ST. LOUIS — At least one Washington University student will not receive her degree at graduation next week as a result of participating in a protest against the war in Gaza last month.
Valencia Alvarez was set to graduate with her master’s in public health, but a letter sent Tuesday from the university notified Alvarez her degree will not be awarded while her disciplinary matters are pending.
“They’re basically trying to silence us by using us as examples in the campus movement for a free Palestine,” Alvarez said in an interview.
Alvarez was one of more than 100 people arrested — and at least 23 students suspended — following an on-campus protest that devolved into a clash between police and protesters on April 27. Many of the students were then ordered to stay off campus because their presence posed a “substantial threat,” the university said. Arrested students who lived on campus were told to move out less than 12 hours after they were notified of their suspensions, according to students.
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At least seven university employees have been temporarily suspended for participating in the protest, too. That number rose slightly this past week, multiple faculty members said, as the university learned of more employees who were arrested.
The school, meanwhile, received widespread condemnation from university faculty, students and alumni for its response to the protest.
Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications Julie Hail Flory said Tuesday she would not share how many students’ degrees will not be awarded because the university does not comment on student conduct matters.
Alvarez said she knows of at least one other student who will not receive their degree as a result of the protest, but that student declined to be interviewed.
Alvarez’s letter says she can still participate in commencement activities, including school and department ceremonies. But her suspension remains in effect, so she is still barred from campus except for the commencement activities, and she cannot attend some senior class events, including a celebration at Ballpark Village later this week.
The schoolwide graduation ceremony is scheduled for May 13.
In the letter to Alvarez, Vice Chancellors for Student Affairs Anna Gonzalez and Robert Wild, who is also the dean of students, warned against “disruptive behavior” at the ceremony.
“If you engage in disruptive behavior during any commencement activity, you will be dismissed from the ceremony and not permitted to return to campus,” the letter reads. “In addition, any disruptive behavior during commencement activities will be added to your pending student conduct complaint.
“We know that commencement marks a significant accomplishment for you,” the letter continues. “We want you and your family to experience the joy and recognition you and your classmates deserve.”
Alvarez said she feels lucky. She still has a job lined up after graduation. And it’s in her desired field of study, working in social justice at the Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America, an organization in St. Louis that helps Latin Americans work for human rights.
Whatever anger she felt about the situation dissipated last week, Alvarez said, when she came to what she described as a comforting realization.
“I think WashU is just kind of embarrassing themselves with the way they’ve been responding to this,” Alvarez said. “It’s completely against everything they claim they stand for.”
Continued backlash
Nationwide, universities have cracked down on student-led protests against the war in Gaza. Since April 18, a little over 2,600 people have been arrested on 50 campuses, the Associated Press reports.
On the day of the Washington University protest, like at many other colleges, students attempted to set up an encampment. Among the students’ demands was for the school to divest from Boeing Co., which sells warplanes and munitions to Israel for use in the war.
Arrests followed when protesters refused to leave.
Chancellor Andrew Martin wrote in a message on Washington University’s website that the protest was not a peaceful one.
Martin wrote that protesters behaved aggressively, including swinging flagpoles and sticks. Some attempted to break into locked buildings and vandalize property, Martin wrote, and chants were threatening and antisemitic.
But protesters have disputed Martin’s narrative, claiming the protest was peaceful until police intervened. Several letters to Martin and other high-ranking university officials lambasted the school’s response.
One recent letter from the Middle East Studies Association of North America, expressed members’ “shock and revulsion” at the “brutalization” of Steve Tamari, a professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
Tamari, 65, was hospitalized with nine broken ribs and a broken hand.
“In a week that witnessed police attacks on faculty and students at peaceful protests at campuses around the country, the violence inflicted on Professor Tamari stands out as by far the most grievous that we have heard about,” the MESA letter reads.
And on Tuesday, the American Association of University Professors at Washington University decried the lack of a fair process against the university employees who were summarily suspended.
“To justify these suspensions, the administration has relied, at best, on unproven allegations and subjective judgements about dangers allegedly posed by those suspended,” a statement from the association reads. “These are insufficient reasons for banishing members of the university.”
A special meeting of Washington University’s Faculty Senate was called for Wednesday afternoon to discuss “recent student disciplinary actions and related topics,” Chair Dennis Barbour wrote in an email to the Post-Dispatch.
On the agenda is a question-and-answer session with senior administration officials. The meeting is not open to the public.
On Friday, Alvarez met with Wild, the dean of students, to discuss her suspension. Alvarez recorded the meeting on her phone and shared it with the Post-Dispatch.
“I think what the university is deeming the significant threat is the presence of an encampment that was set up on the east end of campus on April 27 that was disrupting activity on that end of campus,” Wild, the dean of students, told her.
He then tried to ask Alvarez questions about the protest: Did she hear the multiple warnings to leave? What time did she arrive?
Alvarez didn’t answer the questions, saying she was “advised not to answer.”
“You understand that not talking about this affects the decision the university potentially will make regarding your suspension?” Wild asked.
Alvarez said she did.
Four days later, she received the letter informing her that her degree would not be conferred.