Once disciplinary proceedings began in May, many students who spoke to WSN said the process was confusing and that they were often either uncertain of their right to legal representation or were not informed by NYU administration whether or not they had one. Beckman said students are entitled to have an adviser — including a legal adviser — present at conduct proceedings with the OSC upon request.

Five students, four of whom faced disciplinary action for participating in a poetry reading in Bobst Library’s lobby in January, told WSN the university did not clarify whether they were entitled to legal representation during their conduct conferences, leaving them to rely on other students for said information.

“It was not until I sought help from people with more experience that I was informed of more of my rights,” one of the four students said in an interview.

Robert Tsai, a professor of law at Boston University, said that while universities are not obligated to accept legal representation or to inform students of their rights to an attorney, not having said representation can put students at a disadvantage when faced with sanctions and conduct proceedings.

“There’s a lot of bad stuff that can happen to people, so that’s why I say never go into these proceedings alone, never answer questions without some advice from a lawyer,” Tsai said. “If you say anything wrong, they may be using it against you.” 

Hafiza Khalique, a first-year student who was suspended last semester after tearing down posters of hostages taken by Hamas, filed a lawsuit against NYU in April claiming that the university misapplied its conduct policies and that the sanctions she faced were “excessive.” The complaint alleges that the OSC had initially informed her that they were not considering suspension as punishment during initial proceedings. However, in an email obtained by WSN, the OSC had told Khalique that they had decided to suspend her after consulting “relevant university stakeholders.” 

“During initial discussions about potential outcomes, a different level of sanction was communicated to you,” the email Khalique received read. “However, the university is taking a strong stance with respect to violations of the Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy.”

Khalique’s complaint alleges that the OSC told another student, who was also suspended for tearing down posters on campus, that their suspension came after “intervention” from “stakeholders.” Beckman said the complaint “lacks merit” and did not comment on the content of the suit.

In his statement, Beckman said several students have been referred to conduct proceedings because of what he called “allegations of engaging in doxxing” since at least November 2023. The university has since established a page dedicated to doxxing prevention on its website in collaboration with the Student Government Assembly, having additionally declared the act to be in violation of university rules. 

Some disciplinary proceedings began after students and faculty were reported to the university’s Bias Response Line, according to emails obtained by WSN. Steinhardt graduate student worker Hala Al Shami was reported after footage of her posting signs advertising a student walkout over damaged posters of hostages outside the business school circulated online last October. About a month later, she was summoned to disciplinary proceedings. Al Shami told WSN that a university administrator “vaguely” described a video of her putting up the posters during the Nov. 30 meeting. 

In an email exchange obtained by WSN, Brad Domangue — the deputy Title IX coordinator in the Office of Equal Opportunity — told Al Shami that she was not entitled to have her union representative participate in the meeting because the proceedings pertained to her “potentially engaging” in “prohibited conduct.” After several back-and-forth emails with her representative, Domangue agreed to allow them to attend the meeting “as a courtesy.” 

Many students and faculty on campus have criticized NYU’s approach to rising tensions over the war in Gaza. Lamisa Khan, a former SGA senator who sponsored a months-old proposal to reaffirm pro-Palestinian speech on campus, criticized the university for not taking measures to prevent students and faculty who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations from being identified online.

“NYU can say they care about student safety but they are complicit in these cases when they do not acknowledge nor help students who are doxxed,” Khan said.

Some students who were identified for incidents related to the war also faced harassment on social media while their disciplinary proceedings were taking place. 

In her complaint, Khalique said she received “disturbing threats and harassment” and was forced to isolate herself after being identified, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit also said Khalique received threats that she would be assaulted if she was seen in NYU’s dining halls.

Al Shami told WSN she had allegedly received threats of death and rape as well as racist messages online, including posts on the social media platform X reading “Ship this migrant back to Palestine…” and “Hang her from the lamp post.” She said that when she reported the messages to the Department of Campus Safety, a representative asked her to identify which among them were made by members of the NYU community. Al Shami said the Campus Safety representative did not offer any assistance in the identification process.

“It was just ridiculous to ask me to do that work,” Al Shami said. “I guess it was just so that, in the future, if anything were to happen, they could be like ‘Well, we gave you the solution and you refused to do it.’”

Though most conduct proceedings at NYU are processed through the OSC, WSN obtained email chains and audio recordings of cases processed through multiple other offices at the university. These include the Office of Equal Opportunity  — the only office that was found to have handled cases involving faculty — the School of Law’s Executive Committee and the Office of Residential Life and Housing Services. 

Several emails and documents obtained by WSN showed that disciplinary proceedings at the OSC and NYU Law outlined sanctions including the removal of on-campus jobs or leadership positions and suspension. Many students involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations have reported challenges beyond the university’s disciplinary measures, including changes in their employment and challenges maintaining their academic performance.

One student at the law school, who was accused of violating NYU’s code of conduct for writing the names of children killed in Israel’s ongoing siege in Gaza on classroom chalkboards, said the charges could affect their application to the New York State Bar Association’s “character and fitness” evaluation — failure of which could lead to applicants being denied a license to practice law in the state.

“There’s always the risk that the character and fitness board decides to punish people who were under investigation for Palestinian speech,” the student said. “This is now building a pattern of me having to report all of these various incidents to the bar, and that could be consequential.”

In several other on-campus incidents surrounding the war in Gaza, NYU students and faculty have been penalized for promoting both pro-Palestinian speech and anti-Arab sentiments. In November, a physician at NYU Langone Health was removed from his residency program after reposting a message in support of Palestinian resistance on his private Instagram account. In a separate incident, NYU Langone professor Benjamin Neel faced backlash online for reposting cartoons many claimed to be “racist” and “anti-Arab.” In May, a labor and delivery nurse was fired after she spoke about the suffering of women “during the current genocide in Gaza” in an acceptance speech for a compassionate care award.

In June, a student’s acceptance to the Master of Social Work program at the Silver School of Social Work was rescinded because they had been “allegedly participating” in pro-Palestinian encampments last semester. The student had attended Silver’s undergraduate program, and was notified of the admission to the graduate school in March. 

Earlier this year, the university suspended two professors after videos of them criticizing media coverage of Hamas surfaced online. In April, a postdoctoral instructor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences was terminated from his position after footage of him taking down hostage posters was reposted online.

In the initial email informing Al Shami of her disciplinary charges, the OEO warned her that she could be suspended as a result of her proceedings. While NYU did not suspend her, Al Shami said that the stress of these proceedings, which took place toward the end of the fall 2023 semester, hindered her academic performance.

“I had to get extensions on all my finals because I couldn’t get any work done at all while I’m literally thinking that I might get suspended,” Al Shami said. “I was doing my finals well into the new year.”

Another faculty member told WSN that the environment amid the university’s uptick in disciplinary action made it difficult to focus on work.

“It’s depressing and demoralizing,” they said. “A genocide is going on and then people are being punished for speaking out about it.”

In her lawsuit, Khalique — who had received mental health accommodations from the Moses Center for Student Accessibility before her suspension — said she was “unable to enroll in therapy” and was “unable to access health insurance when moving around” due to fear of harassment. She added that the suspension would revoke her financial aid scholarship and said the university “falsely informed” her that the scholarship would remain. 

One resident assistant said they sent an email to their residents in October criticizing NYU’s response to on-campus protests. Two officials from the university’s Residential Life and Housing Services met with the student soon after, advising that they either apologize for the email or face removal from their position as an RA. After apologizing in another message to residents, the student said they relied on their role as an RA to afford housing in the city.

“Without ResLife, I really couldn’t stay at NYU,” the student said. “I couldn’t even really afford to live without going back to the homeless shelter where I stayed in the past, so I needed this job.”

Administrators at NYU Law called one student “significantly less cooperative than their peers” due to what they described as “contentious” behavior, according to documents obtained by WSN. The student told WSN that their disciplinary proceedings were “incredibly personal and painful” because of their personal connections in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

“I am actively raising awareness for people that I’m in touch with every day who are begging me to do so,” the student said. “I was fully cooperative in that I went along with what they asked me to do, but I did advocate for myself.” 

Shahily Negrón — an Pennsylvania-based attorney who has represented students facing disciplinary action for their involvement in pro-Palestinian activity on college campuses — said disciplinary proceedings tend to deal harsher outcomes to non-white students. 

“I have seen a high number of students of color in disciplinary proceedings in particular,” Negrón said. “The number of students of color I see in this space is bone-chilling and the repercussions they face are life-changing.”

In May, NYU suspended nine students involved in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Bobst on an interim basis. Four out of five students on the NYU Palestine Solidarity Coalition’s negotiations team were among those suspended after the incident. The group had said that the fifth member of the team was denied access to the library and given persona non grata status. Another student at the demonstration also faced a similar status. NYU PSC had claimed that the university “made targeted phone calls” to the parents of two Black students on the negotiations team, “with the goal of intimidating and pressuring” them to leave the library.

When asked for comment, Beckman said he was “unaware of anyone being removed from the library,” but confirmed that some students received persona non grata status for allegedly violating university policy, and were “subsequently unable to enter the library.” 

“No one else has been removed from the library by threatening to call the NYPD,” said the student removed from the library by Campus Safety. “It’s important to note that the two students right now who are experiencing this are black students, are on the negotiations team, and is known to [dean of students Rafael Rodriguez] and to all the admin.”

In an email informing the students who participated in May’s Bobst demonstration of their persona non grata status, dean of students Rafael Rodriguez said they were alleged to have “incited a crowd of protesters to breach Campus Safety barricades/barriers, thus escalating safety concerns for the NYU community.” 

“Dissent itself is not against the rules, but the time, place and manner of protest are meaningful considerations,” Beckman wrote in his statement to WSN. “The students who have been sanctioned acted in a manner that violated our rules, and, thus, called for a response.”

At NYU, on-campus tensions over the war in Gaza came to a head at the first Gaza Solidarity Encampment in April, which followed similar encampments at Columbia University and Yale University, where hundreds of student and faculty protesters were arrested. Similar to those of other universities, NYU’s administration authorized the NYPD to sweep the Gould Plaza demonstration, which led to the arrests of dozens of students, faculty and alumni. Soon after, students and faculty set up another encampment outside the Paulson Center, where police arrested around 14 students at NYU’s request. 

The university has since filed dozens of conduct cases against students for their participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus, according to NYU PSC. Many students facing disciplinary action were instructed to complete a “series of readings and reflective activities,” which NYU FSJP and other on-campus groups criticized in an open letter, calling the assignments “a mockery of our vocation.” The OSC said it will look to “improve the quality” of the assignments in the fall. However, students facing charges were required to complete them by May 29 to avoid receiving censure on their transcript.

In conversations with WSN, legal representatives of arrested students and faculty have contested the number of arrests NYU president Linda Mills publicized in a universitywide message in May, counting 136 arrests as opposed to the university’s count of 133. WSN reported that, according to a member of the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, prosecutors dropped all criminal charges brought against protesters, including students and faculty, arrested at Gould Plaza. 

In interviews with WSN, multiple students who faced disciplinary action for their involvement in pro-Palestinian demonstrations said they were told by NYU administrators that the allegations generally focused on the conduct itself rather than the content of the protest, a sentiment Beckman reiterated in his statement. 

Ahead of the current academic year, the university updated its student conduct guidelines to include “code words, like ‘Zionist,’” as examples of speech that could violate its Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment policies. In an August press release, FSJP criticized the updated code of conduct for “its equation of Zionism with Jewish identity.” An NYU spokesperson said that the updated guidelines would not change preexisting policies on student conduct. 

CAS professor Zachary Lockman said that while the allegations of conduct violations are often contentious, there is an imbalance in how universities approach discrimination toward Arab and Jewish students. 

“All our students should be safe, all our faculty should be defended — the right of free speech for everybody should be defended,” Lockman said. “They [the university] haven’t always been doing that, which is a problem. There’s a huge asymmetry.”

Contact Hope Pisoni at [email protected].