We are educators, researchers, student resource providers, staff, administrators, students and community members at Portland State University. We insist that students who participated in civil disobedience and protest on campus maintain their right to an education at PSU. We join educators and scholars at NYU, University of Georgia, University of Michigan, and UCLA to denounce any practice that denies this right to education, including expulsion, suspension, and negative transcript notations.
Disciplinary action that excludes students from education is the wrong approach. Revoking the right to learn is not your only option. PSU’s Student Code of Conduct also includes approaches based in repair, such as meditation, education, and community service. We urge you to engage in a restorative justice approach and reject punitive discipline that prevents students from continuing their scholarship. A recent report authored by the Director of PSU’s Center for Student Success, Linda Jessell, says “[t]he national interest in the Restorative Justice model results from the growing awareness that existing disciplinary strategies for student misconduct, which have included more punitive penalties such as suspensions, expulsions, and juvenile justice referrals, have not proven effective.”
We do not believe that anyone should be denied an education, and we believe that Portland State’s mission and programming already reflect values of access and opportunity. Portland State University currently offers classes and support to people who wish to continue their education both while incarcerated and after their return to the community. Justice-impacted students are welcome at PSU, not pushed out of their educational futures. Maintaining the same access to education to students facing legal repercussions in association with the student movement in support of Palestinian liberation keeps the university in alignment with our current values. Portland State University has demonstrated its willingness to engage in punishment through the use of police force; now it is time to demonstrate that your commitment to use restorative justice approaches is real.
It is essential that PSU back away from exclusionary punishment. It should also be noted that at the arraignments held on May 3rd, the prosecution requested that everyone be barred from PSU campus. The judge categorically denied this request, specifically because students should not be barred from classes nor campus, disagreeing with prosecutors that removing the right to access education was warranted.
We call on the university to follow through with commitments President Ann Cudd agreed to in the spring that will allow our students to return to class and pursue their education:
No expulsions, suspension, restrictions on graduation, or transcript notation. No changes to current status in student housing, no changes to scholarship status or financial aid: no impact on educational visa status
Add your name to the letter - click here or scroll to the bottom of this page
Signed,
Aaron Roussell; Associate Professor, Sociology
Abdulla Ali; Alumni
Aidan Durias; Alumni
Alex Farrington; Research Associate, School of Urban Studies and Planning
Amie Thurber; Associate Professor, Social Work
Amy Ruff; Staff
Andrea Baron; PhD student, Department of Sociology
Ariana Jacob; Adjunct Faculty, School of Art + Design
Azad Amir-Ghassemi; Senior Analyst, Toulan School, CUPA
Bella Catalano; Staff
Ben Anderson-Nathe; Professor, Child, Youth, & Family Studies
Ben Kimball; Adjunct Instructor, School of Social Work
Ben Mendelsohn; Assistant Professor, School of Film
Bodhi; Student
Brian Ellis; Alumni
Brice Suprenant; Concerned citizen
Caitlin Quinn; Community partner, Grad school of business
Cassandra Croft; Graduate Teaching Assistant, Physics Department, CLAS
Charlotte Fisher; VP at large, Portland Federation of School Professionals
Christine Claringbold, Alumna
CJ Alicandro; Alumni and Administrative Assistant, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Colleen Carroll; Senior Research Assistant, Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning
Dara Shifrer; Associate Professor, Sociology
Diana Cervantes; Alumni School of Social Work, MSW
Eliot Feenstra; Staff, Project Manager, Oregon’s Kitchen Table, National Policy Consensus Center, Hatfield School of Government
Elizabeth Withers; Adjunct Instructor, Sociology
Ellie Rasmussen; Peer Wellbeing Coach, Student Onsite Event Manager, Front Office Lead, SHAC and CESU
Emily Nelson; Adjunct Instructor, CYFS
Emily Paben; Community member
Ericka Kimball; Associate Professor, School of Social Work
Federico Pérez Fernández; Associate Professor, Honors College
Gabriella Mota; Graduate Teaching Assistant, Sociology Department, CLAS
Gisela Rodriguez Fernandez; Assistant teaching professor, University Studies
Gita Mehrotra; Associate Professor, School of Social Work
Grace Brakenhoff; Student, Graduate school
Grace Pappas; Faculty, School of Social Work
Greg Townley; Professor, Psychology
Jamie L. Jones; Teaching Assistant Professor, School of Public Health
Jana Zahler; Student, Alumna MSW
Jenna Voorhies; Alumna
Jennifer Ruth; Professor, Film
Jenny Mittelstaedt; Teaching Assistant Professor, Dept. of Applied Linguistics
Jessi Presley-Grusin; Student
Jessica Rodriguez-JenKins; Associate Professor, School of Social Work
Jessica Truong; Student, College of Education, Counseling
Jillian Goldstein; Student
José Antonio Padín; Faculty
Julie Perini; Professor, Art
June Jenkins; Student
Kacy McKinney; Teaching Assistant Professor, Urban Studies and Planning
Kady Fugere; Alumni
Kali Simmons; Assistant Professor, Indigenous Nations Studies, School of Gender, Race, and Nations
Kate Connolly; Student, Civil & Environmental Engineering Department, MCECS
Kathleen Iubatti; Staff
Katia Duncan; Adjunct Faculty, School of Social Work
Katie Hulshizer; Operations Specialist, College of Education, Dean's Office
Katie Shammel; Faculty
Kay Gordon; Assistant Director of Queer Student Services, Queer Resource Center
KD DeLorio; Academic and Career Advisor, Advising and Career Services
Kristin Hole; Associate Professor, School of Film
Kye Grant; Art and Social Practice MFA Program Assistant, School of Art and Design
Kyla Jarka; Lab Technician 2, Environmental Science and Management
Laura Gordon; Student, MSW
Leni Zumas; Professor, English/CLAS
Leo ariel; Alumni
Lisa K. Bates; Professor Toulan School, CUPA
Lizzie Fussell; Alumni, School of Public Health
Lynn Hager; LCSW Alumni & previous employee, School of Social Work, School of Urban and Public Affairs
Madi Lou Alexander; Researcher, Sociology Department
Mariah Terrill; Office Specialist 2, Politics & Global Affairs, College of Urban and Public Affairs
Marisa Zapata; Associate Professor, Urban Studies and Planning
Mark Berrettini; Professor; School of Film, College of the Arts
Marley Sherwood; Lab attendant, School of Business
Mars Sullivan; Alumni, PSU Art Department
Mary; Alumni (aka a potential donor), School of Public Health
Matt Chorpenning; Associate Professor of Practice/Online MSW Option Coordinator, School of Social Work
Matthew Gebhardt; Associate Professor, Toulan School of Urban Studies & Planning
MD; Staff
Megan Cook; Faculty
Megan Horst; Professor, TSUSP
Megan McFarland; Digital Inclusion & Universal Design Coordinator, Adjunct Faculty, OAI & COE
Melissa L. Bennett; Former Senior Program Coordinator of the NASCC
Melissa Thompson; Professor, Sociology Department
Michele Martinez Thompson; Associate Professor of Practice, SSW
Milayna Barker; Undergraduate student, SPHR at PSU
Miranda Bartosz; Departmental Research Administrator, Sponsored Projects Administration
Mireya Rosas-Barajas; Queer and Trans Students of Color Resource and Retention coordinator, Queer Resource Center
Miriam Abelson; Associate Professor, WGSS, School of Gender, Race, and Nations
Molly Benitez; Assistant Professor , WGSS
Monica Parmley-Frutiger; Adjunct faculty, School of Social Work
Namon; Alum
Naomi Contreras Leos; Student
Natalie Cholula; Graduate research assistant, Sociology, PSU
Ned Tilbrook; RA, Sociology
Nicholas L Edwards; Department Coordinator, Educational Leadership and Policy, College of Education
Noni Villalobos; Student Success Coach, School of Public Health
Norene Hough; Senior Adjunct Instructor, Urban Studies & Planning, CUPA
Paige; Masters Student, School of social work
Pat Boas; Professor Emerita, Schnitzer School of Art, Art History and Design
Patty Miramontes; Alum and former Mecha PSU President
Priscilla Tran; Alumni, Social work
Rae, Alum
Rhiannon Corby; Community member
Sal Petruzelli-Sample; Film Screener, Film
Sarah Harris; Collections Manager, Oregon Jewish Museum / Collections Manager, Milwaukie Museum , Public History MA program
Sarah Maloney; Adjunct, Comic Studies - English Department
Sarah Mercurio; Adjunct Faculty, Urban Studies
Stéphanie Wahab; Professor, School of Social Work
Suzanne Estes; Associate Dean, CLAS
Syan; Community member
Tashina ‘Bear’ Cunningham; Alumni
Tazma Ahmed-Datta; Adjunct Faculty, Counselor Education
Ted Cooper; PhD Candidate, Computer Science
Timothy White; Academic Affairs Coordinator, School of Public Health
Tina Burdsall; Faculty
Willow Grace Eckmayer; Former student employee
Yasmeen Hanoosh; Professor, WLL
Yi Wang; Senior Research Associate, Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning