Harvard Places 10 Graduate Students on Probation for Encampment Participation

Updated June 27, 2024, at 1:18 p.m.

The Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences placed 10 graduate students on probation for participating in the pro-Palestine encampment earlier this year, Harvard Out of Occupied announced in a press release Tuesday.

Three graduate students were placed on probation for the academic year and seven students were placed on probation for six months, according to the release. Additionally, one student received admonishment and two cases were dropped.

The board voted on Friday to decide the students’ disciplinary cases, according to a letter obtained by The Crimson that notified a graduate student of their placement on probation.

“The Board was grateful to you for being so forthright and honest when the issue was brought to your attention,” the letter stated. “Nevertheless, they felt that they needed to formally enforce the Harvard Griffin GSAS Codes of Conduct and they therefore voted to place you on probation for a limited time period.”

Probation does not have any additional conditions other than abiding by GSAS and University policies and rules.

Probation is a warning to students “whose conduct gives cause for concern,” according to the letter. If a student resumes “satisfactory behavior” during their temporary probation period the sanction will lift. Failure to meet the conditions of probation leads to a requirement to withdraw.

The GSAS Ad Board action comes just over a month after Harvard College suspended five students and placed more than 20 on probation for their participation in the Harvard Yard encampment — including 13 seniors, who were barred from graduating by the Harvard Corporation one day before the University’s annual Commencement ceremonies.

At least 60 students — including graduate and undergraduate students — initially received notices from the Ad Boards of their schools for their involvement in the encampment.

The College and GSAS are the only two schools to sanction the student protesters. All other graduate schools admonished students or dismissed their cases, according to a HOOP organizer who was granted anonymity to discuss student disciplinary cases.

While all the initial Ad Board cases over participation in the encampment have now been resolved, students have submitted appeals and requests for reconsideration — which means some cases will not be finalized for several weeks.

University spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on the status of Ad Board cases.

The move to sanction pro-Palestine student protesters following the end of the encampment drew outrage from students and faculty alike. HOOP organizers believed that encampment protesters would be granted amnesty as a part of a negotiated agreement with the University to voluntarily end the demonstration even though interim Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 said the work of Harvard’s disciplinary boards would continue to evaluate disciplinary cases.

A GSAS spokesperson wrote in an email Tuesday that the encampment was “deemed a violation of University rules, and anyone found to be participating was subject to their individual school’s Ad Board and potential disciplinary consequences and sanctions.”

Three days before Commencement, a group of professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences attempted to add disciplined students back to the list of degrees recommended for conferral, prompting the Corporation to step in and uphold the Ad Board’s decision.

Hundreds of faculty and staff members denounced the sanctions as “unprecedented” and “arbitrary” in an open letter to Garber last month.

During the Ad Board hearings, GSAS Dean of Students William Stackman — a non-voting member of the Ad Board — told students that there was “no evidence of the individual actions of any of the students and student workers found to have violated GSAS Policies” outside of Harvard IDs presented during periodical checks, according to HOOP.

—Staff writer Michelle N. Amponsah can be reached at michelle.amponsah@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @mnamponsah.

—Staff writer Joyce E. Kim can be reached at joyce.kim@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @joycekim324.