According to the UGA’s Civil Rights and Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment statement, “The University prohibits harassment of or discrimination against any person because of race, color, sex (including sexual harassment and pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity or national origin, religion, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status by any member of the university community. . .on campus, in connection with a university program or activity, or in a manner that creates a hostile environment for any member of the university community.” However, this policy appears that it does not extend to Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, or those who are perceived to be Muslim or Arab who have reported differential treatment by UGA administrators. UGA President Jere W. Morehead issued a statement supporting the Jewish community after the October 7th attacks on Israel but refused to acknowledge subsequent Palestinian lives lost and the impact on his Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab students, making them feel marginalized. UGA administrators instead turned their attention to targeting anti-genocide student protesters. Principles of academic freedom were disregarded when, on April 29, anti-genocide protesters established a peaceful encampment and were brutally arrested after UGA administrators called police mere hours later.
Creation of Hostile Campus Environment
UGA has reportedly created a pervasively hostile campus for Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab students. In September 2024, the Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Georgia) and UGA’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) filed a complaint under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against UGA, demanding an immediate investigation into UGA’s reportedly differential treatment of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students, students perceived to be Palestinian, and students associated with or advocating for Palestinians. “UGA reinforced the hostile anti-Palestinian environment, including by having students arrested and suspending SJP —a student organization that advocates for Palestinian human rights—for engaging in speech activity supporting Palestinian rights.” The complaint also details University President Jere Morehead and UGA administrators ignoring meeting requests from SJP students, as well as ignoring SJP students’ concerns when they complained of alleged threats to their physical safety.
Instead of supporting Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab students, UGA administrators have reportedly vilified them. In an October 12 statement, President Morehead said that there were some in the community “choosing to leverage the events of recent days for purposes of advocacy” and later that the First Amendment “protects the right of individuals to express ideas that are offensive and even hateful,” seemingly suggesting that students who organized campus demonstrations calling for Palestinian rights were politically opportunistic and hateful. UGA allegedly exaggerated risks to the student body during student peaceful protests and engaged in “McCarthyist witch hunts” by targeting student organizations and individual students perceived to be associating with Palestinians. Students and student leaders who claimed that they were not present at the April 29th demonstration that resulted in violent arrests of anti-genocide protesters reportedly received notice that they were under investigation for violations of UGA’s Code of Conduct.
Police Brutality Against Student Protesters
On the morning of April 29, 2024, while students were peacefully setting up a breakfast table for student protestors, UGA authorized police to raid an anti-genocide encampment on the front lawn of the North Campus of UGA. Hours after it was established, UGA administrators reportedly arrived and instructed demonstrators that they were “required to move the demonstration to a designated ‘free speech zone.’” However, CAIR-Georgia attorneys note that the Georgia General Assembly outlawed ‘free speech zones’ in 2022. The CAIR-Georgia attorneys asserted that UGA was reportedly “in violation of state law,” namely the Georgia FORUM Act, when the administrators told protesters to move their demonstration by giving this instruction.
Despite this, UGA administrators called the police on their students anyway. Sixteen individuals were arrested, including nine UGA students. Police can be seen in videos grabbing a Black individual by the hood of his jacket, thereby putting pressure on his neck, tackling demonstrators, and using the force of three to four officers to pin demonstrators to the ground, all while other arrestees are heard screaming in pain and fear. Out of the first five individuals arrested, four of them were Black women, including one who was a Black Muslim woman wearing a hijab that was torn off during her arrest.
When the students were reportedly released and their belongings were returned to them, they were surprised that they had received emails from the university informing them that they were under threat of being placed under interim suspension unless they responded to the email within minutes. UGA reportedly “locked them out of their on-campus housing, terminated their on-campus employment, instructed their professors to call 911 on them should they be seen on campus, and prohibited the students from taking exams or submitting papers online.” Over 180 UGA faculty petitioned for an immediate un-suspension of the nine arrested students stating that it was “unwarranted and antithetical to our educational mission.”
Penalization and Emotional Trauma of Targeted Students
The penalization of targeted anti-genocide students was presumably the most egregious act by UGA. Following the arrests, UGA reportedly sent each arrested student a letter claiming that students “engaged in conduct that endangered the health and safety of others including but not limited to resisting arrest by making physical contact with officers and/or linking arms with others to avoid detainment.” Yet, as stated in the complaint, “it strains credulity to claim that ‘linking arms… to avoid detainment’ constitutes a serious and immediate danger in violation of the Code of Conduct.” In August 2024, the UGA’s University Judiciary found six of the April 29 anti-genocide demonstrators in violation of five Code of Conduct regulations summarized as (1) Disrupting university activities, except for protected speech, (2) violating university policies, (3) failing to comply with university officials or law enforcement, (4) disruptive campus demonstrations infringing on others’ rights, and (5) collaborating to violate university regulations. The students will be on academic probation for the remainder of their time at UGA and are not permitted to be on campus, including in classrooms, residence halls, or administrative buildings, until Jan. 1, 2025. Two UGA faculty members, Cindy Hahamovitch and Scott Nelson, expressed their criticism of the sanctions, “As former members of the anti-apartheid movement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the 1980s, we were surprised by the rapid arrests in the spring semester and verdicts from early August.”
As a result of discriminatory actions by UGA, the targeted students experienced multiple forms of emotional and academic hardship. These included but were not limited to them enduring intense scrutiny, emotional trauma from their arrest, repeated safety concerns raised to university administrators being consistently dismissed, graduation postponed by a year, opportunities and job offers missed, public shaming and online harassment, eviction from campus housing without notice, and loss of scholarships. These events culminated in significant emotional distress, delayed academic and professional progress, and increased harassment.
