Palestine protesters face disciplinary action, must read Navy SEAL book, organizer says

Just weeks before the end of the Spring 2024 semester, two student organizations took over the southern edge of Memorial Mall in protest of Israel’s incursions into the Gaza Strip. But two weeks later, the encampment disappeared.

Now, several students involved in the protest have been found responsible for violations of Purdue’s Code of Student Conduct that occurred during the encampment. They face disciplinary action that includes requiring them to read a book called “Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win,” according to Raisa Deotale, one of the organizers who faces the disciplinary action.

On April 25, pro-Palestinian students began pitching tents and placing signs on the mall to begin protesting with six goals, including a demand for Purdue to “divest from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli Apartheid,” according to the Instagram page of Students for Justice in Palestine, one of the groups involved in the protest.

The four students charged received an email from Purdue administrators at midnight on April 29 telling them to remove the structure, according to previous Exponent reporting. SJP President Johnny Hazboun said the structure “wasn’t worth fighting for,” and began the process of taking it down on May 6.

In late July, four students and two clubs, the Young Democratic Socialists of America and SJP, were found responsible by university officials of obstructing or disrupting university activity, occupying university property without authorization, violating any university rule governing the use of university property and failing to comply with directions of university officials.

The organizers of the encampment, Hazboun, Deotale and Arjun Janakan, were found by Student Affairs Specialist Amanda Ward to have violated all of the charges except disrupting a university activity and have been placed on disciplinary probation, according to a letter provided by Deotale.

Ishan Tripathi, a YDSA member who was also charged, said he was the only one put on probated suspension, meaning he now has a “conditional continuation of student status for a limited and defined period of time,” according to the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities website.

In addition to the violations, Tripathi was also banned from the entirety of Purdue’s campus on June 17.

He said the ban was unrelated to the encampment on Memorial Mall.

The potential consequences some of the students face aren’t clear on the OSRR’s website, but “records of such disciplinary probation shall be taken into consideration in determining the sanction(s), if any, to be imposed because of such subsequent misconduct.”

The students also said that the punishments aren’t universal. Deotale said both her and Hazboun have to read a book titled “Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win” and write an 8 to ten page paper, amongst other sanctions.

"“Extreme Ownership,” written by Navy SEAL Jocko Willink and Leif Babin is a book that “explains the SEAL leadership concepts crucial to accomplishing the most difficult missions in combat and how to apply them to any group, team, or organization,” according to Echelon Front’s website, a group which Willink is the CEO.

“It provides the reader with Jocko and Leif’s formula for success: the mindset and guiding principles that enable SEAL combat units to achieve extraordinary results,” the website said.

When the Exponent reached out to Purdue, spokesperson Trevor Peters said “there is a standard process for reviewing and determining sanctions,” and was unable to confirm the validity of the book due to federal privacy laws.

Hazboun was forced to resign from his position as president of SJP as a result of the encampment, he said, and was also fired from his position as an RA at Wiley Hall by the university.

The Residence Hall Association was not available to confirm Hazboun had been removed after multiple attempts for comment, but he is not pictured alongside other RAs in Wiley Hall’s lobby as of Thursday afternoon.

“The university specifically punished the President of SJP, a Palestinian international student, by revoking his employment, housing and financial aid,” a post on YDSA and SJP’s Instagram accounts said.

But when Hazboun spoke with the Exponent, he said he had been offered living accommodations but wasn’t sure if he would accept them.

“After almost a week of talking, they offered to give me something on campus,” Hazboun said. “It's basically one of those temporary dorms, which is like … dorms that have no windows and nothing and a common area that was converted to a room, I was offered that. I don't know if I'm gonna take it, but, yeah, at least they offered something.”

SJP and YDSA also violated all charges except obstruction or disruption of a university activity.

The students have claimed in interviews and in emails to university administrators that they should have avoided repercussions for two reasons: they were protesting on public property and YDSA and SJP, the organizations the students are a part of, disaffiliated from the encampment.

“In regards to our clubs, we were also found guilty in spite of us disaffiliating on the third day of the liberation zone and other West Lafayette organizations took lead,” Deotale said on Sunday.

Purdue prides itself on being a university where all forms of public expression are allowed, citing an 11-year old “Commitment to Freedom of Expression” policy approved by the board of trustees in 2013.

But that commitment doesn’t mean all speech is protected. Under university policy, public areas, while available to the public, are still subject to the same rules and regulations of a university building, meaning YDSA and SJP had to reserve Memorial Mall to protest there.

The organizations went through this process and were given space to protest on the Agriculture Admin Lawn, Vice Provost for Student Life Martia Brawner King said in a letter to SJP. But the students instead protested at Memorial Mall, King said, violating SAO rules.

To make the policies more transparent to students, Purdue spokesperson Trevor Peters announced Monday there would be stickers with a QR code that links to Purdue’s “Freedom of Expression” policies. These stickers were placed around campus before the semester began.

“It's really a resource, to be honest with you,” he said later in an interview with the Exponent.

“To bring everything in one location so that the community knows where everything's at and can read it on their own.”

These stickers aren't small. They’re almost four feet by four feet.

One is placed at the southern tip of Memorial Mall, facing where the encampment once stood.

Editor's Note
The original version of this article said the encampment took place on the northern tip of Memorial Mall. It took place on the southern tip of Memorial Mall.