tori Porell, Palestine Legal staff attorney, in the letter to UW-Madison.

The “Expressive Activity Policy” outlines what is acceptable First Amendment activity on publicly owned, government-funded university grounds.

An ACLU of Wisconsin lawyer, Tim Muth, described the policy as “vague and ill-defined, and could infringe on perfectly constitutional First Amendment conduct,” the Daily Cardinal reported.

Saba will have her non-academic disciplinary hearing on Monday, Sept. 30 at 1 p.m. Ramachandran’s will take place on Friday, Oct. 4 at 1 p.m.