University of Georgia:
A Model Response to Encampment Protests
University of Georgia:
A Model Response to Encampment Protests
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What Set UGA Apart in Spring 2024’s Wave of Campus Protests
In 2024, as most universities stood by while illegal, antisemitic encampments spread across campuses, a rare few took swift action. The University of Georgia was one of them—and the difference was decisive.
The University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, America’s oldest public university, shut down an attempted encampment by dozens of protesters affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine in just 90 minutes.
The protesters were warned that they were in violation of a decades-long university policy against camping on campus and given time to disperse. When they refused, police were called in. In the end, 16 people, including nine UGA students, were arrested and charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass.
Within hours, and while some were still in jail, the students were suspended and forbidden from entering the campus. Instructors were emailed and asked to call 911 if they saw the students on campus.
After the incident, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp told reporters, “We are not going to allow Georgia to become the next Columbia University.”
Subsequent demonstrations on UGA’s campus fizzled and a protest later in the week was held off campus. Graduation went off without a hitch, unlike at other institutions, including nearby Emory University, a private Atlanta university that moved its commencement off campus due to protests.
The UGA Encampment
At 7 a.m. on April 29, 2024, 25 protesters set up barricades and tents on the lawn near President Jere Morehead’s office. The fledgling structures were dubbed the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”
The encampment came as most students prepared for finals and commencement ten days later.
SJP, the campus group behind the protest, issued demands on the university, including:
- Disclosure of UGA’s financial investments
- Divestment from businesses associated with Israeli military actions
- Solidarity with Palestinians by UGA
- University administration to meet with protesters, as they had with Jewish students after the October 7, 2023 massacre of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas
- Protection for pro-Palestinian students
At the encampment, protesters chanted, “We demand action now!”
The group later demanded that all disciplinary charges be dropped against those arrested.
University Policies Violated
In a statement released by UGA after the administration called in the police to clear the encampment, the university explained that student affairs and university police personnel “established a dialogue” with the protesters to ensure the protesters understood they were aware they were in violation of university policies.
The statement cited a decades-long policy prohibiting outdoor camping on campus and declared, “This morning’s encampment on the North Campus Quad crossed a line.” It also cited the university’s Freedom and Expression Policy, which requires a reservation for protests.
The statement added that protesters “are prohibited from disrupting university activities inside and outside buildings, including classes. Accordingly, our policy expressly prohibits blocking sidewalks, ingress and egress from buildings, and use of amplified sound.”
University officials said they explained these policies to protesters for more than an hour, giving protesters ample time to remove their barricades and tents, make a reservation and relocate. Students were also warned that if they failed to relocate and were arrested, they could “face further disciplinary action by the university.”
Protesters flatly refused and locked arms to resist arrest.
Swift Consequences
The arrests began at 8:30 a.m. and continued for the next 40 minutes, with officers calmly prying protesters loose one by one while protesters and onlookers chanted for divestment and hurled a barrage of non-stop obscenities at police and administrators.
Some of those arrested in the morning returned to campus after their release and staged a protest with close to 100 supporters. By the next day, another protest was called for 9 a.m. At 10 a.m., about a dozen protesters showed up and sat with signs in a light drizzle under their umbrellas.
Faculty Response
In response to the university’s decision to suspend the arrested students, over 219 faculty members (out of a total of 3,100) signed a letter voicing their opposition to the suspensions and calling them “unwarranted and antithetical to our educational mission.”
Unlike faculty reactions to encampment clearings on campuses across the nation, the letter acknowledged that the university was “within its rights to request police presence and intervention and enforce the campus free speech policy.”
While the university did not directly respond to the faculty, it wrote an open letter on May 2, 2024, stating, “These individuals chose to be arrested, and they chose to resist arrest. They are all adults, and they consciously made these unfortunate decisions. But actions have consequences.”
Three of the students who were arrested informally resolved the university’s complaints against them by acknowledging their violations. Any consequences taken against them were not made public.
Ezra Lewis, one of the arrestees, said she lost her university housing and job as a resident assistant. Another was unable to complete his or her coursework and graduate in May. Another finished her degree but was not allowed to attend graduation. Others said they will not be able to complete their degrees on time and have lost their scholarships.
Student and Faculty Disciplinary Panel
Six of the arrestees requested a university disciplinary hearing to plead their case. At UGA, such hearings take place in front of an Office of Student Conduct panel composed of two (trained) student jurists and one faculty member.
During the 13-hour July 30 hearing, the students argued they had the right to protest and none of their activities interrupted academic activities. However, the panel decided to suspend the six arrested students through the fall 2024 semester and put them on probation for the remainder of their time at the university.
SJP Chapter Suspended, Files Federal Complaint
In response to the encampment, the university also suspended the UGA SJP chapter. Following a review in December 2024, the suspension was extended through the spring of 2026, and the group will remain on probation until the spring of 2029.
In partnership with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the group filed a federal Title VI complaint against the university, claiming that its suspension and the arrests of its members at the encampment stemmed from “Islamophobic harassment,” thus violating their civil rights.
A “Petition of Divestment,” which UGA SJP began circulating in April echoed the same complaint. The petition decried a letter that UGA President Jere Morehead sent to students, faculty and staff on October 12, 2023, about the October 7 attack (which the group framed as “addressing the attack on the Israeli occupation”).
The group labeled the letter “one-sided and blatant bias.” Morehead’s letter read in part:
“This afternoon, I am meeting with UGA Hillel to extend my sympathy, concern, and assurance to our Jewish community that we stand together in the wake of the recent atrocities in Israel. As the world continues to watch and despair over the unfolding events, I-like so many of you-am outraged and deeply saddened by the terrorist acts perpetrated against innocent civilians in Israel.”
SJP voiced their objection in the petition, stating, “The President's refusal to stand in solidarity with Palestine demonstrates the apparent position of the Morehead administration: total and unconditional support for the U.S.-backed Zionist occupation.”
UGA Receives an “A”
In March 2025, the ADL reported that UGA established a committee to analyze and evaluate Jewish student life on campus.
In its campus “report card,” the ADL gave the University of George an “A” and rated it “ahead of the pack.”
