At a growing number of institutions, including Brown, student labor organizations allege that administrators’ crackdowns on their pro-Palestine demonstrations violate federal labor law that protects certain types of work-related protest activity.

They argue, for various reasons, that the protests are linked to their working conditions. The students’ argument is uncharted territory for federal labor law, but experts say that students face long odds in making their case.

“I don't know that the Board has approached this issue or resolved this issue to date,” said William Gould IV, former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board.

At Brown, at least 15 members of the Graduate Labor Organization received disciplinary letters for participating in a protest encampment last spring, said Michael Ziegler GS, the organization’s president. The encampment called on Brown to divest from 10 companies which activists identified as having Israeli military ties. A University spokesperson declined to comment on the cases.

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The National Labor Relations Act protects workers’ right to mobilize and protest “regarding terms and conditions of employment” without penalty. For GLO, divestment protests are tied to their employment, so they consider it federally protected. For example, GLO has argued that Brown’s resources are a product of graduate students’ labor, so they should have a say in how those resources are invested.

“For us, everything that has to do with Brown’s money is...

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