The Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union released a letter it sent to Brown University, criticizing school leaders over the suspension of a campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. Steven Brown, the executive director of RI ACLU, said the school’s decision is a blow to free speech on campuses and the university should re-instate the chapter immediately.
“By continuing to suspend what is a clearly political, if controversial student group on campus, we’re concerned that the university is sending the wrong message,” Brown said.
The university suspended its SJP chapter following a pro-divestment protest during a Brown Corporation Board meeting on Oct. 18, 2024. According to Brown University Vice President for Campus Life Russell Carey, Brown administrators, board members and staff reported witnessing protesters “banging on a vehicle carrying members of the community, physically blocking passage of a vehicle, screaming profanity at individuals at close and personal range, profanity and a racial epithet directed toward a person of color, and following and screaming at individuals while filming them.”
Following the protest, members of SJP’s leadership team were informed their group would be suspended and that the school was launching an external investigation into the group.
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