After conduct hearings took place this summer following the April 25 inauguration protest on campus, Occidental placed three students on disciplinary probation through Spring 2027 and suspended two of them for the Fall semester.
The Occidental spoke with two of the three students who received conduct charges. Due to the confidential nature of educational conduct proceedings, they will be kept anonymous and will be referred to as Student A and Student B.
“I […] received disciplinary probation until Spring 2027, during which I can’t participate in research, study abroad, be on a sports team or anything else Oxy considers a privileged activity,” Student A said. “I didn’t appeal as I didn’t want to face going through the process again and possibly face suspension.”
The college’s 2024 Code of Conduct states that students on probation are also excluded from ASOC officer positions and some additional student employment positions.
According to Student B, they cannot be on off-campus or on-campus college property during their suspension or else they could be sued for trespassing and put back into the disciplinary process. According to the college’s 2024 Code of Conduct, there is a “possibility of more severe sanctions, including expulsion if the student violates the conditions of suspension or is found responsible for additional violations of the Student Code of Conduct.”
Student B said they, along with other protestors, were assaulted by both campus safety officers and Code 4 private security officers.
“Before the hearing, I was allowed to view the evidence that would be used against me in evidence review sessions, in which I had to rewatch myself get punched in the face and have articles of my clothing torn off,” Student B said.
Interim Director of Campus Safety Stacy Spell said via email that he talked with campus safety officers and the private security about using de-escalation techniques prior to the inauguration.
“As a practice, for every event where we have outside security, I conduct a briefing to ensure clarity of expectations and describe the use of de-escalation as a best practice,” Spell said via email.
Vice President of Marketing and Communications Perrine Mann said the college hired an outside firm to investigate all parties involved in the incident, not just the students. The results are on Oxy.edu. Mann said the college has not received any formal complaint from a student about being assaulted on April 25.
“The college wanted to make sure we had access to all the information we possibly could,” Mann said. “We specifically solicited information from students who claimed to have been injured or assaulted, but the college has not received any information confirming those claims.”
According to Student A, the college is only required to give five business days between an initial notice and a hearing. Student A said they were only able to start reviewing the evidence used against them a week before their hearing, and they were never fully able to review their file. This prevented them from having enough time to build their case, Student A said.
“You have to schedule evidence review sessions in one-hour increments and are only given ‘view only’ access — you can’t take pictures or videos and can only manually copy some documents,” Student A said via text. “My binder was hundreds of pages long, and there were six to eight videos amounting to 30 to 40 minutes total, which I was not able to review outside of my evidence review sessions.”
Student A said that evidence in the binder they were provided confirmed that the administration had 11 additional images of protesters.
Student A said they had to scramble to find a legal advocate to help them work through the evidence, and that their hearing was scheduled the same week that they had to present at the college’s summer research conference.
“On the day of July 31, the Zoom call lasted six hours for me,” Student A said. “I was represented by a representative from Palestine Legal, a legal aid organization dedicated to defending those speaking out to stop the genocide in Gaza and Palestine. However, in the hearing, I was the only one allowed to talk. The majority of the hearing was the witnesses and their cross-examination.”
According to Student A, there was no evidence in the videos of them acting violently, nor did any officers claim to have seen them act violently. Witnesses at the hearing included Dean Vivian Santiago, a medical officer who was on site during the protests and a campus safety officer, Student A said.
“A question I asked all of the witnesses against me was if they had seen me at the protest or if I was engaged in any dangerous behavior, in which they all denied seeing me at the protest or engaging in such behavior,” Student A said.
During the hearing, both Students A and B said they were also asked to provide the identities of other students at the protest, to which they said they declined.
Student A received their conduct outcome Aug. 1 and learned they will have to write 14 reflections on a book titled “Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships.”
“What right does Oxy have to tell me how to base my morals or values when they haven’t even held themselves accountable for beating their students and investing money towards genocide?” Student A said.
Student B said their hearing was also six hours on Zoom, in which their legal advocate was not allowed to speak.
Student B said they had to read statements by college administrators and faculty which said that students were not visibly assaulted on video and that the actions of campus safety and the private security officers did not escalate the situation.
“In witness testimonies, there was no mention of my name, and the college said that I personally did not have to be the perpetrator of any of what they claim, but as someone who was present I can be put through this process,” Student B said.
Student B said their legal advocate received an email from the college’s general counsel, Nora Khan, saying that students may be held individually responsible for the actions of a collective that violates the Right to Dissent policy.
Professor Kimberly Diaz of the religious studies department said the college administration must explore more equitable alternatives in dispensing justice if they want to live up to Occidental’s mission statement.
“We, the Occidental community, need to recognize this situation as a critical one for the college’s future,” Diaz said via email. “The way in which the college administration conducted the investigation of Inauguration Day lacked transparency and consistency, ultimately bringing into serious question the college’s integrity.”
Director of Communications Rachael Warecki said the primary goals of the conduct processes were to ensure accountability and restore community relationships through education and dialogue.
Contact Ava LaLonde at lalonde@oxy.edu
