The University of Pittsburgh has temporarily suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, citing potential Student Code of Conduct violations.
SJP cannot host events or request funds from the university while suspended. In a Wednesday letter to SJP, Associate Director of Student Conduct Jamey Mentzer did not specify when the suspension could be lifted.
SJP has 10 business days to appeal the decision.
The suspension stems from SJP members’ actions during a Conduct Hearing Board deliberation in February, according to Mr. Mentzer’s letter. The hearing was over a “liberation study group” hosted by SJP in December that Pitt officials say did not comply with university event policies.
During the February conduct hearing, SJP members “improperly engaged in communications” to members of the board, Mr. Mentzer wrote.
“As set forth in the code, interference with the conduct process, which includes any action designed or with the potential to influence or intimidate any person who is participating in a student conduct proceeding, constitutes a serious violation,” Mr. Mentzer wrote.
Pitt did not further address the suspension in a university statement, citing the need to respect “the privacy and integrity of ongoing investigations.”
“Conduct proceedings are an unbiased, educational process designed to uphold community standards and the Code of Conduct,” Pitt spokeswoman Sarah Ayer said in a statement. “Please refer to the Student Code of Conduct for a general overview."
Other pro-Palestine groups in the Pittsburgh area have decried the suspension, referring to it as an “attack on free speech.”
“This is a wildly dangerous step that Pitt admin have decided to take,” reads a statement from the Steel City Anti-Facist League. “Universities in the U.S. have long been bastions of civil discourse and opposition to the greatest injustices of the world. Pitt admin’s caving to the Zionist pressure shows where they truly stand.”
SJP frequently hosts protests, teach-ins, film screenings and other events in support of Palestine.
It is the sole registered student group on campus with the direct mission to support Palestine. Another student group, Pitt Divest from Apartheid, is not registered with the university.
The war in Gaza has seen campuses across the country divided since the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel in October 2023, killing hundreds of men, women and children and taking others hostage. Israel subsequently declared war on Hamas. The United Nations estimates that over 45,000 Palestinians and 1,700 Israelis and foreign nationals have died in the conflict thus far.
College campuses have become hotbeds for protest and discourse surrounding the war. At Pitt, most pro-Palestine protests have remained peaceful, although one escalated into a tumultuous, occasionally violent scene that saw arrests, defacement of the Cathedral of Learning and numerous clashes between police and protesters.
Last week, a majority of Pitt students who voted in the Student Government Board’s spring election pushed the university to disclose its endowment investments and divest any financial holdings from weapons manufacturers arming Israel.
And in December, Pitt announced it would develop a working group on antisemitism following a fall semester that saw tension increase over the Israel-Hamas war and the assaults of three Jewish students on or near campus.
First Published: March 20, 2025, 3:57 p.m.
Updated: March 21, 2025, 2:05 p.m.
