Administrators at Saint Louis University slapped two YAF student activists with “disciplinary warnings” for including images of memorials to the victims of 9/11 in New York and Israel as part of their participation in last month’s 9/11: Never Forget Project.
As YAF’s New Guard previously reported, the two student activists — Nikolay Remizov and Alessandro Mattina — faced disciplinary action from their school for organizing the memorial honoring the 2,977 innocent victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Specifically, administrators took issue with the inclusion of images highlighting the shared values between the United States and Israel in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism.
Official records from the YAF students’ disciplinary proceedings reveal the lengths to which administrators went in pursuit of punishment for the apparent crime, in Saint Louis University’s eyes, of remembering 9/11 and how America’s allies stood with us in the days following the horrific attacks.
In addition to reiterating the “facts” of the situation, the documents reviewed by New Guard seek to justify the decision to rule that the students were “responsible” for a “violation of University Policy” despite acknowledging that “it is obvious that the 9/11 Memorial at the Dolphin Pond featuring 3,000 miniature American Flags was approved” and stating there “is no question that this display was registered appropriately and adhered to posting guidelines.”
As written by John Janulis, the director of Saint Louis University’s Office of Student Responsibility and Community Standards:
My rationale for why the Banner that was constructed by students NR and AM is separate and distinct from the approved display is as follows: (1) the location of where this Banner was displayed was not at the Dolphin Pond, instead, it was across the sidewalk. (2) I did not find the argument that this Banner was a “flag”, and therefore, part of the approved 9/11 Memorial to be persuasive or convincing.
Based on the administrator’s determination “that this Banner display was distinctly different from the approved 9/11 Memorial” — despite the fact that the images it featured were of 9/11 memorials — he found it “more likely than not, that students NR and AM are responsible for Violation of University Policy for failing to obtain prior approval in the form of event and space reservation for this display.”
The “sanctions” levied by Saint Louis University against the two YAF student activists include “a disciplinary warning for one year, effective until September 26, 2025” — a penalty described as “an official written notification that the student’s behavior is objectionable and violates the University’s Community Standards” and “that the action or behavior must cease.” In addition, further “misconduct” while the warning is in effect “could result in disciplinary probation.”
“I am deeply troubled by the fact that I, as a student from abroad, am facing punishment for a simple act of solidarity,” Nikolay Remizov told New Guard of the situation. “It is deeply unsettling to witness how, in a time when we should be united against extremism, actions like mine are misunderstood or condemned. It is difficult to comprehend that this is happening at a Jesuit institution, one built on principles of justice and moral clarity,” he added.
A recent piece on the YAF activists’ work on this year’s 9/11: Never Forget Project published by Saint Louis University’s student newspaper puts an exclamation point on the alarming on-campus attitude toward radical Islamic terrorists — even after their most recent year-long assault on Israel.
For starters, the piece features an image captured by a Gazan “journalist” whose work is exclusively pro-Hamas terrorist propaganda. That, according to the student newspaper’s leadership, is just fine. The piece then proceeds to falsely call the beginning of the current war “the genocide in Gaza” and accuses Israel of “atrocities” while conveniently failing to mention the systematic rape and murder of Israelis by Gaza-based Hamas barbarians last October 7.
Editors also had no problem publishing the claim that “Arabs of all religions coexisted peacefully in the region until the arrival of European settlers, who shattered that harmony.” On the issue at hand, the piece says the establishment of the 9/11: Never Forget Project was “expressing solidarity with the fascist colonists’ regime that is ‘Israel’” — a MadLib of leftist jargon that is as meaningless as it is false. By putting quotation marks around Israel, the piece is also a not-so-subtle call for the Jewish state to be eliminated.
This is apparently not of any concern for administrators at Saint Louis University who ought to be ashamed that its students are publishing such antisemitic falsehoods under the guise of “news,” but if conservative students dare to highlight the vitally important relationship — and lasting solidarity — between the U.S. and Israel against terrorism, then they’re fit to be slapped with disciplinary action.
