Suspended by Pitt, SJP and the ACLU weigh legal action

During its ongoing Year of Discourse and Dialogue, the University of Pittsburgh has suspended its campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The student club was instructed via email on March 18 to cease operations on an interim basis, including sponsoring or co-sponsoring events on campus, and requesting funds or event spaces.

The interim suspension was the result of a lengthy conduct hearing process that began in January, after students held a study-in for Palestine at Hillman library. The news of the suspension was a shock, but not a surprise, representatives of SJP say. The club is now considering legal action.

“I think the wider community sees this as being in bad faith,” one representative of the club tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “This narrative that SJP violated the Student Code of Conduct, when, really, the university is the one who is violating content neutrality — because they don’t like the political messaging of SJP.”

The next day, representatives of the club say they received an email from Pitt Student Conduct threatening further disciplinary action because of an Instagram post SJP had been added to as a collaborator for a different group’s protest organized at an off-campus location — Schenley Plaza.

The email, shared with City Paper, stated that Pitt Student Conduct had been made aware of their activities on Instagram, and that by “posting, advertising and promoting specific gatherings or protests on their social media,” they were in violation of their interim suspension and could face “additional charges.”

“That was the final straw,” ACLU Pa. Legal Director Vic Walczak tells CP. “Th[e university] cannot dictate to students or to SJP what it is they can say. They can revoke some privileges, but whether SJP is a recognized student organization, or whether they’re suspended, they have an absolute right to promote any event they want to promote.”

On March 21, The ACLU of Pennsylvania released a letter sent to Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel, urging the university to rescind both their decision to suspend SJP and their threat of additional charges. They gave the University of Pittsburgh until March 24 to respond to the letter.

Walczak says that the organization is in ongoing conversations with Pitt’s legal team.

“SJP as a recognized student group, and, as individual members of that group, have rights to free expression under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Walczak shares.

“The University cannot curtail those rights absent some kind of compelling reason and the allegation of the study hall with symbolic expression present — it just doesn’t cut it. I mean, it’s insufficient to justify punishing SJP, much less revoking their certification.”

The study-in for Palestine was what spurred the initial conduct violation and subsequent hearings. However, the official reason for SJP’s suspension was not listed in the notification club leaders received.

The email, which CP viewed, states that during the conduct hearing process, SJP members acted in a way that “may have violated the Student Code of Conduct.” Specifically, that they had “improperly engaged in communications to members of the Conduct Hearing Board.”

“We think it’s the sign-on letter that they organized that went to about 20 university leaders, which included the people who were deciding their case,” Walczak tells CP.

In February, more than seventy university and community groups signed onto a letter condemning Pitt’s actions against the student club. It was sent to Pitt administrators.

“The university is just trying to grasp at straws to find any reason to suspend us, to shut down pro-Palestinian voices on campus,” a representative of SJP says. “It’s especially telling when you look at the kind of activities that, in theory, warrant the interim action.”

Pitt’s Student Code of Conduct outlines that interim actions are to be taken “only to the minimum extent necessary” when there is “reasonable cause to believe” that the student’s or student organization’s presence “may lead to conduct that threatens the health, safety or well-being of any person, property or University operations.”

Examples of this behavior include “being charged with a serious criminal offense, physical violence, sexual harassment, significant disruption of the educational or living environments of the University, significant damage to property, and possession and/or distribution of controlled substances.”

“You can have student codes of conduct. The university is given some latitude to ensure that they are able to maintain an environment conducive to learning,” Walczak explains. “But whether it’s a college or university or a public school district or a mayor making policies about who gets to use the public square — they’re all subject to the same First Amendment.”

This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2025.