By Keely Coxwell
In a letter to the campus on Jan. 16, 2016, after a flier that listed 22 people with inflammatory descriptions attached to each name, University President Crawford wrote, “while the university supports and defends freedom of expression, it has clear policies prohibiting harassment of any kind. Information about those policies and related information appears below.”
The integrity code defines harassment as, “conduct of any type directed against a person (or group of persons) because of his or her (or their) race, color national origin, religion, creed, age, disability, marital or familial status, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, gender identity, or any legally protected characteristic, which is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive, as to limit or deny a student’s ability to participate in, or benefit from, an educational program or a faculty, staff, or student staff member’s ability to perform or participate in a work environment. Harassment that is not discriminatory includes actions such as bullying or harassing an individual or members of a group on a basis other than those defined above.”
According to a gofundme.com page, three students of color (known as the UPS3) were accused of posting the flier and were banned from campus for three years, leaving one student homeless and two more without their degrees. According to the description, the crowdfunding site was set up by Felicia Jarvis, the UPS3’s advisor to support her own expenses.
A ban from the campus is a conduct suspension. According to the integrity code, “conduct suspension is a separation of the student from the university (including its premises and activities) for a specified period of time. This sanctions is instituted when a period away from the university may suffice in reconciling the student to the university community’s values and goals.”
“At UPS, rapists and racists get to stay on campus while their victims are forced to flee, and students of color who speak out are punished with heavy sanctions,” Jarvis wrote on the group’s website.
The gofundme also claims that “White students who receive charges typically receive an educational alternative to punitive measures, but [the UPS3], before the investigation even started, were sent straight to the conduct process.”
As of Jan. 27 $3,500 has been raised by 44 people on gofundme. Funds raised go to cover, “the expenses of the advisor [Jarvis]” such as “pay[ing] for basic bills,” according to the gofundme page.
There was also a Moveon petition asking Dean of Students Mike Segawa to dismiss the charges placed on the UPS3 that got a large amount of signatures. The petition is no longer online.