Following a year of tense campus protests and demonstrations, Northeastern has implemented several additional demonstration and student conduct guidelines, which impose more strict regulations on on-campus protests and more severe sanctions for students found in violation of university policies.

Per Northeastern’s 2024-25 Code of Student Conduct, the university can now withhold or revoke certain students’ degrees or deny expelled students refunds of tuition, housing, board or other charges. And according to new policies, demonstrations cannot take place overnight or involve the erecting of structures or the affixing of images on university property.

The updated policies, which accompany new guidelines for masks, Husky Cards and doxxing, follow a year of both authorized and unauthorized pro-Palestine student demonstrations, protests and an encampment in which the university oversaw the arrests of 98 individuals. 

Northeastern can withhold, delay or revoke degrees

In a sweeping amendment to Northeastern’s Code of Student Conduct, the university can now delay, withhold and revoke students’ degrees if they are found to have committed academic misconduct or violated the university’s Code of Student Conduct.

Northeastern lays out the new degree policy in two sections of the 2024-25 Code of Student Conduct, the comprehensive document outlining rules and regulations all Northeastern students are required to follow. The text, updated in August, can be found in the code’s “Applicability of the Code On and Off Campus/Jurisdiction of the Code” section and again in the code’s description of sanctions in the case a student violates university policy.

“The university reserves the right to delay the awarding of a degree, certificate, badge or other credential pending the resolution of the student conduct process,” the code states in its “Applicability” section. “In the event a student is found responsible for violating university policy and the sanction is expulsion, the student will not be eligible to be awarded their pending credential. The university also reserves the right, in its discretion, to revoke degrees,” the policy reads.

In the code’s “Sanctions” section, the university again states that it “reserves the right to delay the awarding of a degree, certificate, badge or other credential pending the resolution of the student conduct process … withhold the awarding of any degree for academic and nonacademic misconduct … [and], at its discretion, to revoke a degree.”

The previous year’s code does not mention any regulations resembling this new policy, and there has been little to no official communication of the addition. All students, though, are required to provide a signature stating they recognize and agree to the Code of Student Conduct on the university’s Student Hub prior to the start of the semester.

“The Code of Student Conduct lays out the university’s policies and related sanctions for violations and is reviewed each year in an effort to clarify or add information as appropriate,” Northeastern Vice President for Communications Renata Nyul told The News in an email Sept. 23. “Among the most recent additions is the university’s right to consider withholding or revoking a student’s degree as an appropriate sanction depending on the egregiousness of the facts involved in a student’s academic or non-academic misconduct.”

In response to a request to detail how the university will determine if a case is sufficiently egregious, Northeastern Director of Global Media Relations Dan Sarro directed The News toward the university’s “Safe Campuses, Civil Discourses” FAQ published in late 2023 and last updated Sept. 4. 

The FAQ, published in December 2023 and after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack and several on-campus pro-Palestinian demonstrations, does not provide any additional information indicating how the university will make this determination. 

Throughout the 2023-24 academic year, multiple students were found in violation of the university’s Code of Student Conduct for their actions during organized pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus.

At other universities, students who engaged in similar demonstrations — mainly the several pro-Palestine encampments that took place throughout last spring — had their degrees withheld. The University of Chicago withheld five students’ degrees before granting them in August. At Harvard University, the Harvard Corporation prevented 13 undergraduate students from receiving degrees after they were involved in a pro-Palestine encampment.

Forty-eight hours into the pro-Palestine encampment at Northeastern in April, police arrested 98 individuals, including 29 students and eight alumni. While it was not clear how many students participating in the encampment were set to graduate last spring, the university did not appear to withhold any individual’s degree.

Last year’s Code of Student Conduct states that students are expected to “review and abide by the University’s Code of Student Conduct and University policies and procedures both academic and otherwise.” But this year’s document makes clear that this is expected of students “until the conferring of their degree.”

The encampment took place from April 25 to April 27, meaning there was some ambiguity surrounding the applicability of the code for students who had completed their spring semester on the last day of classes, which fell on April 12. Multiple individuals in the class of 2024 who participated in the encampment told The News at the time that they were listed on the police report detailing arrests as alumni, despite not officially graduating until May.

Nyul told The News at the time that “alumni are not subject to the Code of Student Conduct. They have an affinity for Northeastern, but not affiliated the same way students and employees are.” 

Disciplined students may not receive refunds 

The university also added a significant change to its refund policy for students facing disciplinary action. According to the 2023-24 code, if a student was suspended, expelled or required to leave campus due to disciplinary action, they were “subject to ‘Refund Policies’ found in [the 2023-24 Student] Handbook and the Residence Hall and Dining License Agreement refund policy.”

The refund policy, laid out in the previous year’s student handbook, dictated the percent of tuition a student would receive if they were to withdraw throughout certain times during the semester. For instance, if a student withdrew from classes during the fourth week of the semester, they would receive a 60% tuition refund. 

This year, the university clarified it will not refund disciplined students forced to leave campus. 

While there is no explicit mention of this new regulation in the 2024-25 Student Handbook’s “Bill Payment” section, the updated Code of Conduct makes the policy clear.

“Students required to leave the residence halls and/or the campus as a result of disciplinary action will not be eligible for a refund of tuition, housing, board or other charges regardless of date of removal,” the updated code states.

In response to a request to confirm whether this is a new policy and why it was implemented, the university directed The News towards its FAQ. 

The FAQ does not mention any details regarding the addition or any refund policy.

New regulations for masks, Husky Cards and doxxing

Other notable changes include a new policy stating that students wearing masks may be asked to adjust their mask when showing their Husky Card, the university’s official identification card.

“All students must identify themselves by showing a Northeastern University Husky Card upon request by any university personnel or authorized personnel, including Northeastern University Police Department personnel,” the university states in the code’s new “Failure to Produce Northeastern Student Identification” section. “The Husky Card is the official identification card at Northeastern and is issued to all students. Students wearing a mask may be asked to adjust their mask for identity verification.”

The previous year’s code did not mention masks and stated that all Northeastern community members “should be prepared and willing to identify themselves and their guests upon request by authorized personnel.”

But some Northeastern community members say the new regulation is a response to the rise of mask-wearing during pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus, particularly during the encampment. At the time of the encampment, protesters said the masks were worn to mitigate surveillance and the spread of COVID-19, The News reported in April.

In response to questions on why the policy was implemented and criticisms that this is intended to surveil students, Sarro directed The News toward the university’s FAQ.

Most recently updated in September, following the pro-Palestine encampment, the FAQ states that “face masks must be adjusted or removed as needed to verify identification. All persons engaged in protests or demonstrations who are unaffiliated, or fail to produce appropriate identification, may be escorted off campus.”

The university also added a policy to the code regarding doxxing, which it defines as  “publishing or distributing personal identifying information about another person with intent to place the other person in reasonable fear of harm to themselves or their family or for the purpose of causing or encouraging unwanted physical contact, injury or harassment of the person by others.” 

Both Jewish and Muslim students expressed fears of doxxing and harassment throughout the previous academic year. While the university previously noted that doxxing was a violation of the Code of Student Conduct in its December 2023 version of “Safe Campuses, Civil Discourses” FAQ, the new policy explicitly spells out the particulars of the growing form of online harassment.

With the addition of the doxxing policy, students accused of doxxing will be subject to the student conduct process and could face disciplinary action.

New demonstration policies reflect post-encampment response
In the wake of the pro-Palestine encampment, Northeastern has also adopted several new policies that prohibit actions many individuals took during the 48-hour demonstration.

The new policies explicitly prohibit overnight demonstrations, projecting or affixing images onto university buildings and the erecting of structures, barriers or walls on university property related to a demonstration.

Northeastern’s demonstration regulations are laid out on three main websites: the university’s “Policy on Demonstrations” page, the “Safe Campuses, Civil Discourse” FAQ and its “Major Policies – Demonstrations” page —  a resource site for student organizations. The demonstration policy page itself was published Aug. 15, months after the encampment, the FAQ was most recently updated Sept. 4 and the guide includes significant updates from the 2023-24 academic year.

The pages, each published or updated after the encampment, contain significant additions restricting who can demonstrate and how those demonstrations can take place.

For instance, the recently published policy page states “students, faculty and staff may not erect structures, barriers, or walls, temporary or otherwise, on university property related or connected in any way to a demonstration.” This policy did not appear in any previous university guidelines.

The university now also explicitly prohibits camping and overnight demonstrations as well as “vandalism or projecting or affixing any images on university buildings.” Carrying over from previous years, individuals unaffiliated with the university are not permitted to participate in on-campus demonstrations and “may be considered trespassers” on the university’s private property, per the student organization resource guide.

Faculty wishing to both organize and participate in on-campus demonstrations must “seek approval from the Office of the Provost,” per the FAQ page, and any Northeastern-affiliated individual participating in a demonstration must have their Northeastern identification on them to “to ensure the safety and security of members of the university community who participate in demonstrations,” according to the student organization resource guide.

Northeastern declined to confirm a list of additions to the new demonstration policies.

“We think the statement we provided originally is sufficient for the overall story,” a Northeastern spokesperson said in a statement to The News.

Northeastern has previously required students and campus organizations to receive approval to hold on-campus demonstrations and protests. Registered campus groups must register demonstrations with the university at least seven days before they take place, obtain a demonstration permit, reserve a specific space — which cannot be faculty or administrative offices, classrooms, laboratories, libraries or study areas — and abide by specific measures to limit disruption to the day-to-day operations of the university.

“Demonstrations must be conducted peacefully, orderly, and consistent with university policies, codes of conduct, and applicable laws,” the student organization page states.

But the additional policies appear to be in direct response to the encampment and pro-Palestine demonstrations. During the encampment, students remained on Centennial Common for two nights, building tents and an Adirondack chair barrier. During the first night of the encampment, red handprints were left around the border of Centennial. At other points during the year, students taped the names of thousands of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces on a window of the Northeastern School of Law.

The university says it may halt demonstrations if they are found in violation of university policies or continue to run counter to instructions by Northeastern officials. 

“The university may take action, including requiring the immediate cessation of a demonstration if, in the university’s discretion, a demonstration at any time fails to comply with this policy or other applicable university policies, processes, procedures, or laws, and/or directions or instructions by university administration or an authorized representative of the university administration regarding safety or security,” both policy pages state.

“Violators of this policy,” the two pages add, “may be subject to action consistent with university policy and procedures, including disciplinary action.”