(Alan Zhou | Student Life)

Six WashU faculty members —- four of whom were also arrested — were notified that they would be suspended with pay two days after their participation in the April 27 pro-Palestine protest on campus. All of the suspensions were lifted in late June, and most of the professors continue to teach at WashU. 

Several of the faculty members met with Student Life and detailed their suspension processes, provided updates on their employment status, and expressed their disappointment with how they were treated by the University. 

Provost Beverly Wendland sent her letters of suspension to the six faculty members on April 29. Among the recipients was Scott Ross, a lecturer in sociocultural anthropology. He shared a copy of his suspension letter with Student Life.  

“We have been informed you were part of a group that participated in setting up an encampment on the Danforth Campus,” Wendland wrote in her letter to Ross. 

Wendland said that Ross failed to disperse when instructed to do so by the Washington University Police Department (WUPD) and was subsequently arrested for trespassing. She informed him that he is being put on paid administrative leave pending the University’s investigation into his conduct. 

The letter also stated the terms of Ross’ suspension. Wendland wrote that he was “relieved of all job duties” and prohibited from “[engaging] in further work activities.” She also wrote that he should refrain from contacting students or colleagues and that his access to university systems had been revoked.

Like Ross, Michael Allen — who served as a senior lecturer at the Sam Fox School until July and is now a visiting assistant professor of history at West Virginia University — was arrested at the protest and received a suspension letter from Wendland. 

Allen noted a difference between the University’s handling of Economics Professor Phillip Dybvig’s accusations of sexual harassment in 2022 and the handling of the pro-Palestine protest suspensions. 

“In [Dybvig’s] case, the University’s defense to the students who were really upset and filing grievances was, ‘oh, we have to give him due process. He can’t just be suspended,’” Allen said. “And now in this case, it’s like, ‘oh, we can just suspend you immediately,’ two days after the protest with no due process, without an investigation, without evidence, without a hearing.”  

When the initial accusations of his sexual misconduct became public, Dybvig was on an approved, year-long leave and returned to campus the following summer. There is no publicly available information indicating that Dybvig received any major disciplinary action before or after the investigation into his conduct, though the full details of the University’s internal proceedings remain undisclosed. 

Allen said that Dybvig’s case demonstrates that the University is inconsistent with its use of disciplinary measures. 

“A lot of students are still very upset about [Dybvig’s] case, and they’re watching what’s happening here,” he said. “They’re seeing the hypocrisy of the University acting on what you could argue is a much, much more minor basis, even if professors didn’t disperse when the police said to leave a protest, that pales in comparison to sexually assaulting students.”

When asked to comment on the suspensions generally and on several of the suspended faculty’s allegations, Wendland wrote in an email to Student Life that the administration did not veer away from their standard policies and protocols. 

“While, of course, each individual case is different, it would not be out of the ordinary for an employee to be suspended during an investigation,” she wrote. “We always try to complete investigations in as timely a manner as possible. Our priority is always to be fair and thorough, and sometimes that takes time.” 

It is unclear if the provost’s response is in reference to the handling of Dybvig’s case compared to the suspended faculty members’, other allegations made by the faculty members, or the protest suspensions generally.

When asked to comment further on allegations made by suspended faculty, Wendland declined to provide additional details. She also referenced the University’s policy of keeping information about individual suspension cases and personnel matters private. 

Both Ross and Allen said Wendland had alleged in her suspension letters that they helped set up the encampment, which they denied doing. They noted that Wendland altered the reasoning for their suspensions in a letter she wrote to them in late June, when they were notified that the investigations into their actions had been completed. 

“When I received my final email from Provost Wendland, she said that I had been found to have disobeyed a lawful order of the [WUPD],” Allen said. “There was no mention of the original allegation of setting up the encampment, if they investigated [the allegation] and found that I had or had not set up the encampment.” 

Angela Miller, a professor of art history and archaeology, was not arrested at the protest and was surprised when she received her suspension letter. 

“It was unexpected because I hadn’t done anything, and I knew that I hadn’t done anything or had been in any violation,” she said. 

In her letter of suspension to Miller, the provost wrote, “we have been informed that…you used your campus card access to allow unauthorized persons into campus buildings against the explicit orders of [WUPD].”

Miller explained her actions on the afternoon and evening of April 27 to Student Life. She said that she left the protest prior to any arrests, but before leaving, she entered Whitaker Hall with several other protestors to look for a bathroom. 

 “The door was wide open to Whitaker, so I walked in, went to the bathroom, came back out, and I encountered two policemen,” Miller said. “They asked me for my faculty card, which I showed them. We had a very friendly conversation and they said, ‘fine, go ahead.’”  

In a letter sent from Wendland to Miller on July 9, the language used to describe the professor’s violation had changed. Wendland wrote that the University’s investigation revealed that Miller made multiple attempts to interrupt officers as they were implementing dispersal orders and that police tape had to be used to keep her away from them. 

When asked to comment on Wendland’s July 9 letter, Miller wrote to Student Life that she came to the protest at the invitation of certain students to serve as an intermediary between them and the police, and that she confronted police officers in her attempt to mediate. 

“At one point, I went up to [the police] and demanded they state the basis on which they were intending to make arrests, since at that point and after, there was never any violence,” she wrote. “I was doing exactly what the students had instructed me to do. I don’t remember any tape being applied. The police I approached offered no answers, at which point I left the scene.​” 

Miller asserted that many of the allegations against the faculty members were exaggerated. 

“I think, at base, the understanding was that they were violating our rights to protest, and they had to find just cause for that,” she said. 

Miller also said she was troubled by the fact that none of the suspended faculty members were given the opportunity to share their own stories, even during a hearing meant for them to present evidence for exoneration.  

“We were allowed to write letters to the administration explaining, in our own words, what had happened, but that was the only occasion, and we were never really allowed any exchange with the administration,” she said. “It was just a one-sided thing, and then total silence from them.”  

Allen said that his suspension had an influence on his decision to leave WashU. 

“I applied for jobs at different institutions all the way back in the fall [of 2023], so who knows what I would have accepted or not, but certainly the arrest and suspension sort of sealed the deal for me,” Allen said. “When the offer came in from West Virginia, I accepted it within one day.” 

Miller and Ross both returned to campus this fall to continue teaching at WashU. 

“I’m happy to be [back on campus],” she said. “I’m happy to be involved with students. I’m happy to be back doing what I love doing, but [WashU is] not the same place it was.”