Page One

UC Berkeley has suspended Students for Justice in Palestine while officials investigate the group’s April 9 takeover of Wheeler Hall. 

Under the terms of the suspension the group, which has called on the university to divest from Israel, will lose certain privileges – including the ability to reserve rooms for meetings and set up a table on Sproul Plaza at the heart of the campus. 

“We think this is a specific attack on activists and free speech,” said Snehal Shingavi, an SJP leader. Shingavi said the move was particularly disturbing on a campus with a history of student activism. 

“This is Berkeley, for goodness sake,” he said. 

“In no way are we trying to silence the group or individuals,” replied Dean of Students Karen Kenney, noting that SJP members will still have the right to speak out and distribute leaflets during the suspension. 

See SUSPEND/Page 34 

University police arrested 79 protesters April 9, including 41 students, several from SJP. Kenney said the students, after going through a lengthy student judicial process, could face penalties ranging from probation to a year-long suspension.  

Assistant Chancellor John Cummins said suspension is an appropriate penalty for SJP, and individual students, because they disrupted classes during the Wheeler Hall occupation. 

“The basic mission of the university is to educate students,” Cummins said. “For any group, for any individual, no matter how noble the cause, to interfere with the rights of other students (is unacceptable).” 

But Shingavi argued that the university has never suspended a group for civil disobedience in the past, even if that disobedience disrupted student life, and that targeting SJP is unfair. 

Cummins said university officials explicitly warned SJP leaders that suspension was a possibility if they violated university rules during their protest. He said the university had never provided that type of warning to another group, making SJP a special case. 

Adam Weisberg, executive director of Berkeley Hillel, a hub of Jewish student life, said he agrees with the university’s approach. 

“Every student group has a right to demonstrate and articulate its concerns to the larger community,” he said. “But civil disobedience invites the kind of action that the university is now taking.” 

Will Youmans, an SJP leader, said the group plans to stage a protest the first week of May, calling for university divestment from Israel.  

“All attempts by the university to silence this movement are futile, because there is such widespread support on campus for divestment,” he said. 

Kenney said the group will not be able to reserve Sproul Plaza in advance of the event, as a group with full privileges might. But she said the university will not block any attempt to march or protest. 

SUSPEND/From Page 1 

University police arrested 79 protesters April 9, including 41 students, several from SJP. Kenney said the students, after going through a lengthy student judicial process, could face penalties ranging from probation to a year-long suspension.  

Assistant Chancellor John Cummins said suspension is an appropriate penalty for SJP, and individual students, because they disrupted classes during the Wheeler Hall occupation. 

“The basic mission of the university is to educate students,” Cummins said. “For any group, for any individual, no matter how noble the cause, to interfere with the rights of other students (is unacceptable).” 

But Shingavi argued that the university has never suspended a group for civil disobedience in the past, even if that disobedience disrupted student life, and that targeting SJP is unfair. 

Cummins said university officials explicitly warned SJP leaders that suspension was a possibility if they violated university rules during their protest. He said the university had never provided that type of warning to another group, making SJP a special case. 

Adam Weisberg, executive director of Berkeley Hillel, a hub of Jewish student life, said he agrees with the university’s approach. 

“Every student group has a right to demonstrate and articulate its concerns to the larger community,” he said. “But civil disobedience invites the kind of action that the university is now taking.” 

Will Youmans, an SJP leader, said the group plans to stage a protest the first week of May, calling for university divestment from Israel.  

“All attempts by the university to silence this movement are futile, because there is such widespread support on campus for divestment,” he said. 

Kenney said the group will not be able to reserve Sproul Plaza in advance of the event, as a group with full privileges might. But she said the university will not block any attempt to march or protest.