Akthar was the only one among the eight whose original judicial conference did not initially reach a conclusion, due to Public Safety (PSafe) reports alleging that she recited anti-Semitic chants through a bullhorn. 

“I was accused of hate speech by a racist Public Safety officer who said that I shouted something anti-Semitic,” Akthar said. “[This] goes against my personal values and everything that comes with the condition of being part of this pro-Palestinian movement. It is illogical.”

The Sept. 21 rally was coordinated by student organizers advocating for the University’s adoption of the Committee for Investor Responsibility’s (CIR) divestment proposal, calling for the divestment of companies supporting the internationally-sanctioned occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. Eight organizers were charged with infractions including disturbance of the peace, disruption, harassment and abuse, impeding access to and from the Frank Center for Public Affairs (PAC) and the Exley Science Center and, in Akthar’s case, discriminatory harassment. 

On Oct. 31, following Akthar’s judicial conference, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Rick Culliton recommended that only Akthar, and not the other students, move forward with a full judicial hearing on Nov. 13, to avoid the automatic issuing of an active suspension. Culliton primarily suggested this not because he believed Akthar said what she was accused of, but because there were conflicting testimonies between the P-Safe officers and her own. 

Two rallies were held by the student body in support of Akthar during the interim between her judicial conference and full judicial hearing. On Nov. 4 and Nov. 12, students gathered in front of North College to mobilize on behalf of Akthar and protest against what participants deemed as a racist, unfair threat of suspension relying on generalized identification from PSafe officers. Wesleyan Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Beyond Empire, another on-campus pro-Palestinian student group, jointly uploaded two posts to Instagram encouraging students to walk out of class and join the emergency rallies. 

“President Michael Roth [’78] claims that he’ll protect the most vulnerable under a Trump presidency—yet he is actively trying to suspend a Brown, Muslim organizer,” the post reads. “We won’t stand by while our community members are targeted.”

Participants claimed that, at the time of the first rally, one of the recently installed surveillance cameras near North College had a red light around it. After investigation of neighboring security cameras, students stated that it was the only one that was activated with a red light. This raised concerns for the participants, as that model of camera comes with built-in facial and keyword recognition capabilities, and attending the rallies posed risks to students. 

In addition to rallying, 712 students, faculty, alumni, and community members signed an open letter in support of Akthar and other organizers, demanding full amnesty and condemning the University’s actions at the rally and the Sept. 20 North College sit-in—most notably the detainment of five students by the Middletown Police Department—as well as the University’s refusal to adopt the CIR’s divestment proposal. 

“The University has failed to provide a reasonable explanation for why these individuals have been singled out from the hundreds of Wesleyan and non-Wesleyan attendees, citing behaviors such as speaking on a megaphone, setting up sound equipment, drumming, or simply being present,” the letter read. “It is apparent that these students are being targeted for their perceived roles as campus organizers.”

Between Oct. 31 and Nov. 13, two town halls were hosted, one at the University Network for Human Rights building on 101 High St., and one at an off-campus location. These town halls provided the opportunity for University and community members to hear directly from those involved in the North College sit-in and the divestment rally. Numerous faculty members were in attendance, as well as many students who had not previously been engaged with on-campus organizing.

“These town halls allowed us to share specifics of our case,” Akthar said. “We were aware that the University was saying and spreading various lies about us and this movement. We know that they claim there was hate speech, that we spat on the board of trustees, that someone with a megaphone shouted in someone’s ear…we know that [the] administration has to lie and paint us as an uncontrolled crowd to even justify the way they were targeting me and my peers for protesting.”

On Nov. 12, the day before Akthar’s scheduled full CSB judicial hearing, she received an email from Culliton offering the option to forgo the hearing and participate in a Dean’s Conference instead, a less severe process. After reviewing witness testimonies from 81 students, the CSB concluded that there was not enough evidence to find Akthar in violation of the discriminatory harassment charge.

“I’m reaching out after conferring with the CSB today about your hearing scheduled for tomorrow,” Culliton wrote in the email to Akthar. “In preparation for the hearing, the board has reviewed the witness statements…. [Based] upon their review of the information in the file, they don’t believe there is likely to be a finding of a preponderance of evidence that you were in violation with respect to the discriminatory harassment charge.”

Following through with the Dean’s Conference, Culliton added, would likely result in Akthar receiving four charges: disturbance of the peace, harassment and abuse, disruptions, and failure to comply, amounting to five disciplinary points. These five points, when added to her existing six, would bring her total to eleven, the threshold for deferred suspension.

The hearing was scheduled for the evening over Zoom, and in attendance would be Culliton, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Community Standards Kevin Butler, PSafe Lieutenant Mark Riordan, PSafe Lieutenant Tim Johnson, and Director of PSafe Scott Rohde. Additionally, Akthar submitted a list of 81 students who agreed to testify to her innocence during the meeting. 

“Another very frustrating component of this was I emailed Assistant Dean Kevin Butler with my list of witnesses, which ended up being 81 witnesses,” Akthar said. “Then Kevin Butler said the board will send a Zoom link to the first 20 witnesses on the list with the intent of hearing their testimony…[but] there are no regulations on the amount of witnesses that I have, and so this is just, again, even more evidence that the Community Standards Board and Kevin Butler and Rick Culliton pretty much do whatever they want, whenever it seems appropriate for the University.”

Another concern for Akthar was her prior interaction with Butler, who had directly engaged with the student protesters during the North College sit-in and was now the main University personnel compiling Akthar’s charges. Butler also claimed that Akthar had made physical contact with him during the sit-in.

“I was leaning against a radiator [in North College], and [Butler] walked up to me, and he said, ‘Please move away from the window,’” Akthar said. “I didn’t really have an opportunity to react, because…as soon as he said that, he was pretty much in front of me, and he was wrestling over me to get the Palestinian flag from behind me…and so I think that, in his mind, because I didn’t move within the first few seconds of him saying that, that I had made physical contact with him, when in reality he had walked up to me, and he had made contact with me.”

Akthar was also uncomfortable with Culliton handling her conference, as he had been threatening active suspension against the five sit-in protesters since Sept. 20. Akthar stated that she has had no reason to believe that he has not been trying to suspend her since that date. 

Even so, Akthar proceeded with the Dean’s Conference and accepted the judicial points and deferred suspension. A Wesleyan SJP post following the conference confirmed that, after external pressure, the hate speech allegation was dropped. The post went on to state that the University’s treatment of Akthar was inexcusable. 

“This student has been put under immense stress for simply protesting genocide,” the post reads. “The University has had to lie to justify their process. We will not let them get away [with] defaming our organizers and this movement.”
Carolyn Neugarten can be reached at cneugarten@wesleyan.edu.