The University of Washington has proposed revisions to its student conduct code amid concerns about its response to campus antisemitism and anti-Israel encampments.
The university filed the proposed rules with the Washington State Register on July 20 and plans to adopt them on Sept. 9 before fall classes begin, according to The Daily, a student publication. Faculty and students may submit written comments through Aug. 25, when the university also will hold a public hearing in Seattle, according to the state filing.
Among the proposed changes, staff members and outside contractors would be eligible to serve as appeal officers, a role currently reserved for faculty and students. Appeals also could be decided by a single officer rather than a panel.
The proposed code would allow the university to discipline students who remain in a building or on university property after a university official or law enforcement officer orders them to leave. Students could also be disciplined for prohibited conduct committed by others in their presence if they chose to remain after being ordered to leave.
The university also would be permitted to consider whether a student concealed his or her identity “for the purpose of evading or escaping discovery, recognition or identification while engaging in prohibited conduct” when determining an appropriate sanction.
The revisions come after the 2024 anti-Israel encampment on UW’s campus and the May 2025 occupation of the university’s Interdisciplinary Engineering Building. Thirty-three people were arrested in connection with the building occupation, and prosecutors later filed criminal trespass charges against all 33. The incident caused nearly $1 million in damage, including damage to laboratory equipment, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
The proposed code would also broaden the university’s definition of vandalism. The existing language prohibits “maliciously damaging” university property, while the proposed language would prohibit “intentionally or recklessly damaging, defacing, destroying, or misusing” university property.
UW President Robert Jones, who became the university’s 34th president in August 2025, said in March that the university was reviewing its student conduct code amid rising antisemitism on campus.
“Our student conduct code was not written for this moment in time,” he said. “It just absolutely was not written to deal with contemporary issues.”
Jones told JNS that the university did not need to wait for a mandate from the U.S. Department of Justice or the Department of Education before determining “what needs to be done to move this university closer to being that welcoming environment.”
