Student appeals after being banned from campus By: Jillian Wagner
Waltham Police arrested Mamoon Darwish TYP on Feb. 16 following his involvement in a fistfight on South Street. Darwish has since been suspended from school and forbidden from setting foot on campus.
Students called in the fight, which took place by the bus stop across from the main campus entrance, to the University Police. According to Senator for Racial Minority Students, Gabe Gaskin '08, who spoke with someone who saw the fight, the altercation was initiated by another student involved in the fight, not Darwish. However, charges have been filed only against Darwish, and the University Board of Student Conduct held a hearing on the case.
Gaskin said he thought that only Darwish was charged because University Police believed he was a threat to the campus.
Darwish declined to comment on the incident before the submission and evaluation of his appeal to the UBSC, which he filed last Monday after the UBSC issued a ruling.
According to Associate Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams, the appeal "needs to be based on the process and not the sanction of the case."
Therefore, "If there's fault with the process then the Appeals Board gets to look at [the appeal] after it is submitted to the dean [of student life, Rick Sawyer], and then [the UBSC members] decide whether they'd like to rehear the case," Adams said.
Many of Darwish's friends, as well as student advocates, have expressed concerns about the how the administration has treated him, including banning him from campus when he has no other residential options, a situation exacerbated by the fact that Darwish is an international student.
Adams, however, said that "The policies and rules that govern our community are for every student, so the fact that he's a foreign Transitional Year Program student doesn't really have a bearing on this. It's not dependent on who you are that's going to be the determinant of how the rules affect you. At the same time, we're really not trying to put people in the street."
Darwish's supporters also objected to the execution of his arrest and how this case was handled procedurally.
Mohammad Kundus '10, who witnessed Darwish's arrest, described it as humiliating. "I understand that what Mamoon did was wrong; it's a fight," Kundus said.
"People do fight sometimes. But when the police press charges on just one side without even trying to understand what happened, that's wrong."
Gaskin said he found it troubling that administrators have refused to speak with Darwish about this matter. He said he thought the administration's behavior in this situation results from the involvement of lawyers in this pending case.
Tahl Mayer '10 attempted to attend Darwish's initial hearing as a character witness, but was surprised when Erika Lamarre, director of student development and conduct, told him that no character witnesses were allowed to testify in this case.
According to Adams, however, a hearing isn't about a person's character, but about an incident. "In general, I know that when I have been a part of the judicial process as an administrator, I know that character witnesses haven't been taken in because they didn't witness the actual event in question," he said.
"Way too many questionable procedural infractions that have happened have not been attributed to anything, such as certain pieces of evidence that were submitted to the USBC hearing," Gaskin countered.
"I'm personally advocating for at least a retrial or a fair trial. I also think it's in Brandeis' best interest to alleviate this quickly because Mamoon's case can catch a lot of steam on campus because of his demographic."
Generally, UBSC appeals are turned around in about a week.
"The idea isn't to sit on it, by no stretch of the imagination. Ideally, when it comes through, the objective is to have it addressed and reviewed as soon as possible because no part of this is pleasurable to anyone involved," Adams said.
Posted by: Kilvinsky
Very interesting. How many actual witnesses testified I wonder? Did Darwish throw a punch after police arrived on the scene?
We've all seen that one. One clown figures, "The cops will keep me from getting my ass kicked, so I can throw one last punch!" and that's all that's needed to get locked up. People can be SOOOOOOOO dumb.
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