SAN MARCOS — Students and faculty are urging Cal State San Marcos to drop disciplinary actions against those who protested at a university event last month to demand greater support for undocumented students.
Six individuals, including four current students, two alumnae, and student organizations M.E.Ch.A. (Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) received disciplinary notices from the university on Feb. 28 regarding their participation in a rally during the university’s Social Mobility Symposium at the University Student Union.
A fifth-year student, Amber Arenas, was also fired from her on-campus job and paid internship due to her participation in the Feb. 20 protest.
Arenas said she was told by administrators that her participation in the protest did not reflect well on her job and that she was being fired from her roles as a sexual health educator, advocate in the college’s Health and Wellness Center, and as a building lead and audiovisual technician at the student union.
Along with other students, she is still awaiting a disciplinary hearing scheduled for April and is unsure whether she will be expelled and unable to graduate in May.
“It has been just a whirlwind and a roller coaster of emotions,” Arenas said. “They want to silence us, but taking away my titles doesn’t do that. It just takes away my financial security.”
Calls for sanctuary campus
The protest was one of several in late February calling on CSUSM to be made into a sanctuary campus, signifying that the university will not cooperate with or provide student information to immigration enforcement, and to implement other supports for undocumented and mixed-status students.
While Cal State San Marcos has existing policies in place to protect students, some undocumented and immigrant students have said the university, and the CSU at large, are not doing enough in the wake of increased immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
Participants said the Feb. 20 protest at the symposium was intended to point out CSU’s hypocrisy for celebrating social mobility and the college’s status as a Hispanic-Serving Institution while failing to protect vulnerable immigrant and undocumented students.
California State University Chancellor Mildred García was speaking at the event, so they knew it would catch the leaders’ attention.
“There are about 350 undocumented students, give or take, at Cal State San Marcos. A lot of them are nervous, a lot of them are frightened, a lot of them are scared right now and are laying low on campus. It’s up to us as M.E.Ch.A. to speak up for our community,” said M.E.Ch.A. president and second-year student Yolotzin Aquino.
During the protest, students attempted to enter the building where the symposium was held, but were blocked by police officers. Videos shared by SJP of CSUSM show an officer using physical force to move two students back from the door.
Later, students were able to access the first floor of the student union, where they continued loudly protesting. At that point, Arenas said officers had donned riot gear.
“They militarized the event because they deemed us violent, when we have never been in the past,” Arenas said.
Several faculty have spoken out in support of the students. Marcelo Garzo-Montalvo, a professor and SJP at CSUSM advisor, said the university’s response was unacceptable.
“The students’ actions were incredibly contained, organized, and they were not violent. They just made the administration uncomfortable and kind of embarrassed,” Garzo-Montalvo said. “They’re using intimidation tactics to distract from the actual campaign that the students are doing.”
Alleged violations
Around one week after the protest, Arenas and other SJP participants received a notice from the dean of students that they had violated the Time, Place and Manner policy, which restricts expressions of free speech on campuses. Discipline hearings are scheduled for April.
The presidents of both SJP and M.E.Ch.A. also received notices that their organizations were suspected of violating the student code of conduct and being non-negotiable.
As the president of M.E.Ch.A., Aquino was summoned to a hearing with the dean of students and told that she must attend alone and will not be able to discuss the meeting’s content with anyone.
That hearing is scheduled for the last week in March, she said.
“What I’m most scared of is that they’ll take away our title of being a student organization on campus, and they might put us on probation. Right now we’re doing a lot of fundraising … I’m not sure if it hinders that process,” Aquino said.
CSUSM spokesperson Jerry McCormick declined to discuss the student’s firing or the specific violations facing the students and organizations. McCormick said that while the university supports the right to free speech and peaceful protest, these actions must comply with university policy.
“Part of protecting free speech rights is making sure that we protect everyone’s rights, including during programs, classes and events. While we can’t speak to specific violations in order to protect students’ privacy rights, when a student group or individual does disrupt or infringe on the free speech or safety of others, those are considered violations,” McCormick said.
California State University adopted the systemwide Time, Place and Manner (TMP) policy in August 2024, following widespread campus protests calling for an end to Israel’s killing of civilians in Palestine in response to the October 2023 Hamas attacks, and for universities to divest from companies with financial ties to Israel.
The policy prohibits activities such as overnight camping, unauthorized structures or vehicles, entering campuses during “closed” hours, and disrupting or interfering with the speech of others.
Many students, the California Faculty Association, and the CSU Academic Senate say the policy curbs free speech and assembly rights.
“These obvious punitive acts of retaliation on our students are disgraceful, and must be investigated as violations of our students’ campus and constitutional rights. These disciplinary actions make CSUSM the first campus in the CSU system to take such aggressive action towards this many students and organizations at once,” a group of CSUSM faculty and staff said in a March 4 statement.
The CSU states that it does not have the authority to prevent federal immigration officers from entering public areas of campuses for enforcement. However, CSUSM states that university police do not detain, question or arrest individuals based on their status as undocumented and will not enter into agreements with other agencies for immigration enforcement or honor ICE hold requests, with some exceptions.
University police also do not conduct sweeps or other efforts to detain suspected undocumented individuals, unless immigration status is relevant to another criminal offense or investigation, CSUSM said.
As part of their demands for a sanctuary campus, students also ask for more support for undocumented students and DREAMers through more scholarships, dedicated academic advising and financial office services, and more staffing and funding for the Dreamer Resource Office.
During the protest, Aquino said she and a few other students were able to secure a meeting with CSUSM President Ellen Neufeldt and other administrators to discuss their demands. However, Neufeldt told them that establishing a sanctuary campus would put a target on undocumented students’ backs, Aquino said.
She also noted that during the meeting and the protest, administrators told students several times that they were proud of them for using their voice, Aquino said.
“How are we supposed to trust you, when the last time we saw you, you said you were proud of us, and then we were hit with TMP violations?” Aquino said.
