Several civil-rights groups and lawyers’ associations have urged top officials at the University of California at Irvine to drop
plans to suspend the campus’s Muslim Student Union over the interruption of a speech by Israel’s ambassador to the United States. Campus officials decided to suspend the Muslim Student Union in June, after concluding that it had violated several campus policies, but the student organization has appealed the decision. In a letter sent to campus officials on Thursday, the Asian Law Caucus, Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, National Lawyers Guild, and other groups argue that the Muslim Student Union is being punished much more severely than other student organizations that had interrupted speeches in the past. Moreover, the letter says, the proposed suspension “would deprive hundreds of current and future Muslim students of their fundamental First Amendment right to association.” University officials have been urged to take action against the Muslim Student Union by several Jewish groups, including the Zionist Organization of America.

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/UC-Irvine-Urged-Not-to-Suspend/25760/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en