Chris Summerlin, dean of students at the University of Florida in Gainesville, chose not to offer slap-on-the-wrist penalties to pro-Hamas protesters arrested on campus on April 29.
Instead, Summerlin applied multiple-year suspensions of some students, the most severe penalty short of expulsion. The students in question will need to reapply should they wish to continue their education at the school, an option not allowed if expelled.
Summerlin, who began his position in April, rejected recommendations from hearing bodies that examined police videos and heard testimony. Tess Jaden Segal, 20, and Allan Hektor Frasheri, 21, received suggested sentences of one-year suspensions; Summerlin took it a step further and administered three- and four-year suspensions, respectively.
Segal said in a statement, “I stand in solidarity with Palestinians not in spite of my Judaism but because of it.”
Frasheri also faces criminal charges for allegedly spitting on a university police officer. The court scheduled a hearing for him on July 24.
Other students receiving three-year suspensions included Roseanna Yashoda Bisram, 20, and Augustino Matthias Pulliam, 20.