Students who were arrested on April 24 at a pro-Palestinian encampment protest on campus have waited for months for disciplinary outcomes, but now face discipline from USC’s Office of Community Expectations (OCE).
The punishments for current students include official warnings on their student records and mandated essays that must be “remorseful,” said León Prieto, a junior studying neuroscience. Prieto was arrested in April when the Los Angeles Police Department shut down an encampment that lasted less than 12 hours.
“They haven’t come to understand why we were there in the first place,” said Prieto, who uses they/them pronouns. “I kept telling [OCE] that I was there for my community and that LAPD was endangering the students but I could tell they already had the decisions made.”
Annenberg Media has conducted interviews all summer with a handful of students going through this process, and with faculty members advising those students. Over the last few months, they detailed the tone of disciplinary hearings, evidence presented and their communication with administrators.
When asked about the disciplinary outcomes, a USC spokesperson would only say that most cases “are at or near completion.” The spokesperson declined to comment specifically on individuals, citing privacy, and instead issued a statement:
“We take any violation of university policies seriously, and carefully evaluate each matter based on its particular facts and circumstances. We have made extraordinary efforts to complete our investigations and internal disciplinary processes as quickly as possible …
[W]e encourage students to contact the Office for Community Expectations directly if they have any questions. We have prepared additional FAQs about what students can expect when engaging with the university’s disciplinary process.”
Organized by the USC Divest from Death Coalition, students first began occupying Alumni Park at about 7 a.m. on April 24, one of the first occupations in support of Gaza on a West Coast college campus before the movement spread across the country and attracted international attention.
The Coalition said it would continue its occupation until its demands were met. These demands included a “complete academic boycott of Israel,” to “protect free speech on campus” and “full amnesty” for those participating in pro-Palestinian activism.
The students said they were motivated by university administrators’ decision not to allow valedictorian Asna Tabassum to speak at commencement over what USC called “substantial” threats to security.
LAPD arrested 93 people at the April occupation, including nearly 50 students. That evening, students re-occupied another part of campus, and eventually re-built the encampment at Alumni Park. LAPD officers in riot gear cleared that occupation in the early hours of May 5, and USC placed at least 29 students on an interim suspension.
One faculty member who was at the encampment on May 5 now faces disciplinary hearings by the Office of Professionalism and Ethics, said Tara McPherson, a cinema and media studies professor. McPherson is also a member of Faculty for Justice in Palestine who has advised students throughout the OCE process.
(The university said after publication that while it was initially believed 51 students had been arrested, it actually was 48.)
USC also canceled the main commencement ceremony, closed all but three entrances to campus and instituted bag and ID checks. Fences went up around major routes throughout campus, blocking most green spaces. Alumni Park remained fenced off Wednesday.
The university announced Wednesday that all campus entrances would open August 15.
A spokesperson for the USC Divest from Death Coalition said all 51 students who were arrested in April face disciplinary action from OCE. In total, the Coalition said more than 75 students — including those who were later placed on interim suspension — face discipline.
Those suspended in May, about 30 students, remain on suspension and are still not allowed on campus, the spokesperson said. Their hearings began in July and are ongoing, most meeting with OCE between one to three times.
The spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they fear retaliation and possible policy violations, said there has been no word on when disciplinary outcomes might be announced or whether those on suspension will be allowed back onto campus in the fall.
One student arrested in April was placed on a two-semester probation, and despite having graduated in May, their diploma is still being withheld.
At least two students who work as resident assistants and received free housing through the position have not had “any real clarity about potential outcomes” regarding their job security, said Tara McPherson, a cinema and media studies professor. McPherson is also a member of Faculty for Justice in Palestine who has advised students throughout the OCE process.
Both McPherson and Prieto confirmed that one student was told by OCE that the matter would be determined by the Office of Residential Education, while Residential Education told another that OCE would make the final decision.
Prieto said students have the option to appeal their disciplinary outcomes, but they worry that it would likely result in an unchanged or more severe outcome.
The disciplinary outcomes still technically fall in line with President Carol Folt’s promise to Coalition negotatiators that no students would face academic consequences for participating in the protests.
Since April, dozens of faculty have signed open letters to Folt and Provost Andrew Guzman supporting students’ freedom of speech and questioning the OCE process. On May 4, 29 professors from the Gould School of Law signed an open letter to the administration defending free speech on campus. In early May, a coalition of faculty staged a rally and sit-in in front of USC administrators’ offices in Bovard Auditorium.
On August 1, more than 180 faculty and staff signed a letter posted on the Divest from Death Coalition Instagram expressing concern about and demanding clarity into the OCE process. The letter also condemns the deployment of LAPD on campus, current campus security measures and the “militarization” of campus.
Some students and faculty involved in the disciplinary process said they feel that OCE did not completely address their concerns despite a lengthy hearing process over the summer.
“University procedures can happen in much more opaque and nebulous ways than legal procedures,” McPherson said. “There’s not a standard of evidence … they’re much more subjective, and that’s a real cause for concern.”
In May, the arrested students were notified by email of their “possible violation(s) of the USC Student Handbook” when they “refused to follow multiple university administrator instructions to leave Alumni Park, which had been reserved for another event.” According to the email obtained by Annenberg Media, OCE named seven sections of the handbook, including disorderly conduct, unauthorized entry/access and free expression.
Students were given until May 24 to accept a “proposed resolution” from OCE. That resolution asked students to take responsibility for failing to comply with administrators, and to receive a formal warning on their student record.
Those who were suspended after LAPD cleared the encampment in May received similar notifications. No arrests were made that morning.
If students declined OCE’s proposed resolution, they were offered a full administrative review process.
Most students opted for a full review, including Prieto.
In their first meeting with OCE, Prieto was told the consequences could range from nothing to expulsion, they said.
Then, on July 22, arrested students were notified that OCE had received “new information.” They were emailed a log of video timestamps with notes describing a KTLA live broadcast of the student arrests and were invited to a follow-up hearing.
Those notes state the time law enforcement issued dispersal orders, describe the process as “not tense, not hostile and relatively peaceful” and that students were “peacefully turning themselves over to officers.”
Several students told reporters at the time that they did not hear officers giving dispersal orders in the chaotic situation.
Prieto said the first discipline — the warning, the essay and a statement attesting to reading the student handbook — came on July 25 at one of these follow-ups.
Prieto was instructed at their secondary disciplinary hearing on August 2 that students must be “remorseful” and write about “what they’ve learned.”
OCE has requested similar essays in the past from students who were arrested on suspicion of other crimes.
But Prieto and their peers are concerned about the essay prompt, and said they have been advised by legal counsel that their papers could be used in a criminal case by LAPD. Prieto said they were told by OCE that if the university was subpoenaed, they would have to share students’ essays with law enforcement — and that if LAPD asked OCE not to tell students that their essays were being used in criminal proceedings, OCE would have to comply.
The university did not specifically comment on whether they would work with law enforcement if asked to hand over evidence for criminal proceedings.
As for any charges, Prieto was told at a June hearing in criminal court that LAPD had up to a year to charge students for trespassing.
Students and faculty said they feel the disciplinary outcomes reflect a lack of understanding by the university of their protest cause.
Reflecting on the process, Prieto said they feel removed from the USC community.
“I don’t really see USC the same,” Prieto said. “I just don’t feel like I belong here, or am respected here as a student. But also, I’m not surprised.”
Many faculty remain disappointed in senior administration.
“To have the university not see that students were doing really profound forms of learning in the space, it’s disappointing,” said McPherson.
“We all know that [Folt] never went to the encampment, nor the provost to meet with the students … Despite it being a two-minute walk, so many of the students feel the administration is out of touch with students’ moral and ethical commitments, and are disappointed that there was not an attempt by the senior administration to talk to the students in an open and transparent way.”
After the arrests and once the second encampment was established, Folt met with the encampment organizers twice, both times at the Ronald Tutor Campus Center and not at the site of the protests. Divest from Death representatives said at the time they were not satisfied by either of the discussions.
Folt later said at an Academic Senate meeting that she regretted never visiting the encampment.
Looking forward, McPherson said she is motivated by her students.
“I’ve had amazing students throughout my career, but young people today have a clear-eyed understanding of the gap between the promises of democracy and what our world is delivering.”
This story has been updated with additional context about Folt’s interactions with the encampment and the number of arrests. It also has been corrected from a previous version which incorrectly reported Vice Provost Martin Levine could impose disciplinary actions against students. Stephen Rice, the director of USC’s Office of Community Expectations, is the only name that has been listed on emails sent to disciplined students, USC said after publication.