Students Fight UW's Attempts To Crackdown On Protests — While They Still Can!

The University of Washington wants to crackdown on protest, pushing changes to the Student Code of Conduct that would trump up punishment for students that cover their faces or are merely present when someone else damages property. Initially, UW tried to sneak these new rules through while most students were away for summer break. But after backlash, implementation will have to wait until after the faculty senate can review the new changes. To combat the crackdown, students will mobilize Wednesday, September 9 at 2pm, filling the room for the Board of Regents meeting at Zillow Commons in the Bill & Melinda Gates Center. 

According to The Daily UW, the university quietly filed proposals to overhaul the Student Code of Conduct in July, with faculty only catching wind in late August. In these proposals, the UW seeks authority to punish students for being at a protest where vandalism occurs and to treat the concealment of identity as an “aggravating” factor to hike up the consequences.  

For student organizers on campus, the rule-changes are not shocking. 

“We know exactly why administration is trying to hastily push these changes through, it’s to make it easier to silence and punish students that dare stand against UW’s complicity in the injustices and violence it helps perpetuate, especially regarding its role in aiding the genocide in Palestine,” UW’s chapter of Students for Democratic Society (SDS) said in a message to The Burner. 

SDS continued, “It is up to all of us in the community to hold UW accountable for their continued attempts at repression, just as we must hold UW accountable for its complicity in genocide, and the complacency in the violences facing our own trans and immigrant communities. We reject the way this process has been carried out, we condemn all changes that attempt to codify political repression, and we will continue to fight for a Student Conduct Code that does not silence our voices for speaking out against injustice.”

While UW has not confirmed its exact reasoning for the new conduct, it's pretty clear they stem from the administration's frustrations with pro-Palestine and anti-war protests over the last couple years.  

Students and community members often wore masks or strategically wrapped keffiyehs to conceal their identities during pro-Palestine actions. Pro-Palestine advocates across the country saw efforts from their detractors to expose their identities in hopes of embarrassing them, hurting their careers, or inspiring harassment. Treating facial coverings as an "aggravating" factor may discourage students from participating, even peacefully, in protests on campus. 

Students may also be dissuaded from protest in any form by threat of punishment for someone else’s vandalism. During the pro-Palestine encampment in the quad in 2024, UW lost its mind over graffiti, but not everyone, and likely not even most people camping out, had themselves damaged UW property. 

Not only would it allow UW to punish many for the actions of a few, it would allow UW to issue punishment without thorough investigation. This way, UW wouldn’t have to figure out who committed the vandalism, the university could just punish everyone for being present while it happened.. This would have come in handy for UW when punishing students involved in the occupation of the Boeing-funded Interdisciplinary Engineering Building last May. 

In a public hearing last month, President Robert J. Jones and the Board of Regents heard testimony from students and faculty universally criticizing the changes set for approval Sept. 9. Jones backed off, writing in a letter earlier this month that he would give the Faculty Senate until December 10 to complete a review of the changes and provide feedback. Jones wrote he anticipates the revised code will go before the Board of Regents sometime during winter quarter of 2027. 

Students and faculty counted this as a win, but they’re determined to keep the pressure on to reject the Code of Conduct overhaul all together. 

"The biggest thing is that the students are still not satisfied with the delay alone,” SDS said in a message to The Burner. “We are proud that the UW community was able to effectively organize and force the UW to make a semblance of listening to our voices, but given on how admin continues to act as they attempt to push these sweeping changes through without the input of students, staff, faculty, we have no reason to believe that they will engage with student voices and feedback.”