UCLA recommends indefinite ban for SJP, 4-year suspension for Graduate SJP
Pro-Palestine protesters demonstrate outside the UC Board of Regents meeting outside the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center on March 18. The UCLA Office of Student Conduct has recommended sanctions for two pro-Palestine campus organizations. (Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Shiv Patel
March 29, 2025 1:18 a.m.
This post was updated March 30 at 9:44 p.m.
UCLA has recommended sanctions for two pro-Palestine student organizations on campus.
The Office of Student Conduct recommended indefinitely revoking the student organization status of Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA and suspending Graduate SJP at UCLA’s status for four years, according to a statement emailed Friday by a UCLA spokesperson. The spokesperson cited a Feb. 5 protest by the organizations outside the Brentwood home of UC Regent Jay Sures – which led to the university issuing interim suspensions of both groups.
SJP and Graduate SJP members left red handprints on Sures’ garage door during the demonstration, and Chancellor Julio Frenk said in a Feb. 12 campuswide email announcing the suspension that members of the organizations prevented one of Sures’ family members from exiting the home.
“These recommendations also took into account previously proposed sanctions for the student groups,” the spokesperson said in the statement.
The proposed sanctions come amid scrutiny by President Donald Trump’s administration of alleged antisemitism at colleges and universities.
The United States Department of Justice said in a Feb. 28 press release that Trump’s Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism would visit UCLA and other college campuses that have “experienced antisemitic incidents since October 2023.”
The department also announced March 5 that it had opened an investigation into the UC over alleged antisemitic treatment of University employees and filed a statement of interest March 18 supporting three Jewish students and a faculty member who are suing UCLA for alleged antisemitic discrimination by the university during the first Palestine solidarity encampment at UCLA. The UC Divest Coalition at UCLA – which includes SJP and Graduate SJP – organized the encampment.
[Related: SJP and UC Divest Coalition demonstrations at UCLA]
The Trump administration announced March 7 that it would be cancelling $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University due to alleged antisemitism. The university – like UCLA and several other universities across the U.S. – was the site of a pro-Palestine encampment in spring 2024.
Student organizations may appeal a dean’s decision to sanction the organization and have five days to do so following the decision, according to the UCLA Student Group Conduct Code. SJP was informed of the proposed sanction Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“We will continue to uphold our policies to ensure UCLA remains a safe and respectful learning environment for all members of our Bruin community,” the spokesperson said in the statement on the recommended sanctions.
