Statement regarding UCSC student conduct charges

We are dismayed that the UCSC administration continues to punish students, grads and undergrads, through the Student Conduct proceedings. Despite the academic senate’s February 19th resolution calling on the administration to withdraw sanctions against striking and arrested students; despite a statement from the UC-wide academic council on February 18th calling on the university to refrain from punitive measures; despite that the San Francisco chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild has deemed the punishment illegal; despite local and national outrage, including a boycott of the UC signed by hundreds of academics across the country – despite all of this, administration has continued to enact draconian measures of punishment and political repression. 

We are in the midst of a global pandemic, in which cities and states have closed courts and halted criminal proceedings. Yet, beyond the fact that fired student-workers are still not reinstated, the UC’s disciplinary hearings have continued, with a new wave of student conduct summonses sent out last Thursday for grades moved from Canvas in December. The administration has refused to halt or revoke any of these measures even after most students submitted grades, and while a physical picket cannot continue. We see this haphazard rollout of conduct charges as a way to further punish and intimidate students and workers for protesting their precarious conditions. 

One of the most egregious elements of these processes is that the undergrads who supported us and stood with us have been disciplined along with us through these student conduct proceedings. While these disciplinary proceedings have been served to dozens of students, there has been a particularly pernicious and aggressive targeting of students of color – both grads and undergrads –  including undocumented students. Some of these students have received up to four summonses for a range of protest actions, and just yesterday were subjected to punishments including multi-year suspensions, loss of housing, loss of access to campus facilities, and mandated community service. They see themselves tokenized as emblems of the institution’s “diversity”, but when these same “diverse” students protest, they are met with inordinate repression, adding significant hardship to their lives and the continuation of their academic careers. 

Racialized language, historically used to criminalize and dehumanize people of color, is being used in these reports. Multiple summonses identify students of colour engaged in the right to free speech and peaceful assembly as “intimidating”, “aggressive” and “threatening”. One is subject to the charge that they ‘stared at [an administrator] in an attempt to intimidate her’. In another example, an undergraduate student – who is also a US military veteran – is identified as being “very aggressive” and “frightening”, and comments that he wore military fatigues.

While some students still await the “resolution” from their Student Conduct hearings, Carlos Cruz, a History PhD student, prominent COLA4ALL activist, and recipient of four separate student conduct summonses, was suspended yesterday from the university until June 2022. It is clear to us that Carlos was targeted by the administration and punished for his activism. We agree with Carlos when he says, “the Student Conduct office is operating like an extension of the school to prison pipeline, as it targets politically active students of color who are engaging in organizing efforts to call out issues like food insecurity, rent burden, and wage disparities at UCSC”. 

Particularly troubling is the level of surveillance and policing that went into building cases against students. Records acquired via California Public Records Act requests show that the UCSC Police Department tapped the California National Guard and California emergency services personnel for help with a surveillance operation targeting the strike – this has been documented in a Vice article released today. We are also deeply troubled by the university’s mysterious Demonstrations Operations Team (DOT), whose role on campus remains opaque at best. Apart from being ostensibly charged with “coordinating the campus’ specific operational planning and response needs related to campus activism”, we have no information about who team members are (apart from one DOT member who is a former police officer), and little to no knowledge about their budget, surveillance activities, or oversight role. We understand that DOT has worked with UCPD and UCSC administrators to identify and bring charges against select individuals for allegedly violating the Code of Student Conduct while protesting. 

We are angered and disheartened by the continuing punitive and repressive measures of an institution that brands itself as “the original authority on questioning authority”. We continue to stand in solidarity with all students persecuted by the UC and will fight to reverse and drop all discipline.