ACLU calls on Brown University to reinstate Pro-Palestine student group

A Palestinian flag is seen on a bicycle outside Sayles Hall at Brown University on April 30, 2024. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island is calling on Brown University to reinstate Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), according to a letter sent Wednesday to the school’s president.

The message to Brown University President Christina H. Paxson was prompted by the ACLU’s recent acquisition of a university communication which detailed how, in October 2024, the SJP was banned from holding meetings, attending other student groups’ events, and from using its organizational name after a pro-Palestine protest on campus.

“We find your administration’s actions against the SJP deeply troubling, as we believe they directly contradict the University’s core mission and cast a chill on campus free speech,” the ACLU’s letter reads. “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.”

ACLU Executive Director Steven Brown and Rachel Lee and Stephen Robinson, the co-presidents of Brown’s ACLU chapter, signed the letter.

On Oct. 24, 2024, Koren Bakkegard, the school’s associate vice president for campus life and dean of students, notified student protest leaders that their group was suspended pending a university review. Bakkegard demanded that SJP members “must cease all organization activities” based on alleged misconduct during an SJP rally on Oct. 18, 2024.

According to Bakkegard’s letter, the rally, which the school authorized, was to take place on the Faunce Steps and a portion of the campus’ College Green. “Much of what took place as part of the event was consistent with submitted event plans and with policy and community expectations regarding protest and demonstration,” Bakkegard wrote.

But things changed when protestors marched outside the campus green as part of the event, according to Bakkegard’s account. The dean alleged that there were reports of protestors banging on and physically blocking cars, screaming and cursing at people at close range, using a racial slur and “screaming at individuals while filming them.”

The ACLU contends Brown did not cite specific policy violations that warranted banning the entire group, adding the administrative reprimand “offers no explanation as to why all of the misconduct is being attributed at this stage to SJP as opposed to particular individuals.”

“While we can envision circumstances when student groups should be held responsible for the misbehavior of its members, some measure of reason is required to prevent the interim imposition of group punishment due solely to what may be the unsanctioned behavior of a few individuals (such as, in this case, the purported use of a racial epithet),” the ACLU letter reads. “Otherwise, every student group’s existence is at the mercy of its least responsible member.”

The letter also warns that prohibiting the group could discourage student activism at Brown: “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.”

When asked for comment Wednesday, Brian Clark, a Brown University spokesperson, acknowledged the school has received the ACLU letter.

“While we appreciate the interest, we do not work through the news media to address community concerns or questions — rather, we value direct engagement, and our response will come directly to the ACLU representatives, including the Brown student chapter leaders, who were in touch,” Clark wrote.

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