University of Louisville police detained and cited a student earlier this week during a pro-Palestinian protest for a recently-suspended student group, Student for Justice in Palestine.
The Students for Justice in Palestine chapter is facing an interim suspension as a registered student group at University of Louisville following a disruption of President Gerry Bradley’s inauguration.
In an email announcing the group's suspension, Bradley cited the university’s “use of grounds” policy, more specifically restrictions on “amplified sound.”
“While diverse opinions and viewpoints are welcomed and encouraged, all students, faculty and staff are required to adhere to the rules and regulations of the university,” Bradley wrote in the Monday email.
SJP has been demanding the university disclose and divest from companies that have “financial ties to Israel and/or weapons manufacturers.” The chapter says they have made “multiple attempts” to contact Bradley, with no response.
The UofL SJP chapter says they believe there has been “an escalation of repression towards Pro-Palestinian activism on campus,” pointing to what they say was a heightened police presence at a vigil Thursday and and the response to their demonstration Friday during Bradley’s inauguration, themed “Forward together.”
Protesting the suspension Monday, students built an encampment in front of Ekstrom Library that was quickly disbanded by the University of Louisville Police Department. Students returned hours later to set up the encampment again, before police led away a protester in handcuffs as officers dismantled the skeleton of a tent. Police cited the student for disorderly conduct.
The protests and suspension comes in the days after Israel and Hamas entered a ceasefire and all living Israeli hostages have been released from the bombarded Gaza strip. Just days in, the ceasefire, negotiated largely by the Trump administration, has already come under threat as Israel alleges Hamas breached the agreement by not quickly releasing the bodies of dead hostages. Israel has cut the number of Gaza aid delivery trucks in response and delayed opening the Rafah crossing.
The Trump administration has frequently criticized universities and threatened funding over their handling of pro-Palestinian protests, claiming campuses aren’t doing enough to eliminate anti-semitism.
Marc Murphy, a law professor at UofL, told Louisville Public Media that he arrived at the scene shortly after at least one student was cited at the encampment for beginning to set up a tent. Murphy said he can say definitively that the protests were nonviolent.
Murphy said he’s proud of how the university has protected professor speech, but described the restrictions on student speech as “short sighted and very narrowly defining the rights that they have on campus.”
“The essence of college to me is speaking your mind, learning how and when to speak your mind and testing boundaries and also starting to develop a psyche, starting to develop a personality that makes you a leader in the future,” Murphy said. “The lesson I would like for the students to learn from the university is that they're there to learn those things, not that we're there to stop those things.”
Bradley said in his email to students and staff that he would support student speech, but that he must uphold the university’s policies and protect campus safety.
SJP posted videos on social media of both the Monday citation and the disruptions at Bradley’s inauguration, in which students stood up in the crowd yelling “genocide Gerry” and demanding he meet with students.
Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized a student interaction with university police. The student was detained and cited.
Louisville Public Media's Bill Burton contributed to this report.
