UF kicks pro-Palestinian protesters out of school for up to 4 years

GAINESVILLE — In secretive hearings, the University of Florida set aside recommendations to lightly punish some of the college students arrested after pro-Palestinian protests on campus and kicked them all out of school for three to four years.

The decisions by the new dean of students, Chris Summerlin, overruled what were effectively sentencing recommendations by the juries, known as hearing bodies, who listened to testimony and watched police video of the protests and arrests during the disciplinary cases.

The students were among nine people who university police and Florida state troopers arrested April 29 during a demonstration on a plaza on the University of Florida campus. They were among the first college arrests in Florida, and all remain banned from university property.

In at least two cases, the hearing bodies recommended probation for Keely Nicole Gliwa, 23, of Gainesville — a master’s student who expected to graduate May 2 — and a deferred suspension for Parker Stanely Hovis, 26, of Naples. The university withheld Gliwa’s diploma and suspended both Gliwa and Hovis for three years.