Code of Conduct Office charges against PSU’s chapter of Students United for Palestinian Equality and Rights (SUPER) have been dropped. Charges were made following a peaceful protest on campus, in which the group was accused of violating the probation status they’d acquired due to previous alleged conduct violations in the Spring term of 2024. The decision to drop the charges fell promptly after Portland City Councilor Mitch Green’s speech at the National Day of Action for Higher Ed protest on campus, threatening to vote against the funding of PSU’s new performing arts building if the administration did not relax crackdowns on student activism.
“I stand in solidarity with the students and their fight for civil rights,” Green said at the rally.
On March 22, 2024, the former president of SUPER received a letter from the Code of Conduct Office charging the group with a list of violations following a protest held at a Board of Trustees meeting. Violations noted in the letter included the unauthorized use of a sound amplification device, collusion and the misuse of space. These charges resulted in a probation period for the group that is currently active at the time of publication, set to end on June 30, 2025.
Probation for student groups acts as a period of warning, and any further conduct violations during the period could result in the group’s potential suspension. Organizations on probation also undergo code of conduct training sessions, among other disciplinary actions.
In January of 2025, SUPER members gathered in the Karl Miller Center (KMC) to hold a die-in protest, a demonstration in which activists lie down in a public place as a representation of war-related casualties.
“It was really beautiful to see people show up and in an effort to bring some attention to the genocide that’s happening in Palestine,” said Khadija Almayahi, Current President of SUPER.
During the protest, Almayahi read aloud the names of various Palestinian martyrs over a small megaphone.
On March 22, 2025, Almayahi received a letter from Jordan Banks, PSU’s Conduct and Conflict Resolution Officer, stating that the protest at KMC violated the group’s probation. Banks cited that using the megaphone was the unauthorized use of a sound amplification device, among other alleged offenses that violated probation.
Following the new charges, SUPER sought support from the National Lawyers Guild to navigate the situation at hand. The group notified the administration that they had acquired legal representation. In the following weeks, various attempts to schedule conduct reviews had been made but fell through on multiple occasions.
In late April, SUPER received a letter from Banks confirming that the charges had been officially dropped. This decision came shortly after the National Day of Action for Higher Ed protest, in which Councilor Green pressured PSU to reel back on harsh actions against student protestors.
PSU stated in an interview with Portland Mercury that the decision to drop the charges against SUPER were not related to Councilor Green’s comments.
“Student conduct decisions are, and have always been, made independently and are completely unrelated to any comments by Councilor Green or other external political statements,” read the PSU statement.
Whilst the university’s statement denies influence from Councilor Green’s speech, students remain skeptical of the decision’s coincidental timing.
“We had speculated that perhaps even Councilor Green’s comments put some pressure on the administration to back off in certain ways, Portland State has said that that’s not the case, and I really don’t believe that’s true,” Almayahi said.
While the conduct violation charges from the die-in protest at KMC have been dropped, the group remains on probation at the time of publication, and it isn’t set to be lifted until June 30, 2025.
