The revisions to the code would broaden the university’s ability to hold students accountable for misconduct committed during coordinated demonstrations.
The University of Washington is proposing sweeping changes to its student conduct rules that would expand its ability to discipline students involved in coordinated protests, punish activists who conceal their identities, recover restitution for property damage, and sanction student organizations connected to campus disruptions.
The proposed overhaul follows two years of anti-Israel encampments, violent demonstrations, fires, vandalism, and building occupations—including the May 2025 takeover of UW’s newly opened Interdisciplinary Engineering Building, which resulted in 33 arrests and more than $1 million in damage.
The revisions would broaden the university’s ability to hold students accountable for misconduct committed during coordinated demonstrations. Existing rules allow students to be disciplined for assisting another student or a student organization in engaging in prohibited conduct. The proposed language would expand that provision to assistance given to any “person or group of persons.”
Students could also be held responsible for requesting, hiring, or inciting others to commit misconduct, participating in planning prohibited acts, or attempting to commit violations—even if they did not personally carry out the ultimate act.
The proposal does not make mere presence at a protest an automatic violation. UW would still have to establish that a student aided, planned, incited, attempted, or committed prohibited conduct under the university’s “preponderance of evidence” standard, meaning it was more likely than not that the violation occurred.
Another provision would make concealing one’s identity to evade “discovery, recognition, or identification” while committing prohibited conduct an aggravating factor when sanctions are imposed. The language appears aimed at tactics used by masked, black-clad activists during recent campus occupations.
The proposed code would also expressly authorize restitution for property damage, property loss, or injuries. Students who fail to pay, or make university-approved arrangements to pay, could have a conduct hold placed on their records.
Student organizations could face a new, detailed range of penalties, including warnings, probation, deferred suspension, interim suspension, suspension, and permanent revocation of university recognition. During a suspension, no one would be permitted to act on the organization’s behalf by hosting events or recruiting members.
The proposal also expands “failure to comply” violations. Students could be disciplined for refusing to identify themselves to university officials or failing to follow the rules, orders, or directives of university schools, departments, offices, or other units.
Other proposed changes include:
UW’s companion proposal for its general campus code would broaden the existing property-damage prohibition from “malicious” damage to intentional or reckless damage or misuse of university property. It would also prohibit doxing, update hazing requirements, and clarify UW’s authority to impose interim suspensions when someone presents a substantial threat to campus safety or university operations.
UW filed the proposed amendments to Chapter 478-121 WAC, the university’s Student Conduct Code, and Chapter 478-124 WAC, its general campus conduct code, on July 20.
The overhaul would also change who decides appeals of disciplinary cases. Under the current system, only faculty members and students may serve as appeal officers. The proposal would allow university staff members and outside contractors to decide appeals, even though the contractors would not be required to have any prior connection to UW. Appeals could also be decided by a single officer rather than a panel. When a panel is used, faculty members would still have to constitute a majority, but the rules would no longer require a faculty member to serve as chair.
External contractors would be appointed by UW’s vice president for compliance and risk services, while staff members could be selected by the vice president for human resources. The proposed rules would require appeal officers to disclose conflicts of interest and allow parties to seek their disqualification for bias.
The proposals follow years of escalating unrest surrounding anti-Israel activism at UW. In May 2025, pro-Hamas agitators and Antifa militants occupied the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building to protest UW’s relationship with Boeing. Masked agitators dressed in black entered the building after-hours with supplies that included plywood and metal barricades. Inside, activists barricaded exits with furniture and sealed at least one door, temporarily trapping a university employee. Outside, other activists set two dumpsters on fire, delaying the police response while firefighters extinguished the flames. Police later entered the building and arrested 33 people.
The occupation caused more than $1 million in damage, including extensive graffiti and damage to the newly opened facility and its equipment. UW Police initially referred 33 people for possible felony burglary and malicious-mischief charges.
Investigators later said they could not identify who caused particular damage. The building did not have useful surveillance footage, no eyewitnesses saw the vandalism occur, forensic evidence was lacking, and many of the occupiers wore masks and gloves. King County prosecutors ultimately declined to file felony charges. Thirty-three defendants were instead charged with first-degree criminal trespass, a gross misdemeanor.
The investigation illustrates how the provisions concerning masked demonstrators, coordinated conduct, identification, and restitution could affect future campus occupations. Under the proposed rules, concealing one’s identity would not be a separate offense by itself but could produce a harsher punishment when combined with an established violation.
Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return, or SUPER UW, claimed responsibility for the engineering-building takeover. The anti-Israel student organization was also connected to the violent 2024 antisemitic Gaza encampment and had previously been suspended following an occupation of the Husky Union Building that caused more than $50,000 in damage. UW disciplined 23 students involved in the engineering building incident. They served three-quarters of the suspension before returning to campus. SUPER UW , declaring that the activists were “free” with their “suspensions lifted.”
Libby’s Desk
Commentary and must-reads from Libby’s desk, straight to your inbox.
TPM Newsletter
The Post Millennial’s top stories, delivered to your inbox.
The campus unrest unfolded amid mounting criticism of UW’s handling of antisemitism. Jewish students reported being spit on, threatened with violence, driven from meetings, and pressured to conceal their Jewish identities. UW received an “F” from StopAntisemitism in 2024 and later a “D” from the Anti-Defamation League.
The university also became one of dozens of institutions placed under federal civil-rights scrutiny over allegations of antisemitic harassment. Following the engineering building occupation, the Trump administration’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced a review of UW’s federal grants and contracts. The task force described UW’s arrests and suspension of the responsible student organization as “good first steps” but said additional action was required to address the hostile environment faced by Jewish students.
During a March 22 town hall with Seattle's Jewish community, UW President Robert Jones acknowledged that the university’s existing disciplinary system was not designed to address the current wave of campus unrest. “Our student conduct code was not written for this moment in time,” Jones said. Jones said UW “immediately began the process of hiring ‘outside entities’” to review the code after he became president. “We needed to have a conversation about faculty responsibility as it relates to academic freedom, as it relates to First Amendment rights and responsibilities,” Jones added.
At the time, Jones told JNS that UW didn't need to wait for a mandate from the US Department of Justice or the Department of Education before deciding “what needs to be done to move this university closer to being that welcoming environment.”
According to The Daily, UW has scheduled a public hearing for Aug. 25 at Gerberding Hall. Written comments are due by 11 am that day, and the university lists Sept. 9 as the intended adoption date.
Loading this lets Rumble set cookies and collect data.
View on Rumble