21 students suspended, banned after UW protest

The University of Washington has banned and suspended 21 students who were arrested at a protest at the Seattle campus Monday night.

The students were allegedly part of a group that blocked exits to UW's new engineering building and smashed lab equipment inside, causing a "very early estimate of $1 million in damage to the facility," UW's spokesperson Victor Balta wrote in an email.

Protesters caused "significant damage to the building and equipment inside it, setting dumpsters on fire outside the building, and delaying emergency responders," Balta wrote in a web post.

The university has also barred non-students who were arrested from campus, and Balta told KUOW that charges against 34 protesters have been referred to King County prosecutors.

Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return or SUPER UW, the group organizing the protest, is organizing another demonstration on campus Thursday.

"We are calling UW community and students to rally in support of the students targeted by UW administration," they posted on Facebook.

Protest organizers said in previous posts that escalation in Israel's war on Gaza requires escalation in protests, and that arresting police threw demonstrators down stairs, causing concussions and sending three people to the hospital. Balta said the university is not aware of any injuries, but one person "was screened and cleared by a medic on scene."

The federal government has made it clear they're watching UW's actions very closely. In a statement announcing a "review" from the federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism Tuesday, federal officials said they expect UW "to follow up with enforcement actions and policy changes that are clearly necessary to prevent these uprisings moving forward."

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The university also condemned the group organizing the protest for antisemitism. SUPER UW posted online that Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks were a "heroic victory."

"The University values its long-standing partnership with the federal government," Balta wrote. "We will cooperate with the Task Force’s review and are confident that an evaluation will find we are in compliance with federal civil rights laws."