The University of Florida has just suspended students who were arrested at anti-Israel protests on April 29.
The decision to suspend the pro-Palestinian protestors was made by the university’s Dean of Students, Chris Summerlin.
Five students—Roseanna Yashoda Bisram, Augustino Matthias Pulliam, Tess Jaden Segal, Keely Nicole Gliwa, and Parker Stanely Hovis—were each suspended for three years. The sixth student, Allan Hektor Frasheri, was suspended for four years.
The students who are now facing suspension are appealing the administration’s decision.
“It would functionally mean having to put our education on pause for three years which is why we feel like this is a de facto expulsion,” one of the students said. “If we want to finish undergrad before 2029 we’d have to do that at a different institution which I really don’t want, I was proud to go to UF I want to continue my education there,” she continued.
The students were arrested on April 29 while trying to start an anti-Israel occupation at UF. A spokesperson for the university at the time said: “This is not complicated. The University of Florida is not a daycare, and we do not treat protesters like children — they knew the rules, they broke the rules, and they’ll face the consequences.”