To: Regents of the University of California, Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla in his official capacity as Chancellor of University of California, San Diego, Alysson Satterlund VC, Student Affairs and Campus Life, Ben White Executive Director of Investigations and Deputy LDO, Office of Ethics and Compliance, Ashleigh Wade Director – Student Affairs Policy, Standards, and Conduct, Center for Student Accountability, Growth and Education (SAGE), Natania Trapp, Associate Director – Student Conduct and Restorative Justice, SAGE, Caitlin Frank Assistant Director – Student Compliance, SAGE, Daniel Park Chief Campus Counsel, Charles Robinson, General Counsel and Sr. VP Legal Affairs, Office of General Counsel at UCOP

From: Concerned Senate and Unit 18 Faculty

CC: Mark Kleiman, Esq.

RE: Concerned Senate and Unit 18 Faculty Call for Expungement of Records

We, Senate and Unit 18 faculty across the different units of the University, urgently call for the University to expunge the disciplinary records of the 58 students who were subject to mass arrests on May 6, 2024, and to lift all associated academic or transcript holds. All 58 students have completed the sanctions mandated by the Center for Student Accountability, Growth, and Education (SAGE)’s Student Conduct Review as of June 13, 2025, and thus have concluded the University’s disciplinary process. Expunging the disciplinary records would reaffirm the University’s stated commitment to restorative justice and allow these students to avoid unnecessary harm in a time of intensifying political repression, including threats of deportation and even the revoking of naturalized citizenship. Only expungement will allow them to move on with their lives and to utilize the degrees that they have worked so hard to obtain.

As faculty, we see firsthand the impacts of discipline in our classrooms that Student Affairs cannot see. From our perspective as educators, a university that does not proactively support its own students after they have fulfilled all requirements set forth by it is one that obstructs our ability to carry out our university-sanctioned duties. Academic freedom is meaningless if students do not feel comfortable participating fully, fearing punishment by the state for expressing certain views. The purpose of teaching is to nurture students’ intellectual development according to our expertise, and the classroom is a sacred space. The bonds of trust that we work so hard to build with and between students over the course of a quarter can be shattered in an instant, as soon as students sense that participating fully in discussions may lead to discipline by the University and other unintended harms that may accrue in this chilling political climate. The student disciplinary processes and their aftermath have impacted our students’ willingness to bring their full selves into the classroom. This negatively impacts our educational mission and faculty’s ability to do our jobs. 

The University’s maintenance of a disciplinary record postrestitution amounts to an unjust collateral consequence, the negative impacts of which will potentially extend throughout a student’s life. In addition to being subject to doxxing campaigns, students have been blacklisted from employment because of their expressions of solidarity with Palestine. A disciplinary record on their transcript can have negative impacts on graduate school acceptance and for professional licensure. International students, who are already facing the consequences of the current administration’s surveillance, refusals at ports of entry, and literal abductions off the streets for pro-Palestine activity, will be disproportionately impacted.

Expungement should be seen as one step toward repair for what has already been a violent and traumatizing process. We take the work toward repair as our responsibility as tenure-track faculty who voted for and passed a resolution in the Academic Senate in June 2024, “Campus Healing and Improved Response to Future Civil Disobedience”; this resolution called upon Chancellor Pradeep Khosla to “take all actions within his power to drop or minimize all disciplinary actions and criminal charges against the protestors.” The body also passed a resolution in April 2025, “Resolution to support UC San Diego students, faculty, and staff who have had their visas or green cards revoked,” which expressed concern for the well-being of international students and scholars who live in a constant state of fear and uncertainty about their ability to remain in the country and free from forced detention. 

SAGE’s unwillingness to take proactive measures to expunge these disciplinary records at this moment — especially when the students have already completed all sanctions — is antithetical to the University’s stated commitment to restorative practice and makes the University responsible for perpetuating unsafe and punitive conditions for students. 

Further, this request for immediate expungement echoes those made repeatedly by concerned faculty who have been in communication with the office of Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and Campus Life Alysson Satterlund, seeking clarification of a path to this end for months. They have been given contradictory responses ranging from: Expungement is only considered after seven years; we, too, are very interested in working out an expungement process; no such route currently exists at UCSD, and so on. Considering the University administration’s ability to singularly come up with extensive rules and regulations concerning protest and political speech on campus without the input of its stakeholders, this runaround indicates a choice not to act. We vehemently object to this continued inaction. We urge the administration to stop wasting resources and time on punitive measures that only erode campus community and take proactive measures to promote healing. 

Finally, expediency in this matter is necessary in order to ensure that no more time and money are wasted on lengthy and unnecessary legal battles that pit the University against its own students. We are aware that UCSD students filed a writ petition on May 27, 2025, against Regents of the University of California and Chancellor Pradeep Khosla seeking a remedy for violations of procedural due process in student conduct proceedings against the 58 students arrested on May 6, 2024. The writ petition seeks expungement of disciplinary records and seeks a traditional mandate and/or prohibition compelling UCSD to comply with its own policies and settled procedural due process requirements. We are also aware that it was filed after UCSD administrators failed to respond to a letter sent on May 6, 2025 by the legal team representing arrested students, requesting a good faith resolution to the very same concerns around due process that emerged around SAGE’s handling of disciplinary proceedings. We do not understand how refusing to engage in good faith to resolve this matter according to the SAGE office’s own stated principles of restorative justice is in the best interests of students or the University community at large.

We repeat, all students have completed the sanctions imposed by the University and deserve to have their records expunged. We respectfully request that you expunge the students’ disciplinary records by Fall 2025 graduation and confirm this decision with a reply to this letter via Mark Kleiman, Esq., by Dec. 15, 2025.

Sincerely,

Concerned Senate and Unit 18 faculty

CORRECTION Nov. 25: One sentence in Paragraph 7 was updated to reflect the wording of the actual letter that was sent. The CC line was also added at the lawyer’s request.