Outgoing Student Government President Edwin Santos alerted members to a Student Code of Conduct notice over recent indoor protests received from American University at an Undergraduate Senate meeting on April 21.
The notice comes after two SG-organized protests — one outdoor protest on New Eagle Day and an indoor and outdoor protest at incoming University President Jonathan Alger’s welcome reception. Both protests called on the University to reverse the Jan. 25 indoor protest ban and postering guidelines.
The current and incoming executive board released a statement in an email and on Instagram titled “A Letter to the Administration: Rescind the policy restricting student advocacy and reverse the probation of Students for Justice in Palestine” during the Undergraduate Senate Meeting following Santos’ announcement.
“Student Government contends that this vagueness allows the university to apply this policy targetedly and unfairly against student organizations whose mission they disagree with,” they wrote in the statement. “We ask that you rescind the policy that was set on January 25th, and promise the student body that no such policy which suppresses student advocacy and expression ever be set for future semesters.”
“We did receive a notice of a potential violation of the Student Code of Conduct,” Santos said at the Senate meeting. “With that said, we do have a hearing to discuss what that means, what that looks like and any potential consequences that the University could decide.”
Santos confirmed that the violation was given to SG as an organization, not specifically the members present at the protests.
“I got the email as president, but we will be discussing as an E-Board who should, could, wants to or will be able to,” Santos said at the meeting on who will be representing SG at the hearing.
According to Asa Mack, the associate director of the Center for Student Involvement, possible consequences may include a disciplinary probation similar to the one SJP announced on April 8 it was placed on following a silent indoor protest.
“I can say that I will be with Student Government through the process,” Mack said at the meeting. “If I had to guess, I would say the worst-case scenario would probably be probation, similar to what SJP got. I don’t think anything more than that would be in the best interest of the University.”
Santos said the hearing date has yet to be scheduled and expects more information on the matter.
“In regards to the violation, we were expecting to hear from The Office of Student Accountability and Restorative Practices because of the protests that we led on April 10th and 12th,” outgoing Vice President and President-elect Arusa Islam, wrote in a statement to The Eagle. “American University Student Government is ready to defend our actions as we represent and advocate for the rights of all students on our campus.”
This article was edited by Kathryn Squyres, Tyler Davis and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks.
