Just weeks before University of Massachusetts Amherst junior Aidan O’Neill planned to leave for his Barcelona study abroad program, he was informed by UMass that he wasn’t allowed to participate.
That’s one one of several consequences O’Neill has faced since he was arrested for trespassing at an October pro-Palestine rally where 56 students and one faculty member were also arrested.
At the protest, the students vowed to not leave a university administration building until the university met the group’s demands that the university cut any ties with companies that manufacture weapons, like RTX — previously named Raytheon — and to “condemn the Israeli massacre of Palestinians and condemn the blockade on Gaza.”
Speaking to MassLive on Wednesday, O’Neill reflected on what he was having to give up.
“I’m made to feel like I should regret this, and should regret that decision to stay and get arrested, but I can’t really find it in myself to feel regret for that,” O’Neill told MassLive.
“I’m personally kind of devastated by not being able to go abroad, especially finding out last minute. It definitely kind of flips my life around and has made me rethink a lot of steps in my future and what the next year is going to look like but those are all things that I can deal with in my own way,” he said.
But O’Neill said the university’s decision to rule him ineligible to study abroad next semester may be biased, and is part of a pattern he has seen across universities and colleges where pro-Palestine students have dealt with more repercussions as a result of their activism.
- Read more: 57 arrested at UMass sit-in protest of war profiteers, Palestinian bloodshed
While O’Neill’s legal battles ended in December — resulting in a civil infraction and a $100 fine — the dean’s office at UMass put him on university probation or sanction on Dec. 12. As part of the probation or sanction, O’Neill is no longer in good disciplinary standing.
The university probation explains why O’Neill — along with two other arrested students — are ineligible to study abroad next semester, according to a university spokesperson.
“Consistent with the university’s past practice and the Student Agreement of Participation signed by each student, (the International Programs Office) revoked eligibility for these students to study abroad for the upcoming winter/spring terms,” the university spokesperson wrote in an email to MassLive. “As part of the study abroad clearance process, (the International Programs Office) reviews each applicant’s conduct history and, if there are no records of incidents, the student is conditionally cleared for study abroad.”
The university spokesperson said new conduct actions can mean study abroad eligibility can be revoked at any time up to and after departure, as stated in the student agreement of participation.
The decision doesn’t preclude the students from being eligible for study abroad programs in the future when the conduct sanctions and appeals have been resolved, the spokesperson said.
‘We thought we had a fighting chance’
Shahily Negrón, an attorney who is representing one of the three UMass students deemed ineligible to study abroad next semester, said only a few hours after their meeting with a dean, her client was told she would be under university probation.
Negrón said she felt as though the decision to put her client on probation had already been made, but she still felt hope because they could appeal the decision.
- Read more: At court date for UMass protesters of Israel war, advocates lament silenced voices
Negrón said the university administration told her that because they were appealing the university probation, the probation wouldn’t go into effect. But on Dec. 15, her client was sent an email by the International Programs Office informing her that she wouldn’t be allowed to study abroad because of the probation.
Negrón said it was “heartbreaking,” adding she was surprised by the lack of review process to get to the decision.
“It’s the whole purpose of democracy, right? I mean, you have an opportunity for an appeal. You have an opportunity for things to go on as they were planned to give you a fighting chance, right? So we thought we had a fighting chance,” Negrón said.
While the sanction review is scheduled for January, her client won’t be able to study abroad next semester. Negrón said she is in talks with the university’s general counsel to potentially move forward with a lawsuit for punishing her client for exercising her right to free speech and peaceful protest.
‘Unfair punishment’
O’Neill said he was similarly blindsided by a lack of discussion with the university about his study abroad.
He said he didn’t know until the Dec. 15 email — the last day of the semester— whether he would be able to study abroad despite attempts to reach out to International Programs Office Director Kalpen Trivedi and other administrators to discuss what his university probation could mean.
O’Neill said while he appealed the dean’s decision of university probation, he was prepared to take part in the review process by the International Programs Office to share why he should be able to go abroad.
“If you look closely at this charge, then you’ll see that it’s kind of an unfair punishment,” O’Neill said. “I should be able to go abroad because I mean, it’s my opinion that you should be able to peacefully protest and use your right to free speech at a university. And so I really thought that through the review process, I would be conditionally cleared.”
O’Neill said he collected letters of support from professors and other proof that he was otherwise in good standing. But the Dec. 15 email abruptly took away his chance to have a discussion about attending his study abroad program.
“What that says to me is somebody in the position to make decisions is making the decision that as a student who supported Palestinian rights, and spoke out against the university’s funding Israel’s genocide, I don’t have that right to have my conduct reviewed. And what I did, at least in the eyes of administration and the directors of these departments, … was wrong,” O’Neill said. “But I don’t see it that way.”
‘There is a pattern we can see across different universities’
O’Neill said when he looks across university and college campuses, there is a pattern in the way pro-Palestine students have been treated — and he isn’t ruling the possibility of bias being a factor for why he isn’t being allowed to study abroad next semester.
“This decision definitely could have been impacted by certain UMass employees’ political views, and it does show this pattern of students who support Palestine (and) Palestinian rights being punished harsher than other protesters,” O’Neill said.
Negrón has been representing over 30 clients pro bono ranging from pro-Palestine students to professors to employees in New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts with the help of New York attorney Jonathan Wallace.
“After Oct. 7, anyone who has shared any type of sympathy, any type of support to victim who have fallen in Gaza, for instance, in Palestine, have been accused of either being an antisemite (or) antisemitism,” Negrón said.
As a result of the university decision to not allow her client to study abroad, Negrón said her client will likely lose more than $20,000 in unrecoverable costs for the study abroad tuition, on top of other costs such as plane tickets.
O’Neill said he feels like he is being punished again because he will have to pay half of his study abroad program costs, and is now scrambling to find and confirm the classes he can take at UMass next semester.
He said he will be able to continue his housing in his dorm for next semester.
A university spokesperson said the International Programs Office is working with the students to enroll in classes and is figuring out campus housing placements.
“They also work with students to advocate on their behalf with third party study abroad program providers in an effort to minimize financial and other logistical impacts. Ultimately, this is up to the program provider and their terms with the student, and each case resolves differently,” the university spokesperson said.
Attorney Rachel Weber, who represented O’Neill and who is still representing some of the arrested students, said the fate of those UMass arrestees looked a lot different than other protests on campus over the years.
She said students protested in the same hallway as the 56 UMass students in 2016, but with the goal for the university to divest from fossil fuels. While she said the students were arrested, the university chose not to give the students probation.
“It’s a freedom of speech issue where there’s differential treatment based on the content of the speech. And it’s a slippery slope. If the university is going to create an atmosphere where certain students are going to be punished differently than other students based on content then at what point does that bring faculty and what they can teach or speakers and who can we bring to campus and what kind of events can we organize on campus?” Weber said.