On Sunday, the disciplinary process of the eight students temporarily suspended by the College as a result of their participation in the Bowdoin Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) encampment in Smith Union came to a close. The administration placed all eight students on disciplinary probation and permitted them to return to campus as of 5 p.m. that day.

Independent of the student disciplinary decisions, SJP leaders also shared that as of this week, the club has been temporarily suspended by Student Activities as a result of the encampment and will face its own disciplinary process.

SJP organizer Olivia Kenney ’25, one of the eight students who was temporarily suspended, also said that beyond their probation, they also are required to participate in an ongoing series of conversations and workshops with the College.

“[I was put on] disciplinary probation, in addition to [further] conversations with my dean and restorative programming, which was articulated to me as [a form of] conflict resolution and non-violence training, or something along those lines,” Kenney said.

Kenney mentioned that because of the circumstances surrounding the encampment, the disciplinary process only involved hearings with deans and not the Conduct Review Board (CRB).

Some suspended students also highlighted a high degree of confidentiality surrounding the process and were not able to share their case files with other students, faculty or family members.

Associate Dean for Community Standards Jimmy Riley emphasized in an email to the Orient that the proceedings followed the College’s standard disciplinary process. As detailed in the Code of Community Standards, the Dean of Students can decide whether or not to convene the CRB for “major violations.”

In the negotiations that resulted in the closing of the encampment, the College agreed to consider several factors in the disciplinary process, namely that students inside Smith Union engaged in “respectful dialogue” with administrators and left the building voluntarily. Kenney said that it was hard to tell what impact this agreement had in the resulting decisions.

“Ultimately, it’s impossible to prove what played a role,” they said. “[Although] I think that maybe laid the groundwork for the administration understanding that this community is not going to tolerate continued, intense levels of repression.”

Though Riley said that he was not able to discuss specific details of the process, he shared a general statement of his office’s mission.

“[A] main goal for our office is to respect students as they navigate the student disciplinary process, while also upholding and respecting the Code of Community Standards, and the Bowdoin community as well,” Riley wrote.

Moving forward, Kenney noted their gratitude for the role of community support throughout the disciplinary process.

“I do believe that just the incredible level of mobilization within the Bowdoin community and from the whole Maine community really contributed to why Bowdoin ultimately dropped these suspensions,” Kenney said.