Pro-Palestinian student groups at UW-Madison under investigation after Regents protest

Student groups at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are under investigation for an alleged violation of campus protest policy, after a demonstration at a meeting of the Board of Regents on Thursday that ended with 19 arrests.

Campus chapters of students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP, and Young Democratic Socialists both received notice that they were being investigated by the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, or OSCCS, on Thursday night.

Other students involved in the demonstration can expect to receive “individual conduct notifications,” according to a university spokesperson.

WPR has reviewed the letter sent to the SJP student group. It states the group may have violated university policies on using university grounds, disruptive conduct and failing to comply with the directives of university staff during a protest held by about 50 people at the early morning Regents meeting Thursday.

Students being investigated may participate in an interview alongside an advisor. The investigating officer can recommend sanctions depending on findings, and students may request hearings following that recommendation.

According to video of the incident, one protester spoke for under two minutes while being asked to stop. When the protester did not, a Regent called on UW police to remove the group, who chanted as they were moved from the space.

Nineteen were detained and then released without citation, according to a UW police spokesperson. Those arrested included people affiliated with UW and community members. Activists from student groups at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, and from community groups CODEPINK and Wisconsin for Palestine, claimed responsibility for the action.

“UW-Madison supports the right to free expression, within the bounds of the law and campus policy,” said UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas in an email. “The (Registered Student Organizations) investigations were launched due to alleged disruptive conduct in violation of campus policies at the Dec. 5 Board of Regents meeting.”

Lucas added that some individual students will also face their own investigations. Dozens of UW-Madison students have been subject to these probes, under the school’s nonacademic misconduct protocols, the investigations tied to participation in last spring’s nationwide encampment protest movement.

The UW activists have called on the Universities of Wisconsin to divest any financial holdings in Israeli companies or other businesses involved in Israel’s war in Gaza.

“I think it’s outrageous that in response to these very reasonable demands, our university has inflicted physical violence against students by deploying UWPD to assault and arrest people and using…this disciplinary process to investigate student organizations like SJP,” said Dahlia Saba, a graduate student and SJP member.

That group is on disciplinary probation through the school year, according to Lucas, for its involvements in the encampment protests, which took place from late April to early May. During those protests, students pitched tents on Library Mall in an effort to change the UW system’s investment strategy.

Lucas said SJP’s recent actions could constitute a violation of that probation and could result in the group being unregistered. Other SJP chapters have been suspended at Brown University in Rhode Island, Brandeis University in Boston, Columbia University in New York, and elsewhere.