In a letter sent today to Brown University President Christina Paxson and other members of the University administration, the ACLU of Rhode Island and its student chapter condemned the school’s three-month-long “interim” suspension of the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and called for immediate reinstatement of the group pending formal proceedings by the Student Conduct Board.
The four-page letter from the ACLU stated that the suspension “severely undermine[s] the University’s stated commitment to ‘upholding the principles of freedom of expression for all views and perspectives,’ and lack[s] even the most rudimentary ideals of fairness.” The letter explains that the ACLU had not raised concerns about the suspension earlier because it had only recently obtained a copy of the suspension notice that was sent to the leaders in October 2024, the contents of which the ACLU labeled as “doublespeak.”
That notice, from Associate Vice President for Campus Life and Dean of Students Koren Bakkegard, advised the SJP that it was being suspended as an “interim measure” following a protest held on October 18, 2024. At the protest, some members of the group purportedly banged on and blocked a vehicle and screamed profanities at members of the University’s Corporation board after a meeting at which they voted against divesting from companies with ties to the Israeli military.
The interim suspension notice, issued pending a formal hearing before a student conduct board, ordered “the cessation of all meetings, social events, educational events, and physical and social media postings,” prohibits the group from attending or supporting other groups’ activities, and even bars use of the SJP name itself. The result, the ACLU letter states, is that “an important, if controversial, student political group has been completely silenced on campus, all before having any formal opportunity to contest the allegations lodged against it.” This, the letter argues, “hardly displays the respect for free speech that the University’s policies purport to embrace. That this ‘interim’ punishment has already lasted three months only heightens the gravity of the University’s actions.”
Calling the suspension “a complete prior restraint on this group’s speech,” the ACLU letter added:
Through this action against SJP, the University has given to itself the exceptional power to undercut any political organization on campus on an interim basis. It has short-circuited fundamental due process rights that university policy purports to uphold and, for an indeterminate period of time, has eradicated, not defended, freedom of expression for this admittedly controversial group. This suspension and a purported commitment to free speech on campus cannot co-exist.
Among other criticisms, the ACLU letter points out that the suspension notice “spends the entirety of one sentence to lay out the basis for this harsh pre-hearing punishment,” and “doesn’t even bother to cite the specific sections of school policies that have been purportedly violated.” The letter also denounced as “doublespeak” Dean Bakkegard’s justification for the draconian nature of the interim suspension “based on the severity of the alleged behavior” while also purporting to claim that it does “does not prejudge the merits of any future proceeding that might occur to determine whether BJSP violated University policy.”
The ACLU letter concludes by calling on Brown University President Christine Paxson “to immediately revoke the suspension as described in Dean Bakkegard’s October 24 letter to the SJP, and to instead allow the group to resume its activities pending any decisions, after formal due process proceedings, by the Student Conduct Board.”
Rachel Lee, co-president of the Brown University Chapter of the ACLU of RI, said today: “Attending a college priding its history on college activism and free speech, the administration's response of suspending SJP contradicts their values and sets up a dangerous precedent of silencing students.”
ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown added: “Removing a controversial student organization from campus without due process is deeply damaging to the University’s claim that it supports free speech and expression — a fundamental right that students shouldn’t summarily lose for months on end based on one person’s ‘interim’ determination.”
