Quick Take
Two UC Santa Cruz students and a professor who were issued two-week campus bans without a hearing after participating in a May protest over Israel’s war in Gaza are suing university administrators. They’re asking a judge to halt the practice.
Two UC Santa Cruz students and one professor filed a lawsuit against university administrators in Santa Cruz County Superior Court on Monday over two-week bans from campus they faced after being arrested at the Gaza solidarity protest encampment in May.
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the Center for Protest Law & Litigation and civil rights attorney Thomas Seabaugh are representing students Laaila Irshad and Hannah (Elio) Ellutzi and professor Christine Hong.
“It’s time to hold UCSC accountable for its illegal use of Section 626.4 campus bans against students and faculty as a tool of censorship,” Seabaugh said in a statement. “Our clients did not engage in conduct that posed a threat of significant injury to anyone or anything. Banning them on the spot was not just heavy-handed, it was unconstitutional and a violation of basic democratic rights and academic freedoms. We’re suing to ensure that in the coming school year, UCSC officials comply with the law and respect the constitutional limits on their power to ban students and faculty from campus.”
Irshad, Ellutzi and Hong are asking the Santa Cruz court to prohibit UCSC from issuing such bans prior to holding conduct hearings and to require administrators to follow university and state and federal policy on due process.
They are also asking the court to issue a judgment finding that the university’s mass ban in the spring – without a prior hearing – was “unlawful” and violated their rights, and for attorneys’ fees.
On May 31, officers arrested 122 people at the UCSC Gaza solidarity encampment – charging them with failure to disperse and resisting arrest. The majority of the people arrested were UCSC students, while several were faculty and a few were community members. Charges against all who were arrested are still in limbo. Court dates have been postponed because prosecutors are still waiting for information from campus police.
Campus spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason told Lookout the university has not yet been served.
“UC Santa Cruz is unwavering in its commitment to upholding the rights of free expression and speech, while also preserving the right to access to education, residences, and campus facilities free from obstruction,” he wrote. “We remain confident that decisions made in the spring were necessary and critical to preserve safety, access, and operations of the campus.”
He declined to provide Lookout with the number of 14-day campus bans UCSC issued. A media liaison for pro-Palestine protesters told Lookout that all students arrested overnight May 31 received notices barring them from campus.
A campus ban, or a notice of 626.4, comes from California Penal Code section 626.4 and gives the chief administrative officer of a campus “the authority to exclude disruptive persons from campus temporarily for up to 14 days.” If someone with a notice enters campus, the code says they are considered guilty of a misdemeanor.
Many people arrested that day received written campus bans, while some received verbal bans and others, including Hong, didn’t receive either that day. Five days later, Hong received an email telling her she could set a hearing to contest the ban.
Hong went to the encampment that night to support students and to observe how they were being treated by police, according to the lawsuit. She didn’t at any point block traffic or threaten or engage in any violence.
“The communication did not contain any information about what Professor Hong was alleged to have done specifically,” the lawsuit reads. “Nor did the communication contain any reference to evidence or materials on which the allegations against her were based. It merely stated that she could ‘request a hearing by emailing [the] Vice Provost of Academic Affairs Herbert Lee’ and that any such hearing would take place over Zoom.”
Hong couldn’t access campus for 10 days until she had her hearing and was allowed back. It prevented her from accessing campus resources to start an online course on the Korean War.
“I struggled without that support,” she said. “Given the reactionary climate on our campus, I worry about the damage the university will continue to inflict in its campaign to target and punish those involved in any form of protest against the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.”
Student Laaila Irshad, who was a resident assistant living and working in campus housing when she received a campus ban, said the impacts were “devastating.”
“I failed my school courses as I could not access my computer, attend classes, or complete assignments,” she said in a statement. She said she fears the university will continue to punish her for her activism.
“The possibility of these bans affecting my employment and future looms large,” she said. “I have considered taking a gap year due to my distrust in the institution and the fear of retaliation.”
This is a continuing story. Check back for updates.
FOR THE RECORD: This story has been updated with additional information from UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason.
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