Media Contact

January 15, 2025

URBANA-CHAMPAIGN – As students prepare to return to campus at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign for the upcoming semester, administrators and leaders at the state’s flagship university are being warned that changes to the University’s speech and protest policies, and overzealous discipline of student protestors, are having a chilling effect on expression on the campus.

The warning comes in a letter issued today by the ACLU of Illinois after conversations with student leaders who have been subject to disciplinary actions for engaging in protests and a review of changes to speech policies on campus. The ACLU’s concerns are heightened by the reality that many students will no doubt be moved to protest policies of the incoming presidential administration – from promises of mass deportation to pledges to roll back basic protections for reproductive health care and LGBTQ+ rights.

The letter takes issue with the collective punishment aimed at the students associated with Students for Justice in Palestine. As a result of the encampment protests that took place at the University of Illinois last April and May to protest the war in Gaza – protests that ended peacefully after discussions with students and administrative personnel – Students for Justice in Palestine have had their status as a registered student organization revoked. SJP is not permitted to even seek re-instatement until 2027, and University has required the leaders of SJP and two-thirds of their membership to participate in mandatory “trainings,” regardless of whether the members even participated in the encampment.

The letter also notes that changes to University policies in the wake of the encampment have resulted in some student organizations being disciplined for activity that was peaceful and of a type long supported by the University, which undermined a free flow of discussion around issues on campus. 

“The University has added several vague and arbitrary requirements and set violations thresholds that are far too low,” the letter reads in part. “As a result, student protestors have and will continue to be subject to unpredictable disciplinary regime that effectively puts their academic careers at risk for engaging in protected speech.” 

The letter notes that the new guidelines resulted during the Fall semester in punishment for the leaders of the SECS Climate March, despite the fact that the march followed the very same pattern and route sas it had for more than a decade and a half.  Students were initially subject to charges for violating campus policies in part for simply gathering in front of Foellinger Auditorium, not only the traditional start of the Climate march each year on campus but a frequent gathering point for students wishing to be heard on a range of issues. 

As a result of their alleged violations, leaders of the SECS organization were called into disciplinary meetings, two were placed on an “academic hold” prior to any findings of wrongdoing and the group was forced to focus on this process, not their advocacy.  

The letter notes that “(t)he actions discussed above have contributed to a climate of fear and uncertainty surrounding student activism at the University of Illinois.”

The ACLU of Illinois calls on the University to invite students and faculty input on the revised speech regulations on campus and alter those regulations to assure that the University is fulfilling its mission of creating a space for a variety of ideas and perspectives to be heard on campus. 

A full copy of the letter can be found here