The University Memorial Center on the University of Colorado Boulder’s campus on March 20, 2018. (Fiona Matson/CU Independent.)
On Jan. 13, one University of Colorado Boulder student and one alum filed a lawsuit against CU Boulder, claiming the university violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The lawsuit was filed in response to the placement of the plaintiffs, current student Mari Rosenfeld and alum Max Inman, on interim campus exclusion, which prohibited them from accessing university grounds and facilities except to attend classes. The plaintiffs were both students when they were placed on interim exclusion following a protest with Students for Justice in Palestine at an on-campus career fair on Oct. 3.
SJP initially gathered in protest on the University Memorial Center’s south terrace but were redirected after they were told the career fair had reserved the space. A group of 14 individuals then bypassed event registration and entered the career fair, protesting the university’s ties with defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and RTX. Inman, a protestor, and Rosenfeld, a protest marshal, were identified by the university.
“The regulations that CU (Boulder) has put in place are not reasonable, and they are being applied discriminately towards SJP and pro-Palestine protestors in ways that they haven’t been applied against other student organizations,” said Ashlyn Hare, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs.
One of the defendants, CU Boulder Chancellor Justin Schwartz, is being sued for “injunctive relief in his official capacity,” which would prohibit Schwartz and the university from barring pro-Palestine protests in the UMC and taking disciplinary actions against students involved in protests.
“This lawsuit tells CU (Boulder) that they cannot repress this student movement for a free Palestine,” Rosenfeld said in a statement published by Hutchinson Black and Cook.
In addition to Schwartz, the lawsuit also names two other defendants – Holly Nelson, deputy dean of students and assistant vice chancellor of the university, and Devin Cramer, dean of students and associate vice chancellor for student affairs.
Nelson and Cramer are being sued for acting “in disregard of” the plaintiff’s constitutional rights by placing them on interim campus exclusion.
The lawsuit asks the defendants to cover the sum of economic damages, emotional distress, humiliation and loss of enjoyment of life that both students say they faced due to the interim campus exclusion. The plaintiffs are also asking for the disciplinary notations regarding the protest to be removed from their university records.
The lawsuit claims that the university violated a Colorado statute that protects the right to free speech of students enrolled at public institutions of higher education.
The plaintiffs say the defendants violated the statute by limiting SJP’s protests when the protest was relocated and Rosenfeld and Inman were denied access to the UMC. The plaintiffs also claim the defendants violated the statute when they imposed the interim campus exclusion and issued a police report “based on false allegations of criminal activity.”
Before pursuing the lawsuit, the students claim they attempted other methods of negotiation. Rosenfeld said that, despite sending emails and speaking with supervisors, the university did not attempt to fast-track their case.
The lawsuit began with the goal of closing these code of conduct cases, which Rosenfeld said were meant to have been closed a few weeks after they were opened.
Rosenfeld noted that after Nov. 22, repeated contact with Cramer and Christopher Paddock, the associate director of the Student Code of Conduct and Conflict Resolution office, resulted in the lifting of the interim exclusion on Nov. 25, but had no results on closing the actual code of conduct case itself.
These cases are still open three months later, according to Rosenfeld.
“It’s very chilling on other speech, meaning that other students might not feel comfortable to protest on campus if they think that they’re going to face harsh punishment, like our clients did in this case, without even [first] getting a hearing from the university,” Hare said.
Nicole Mueksch, a spokesperson for the university, said that the university is currently unable to comment on the lawsuit, as the campus must first review it and determine a further course of action.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Ainsley Coogan at ainsley.coogan@colorado.edu
