"A central part of the student’s lawsuit is that the university violated its own rules by handling the students’ disciplinary process through the Center for Student Success and Intervention (CSSI) rather than the University Judicial Board (UJB), which is composed of and accountable to a democratically elected body in the university senate whose members include a mixture of administrative staff, faculty and students. The UJB administers the Rules of University Conduct, which were set up specifically to deal with student protests following the university’s handling of anti-war protests in 1968. Under the CSSI process, students do not have the right to an attorney and are unable to bring witnesses to speak on the record. According to the congressional report investigating antisemitism on campuses, “moving the cases to the UJB would almost certainly result in significantly weaker punishments than CSSI.” The University Senate also raised concerns in the spring about CSSI handling disciplinary actions over student protests.

In addition to barring the students from campus and classes during the interim suspension, the order also said they had 24 hours to vacate their housing which was leased to them by the university. The complaint states that the university violated New York state law by not giving the students a 30-day notice of their eviction.

“I was worried about where I was going to live, how I was going to sustain myself. I was worried about losing access to my healthcare, which I rely on for doctor visits and medication that are very essential to living,” Parisi said. “I was overwhelmed with emotions. And quite frankly, I was experiencing a lot of fear of the uncertainty of what's going to happen to my life.”"

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/columbia-students-sue-university-palestine-activism

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