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 

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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