CLAREMONT >> Six Claremont McKenna College student activists say they are facing disciplinary action, up to possible expulsion, for attempting to shut down a conservative author’s on-campus appearance.

On April 6, students blocked the entrance of the Athenaeum, where Heather Mac Donald, the author of “‘The War on Cops,” was set to speak.

The group of 250, which reportedly included students from the five Claremont Colleges, shouted “Shut it down,” and “Black lives, they matter here,” according to a video taken at the time.

Then about a month ago, as finals week was getting underway, six Claremont McKenna College students said they received notices from the administration, telling them they were facing expulsion or suspension for participating in the protest, attorney Nana Gyamfi said.

On Monday, two of those students were on campus for disciplinary hearings. Gyamfi, a Los Angeles-based attorney with Justice Warriors 4 Black Lives, said she is advising the students, who wish to remain anonymous because they have received death threats.

Classes ended in May.

The administration, Gyamfi said, has refused requests to meet with students prior to Monday’s hearings.

“The students are making an appeal inside and outside of the disciplinary hearings,” she said by phone Monday. “Let’s get into a dialogue. Why put degrees on the line to take punitive disciplinary process?”

Gyamfi said the six students were of various marginalized identities, which included students of color, women, and LGBTQ. Initially, three graduating seniors were told they would not be able to walk, but the college agreed to award them conditional degrees.

In a response to this news organization, Claremont McKenna College said its “Conduct Process” allows students multiple opportunities to meet with an investigator as well as the conduct administrator throughout the incident review.

“The college is currently conducting a full, fair, and impartial conduct investigation and review process with individual CMC students, which will conclude with a determination of findings, sanctions if warranted, and appeals,” according to a statement from CMC released Tuesday.

Claremont McKenna College President Hiram E. Chodosh wrote in an April 7 letter posted publicly that blocking a campus building was against the college’s policy and students would be held accountable.

“Based on the judgment of the Claremont Police Department, we jointly concluded that any forced interventions or arrests would have created unsafe conditions for students, faculty, staff and guests,” Chodosh wrote in the letter posted on the college’s website. “I take full responsibility for the decision to err on the side of these overriding safety considerations.”

In its statement Tuesday, CMC elaborated on what officials say happened the day of the protest. According to the college, students not only blocked the entrance but took apart barrier fencing set up to provide an area to protest but still allow the public to attend the speech. In doing so, they disregarded campus safety officers who were trying to allow guests into the event, the college’s statement said.

In addition, CMC said students were “provided several overt cues” that they were in violation of campus policy.

“The college’s decision to exercise restraint by not using law enforcement to physically remove or arrest the people barricading the building did not signify any endorsement or approval of the tactics used that day to deny entry to the building and the attempted shut down of the presentation that was scheduled to take place in that building,” the statement read.

Gyamfi disputed the claims by the college, stating the 14- to 17-page investigation reports never make these claims about the students, with only three-quarters of a page even mentioning them.

Ultimately, Mac Donald gave her speech to a small group, and it was also livestreamed by the college and watched by 250, according to Chodosh. It has since been viewed 4,391 times.

Mac Donald told Fox News the protest was an “exercise of brute totalitarian force.”

But the students and their supporters want the college to understand the context of the protest.

In a Facebook Live press conference Monday, Povi-Tamu Bryant with Justice Warriors for Black Lives said Mac Donald had previously published books that support and justified the hyper-criminalization and extrajudicial killings of African-American people, which made students concerned for their safety and prompted them to protest.

The protest was meant to “protect their communities from the racist rhetoric of a woman whose scholarship justifies the extrajudicial killings of black folks and other violence against marginalized groups,” said Bryant, reading a joint statement from the students.

In 2015, Claremont McKenna College’s then-Dean of Students Mary Spellman resigned after students expressed concern about the office being unsupportive toward students of “marginalized identities.”

The issue of race and inequality at Claremont McKenna College sparked a dialogue and spurred action at some of the educational institutions in the Claremont College — a consortium of five undergraduate and two graduate institutions.

Bryant said at no time were the students asked to disperse, and the college gave them the impression that they were properly exercising their right to free speech.

“We hope that you will agree that the educational mission of Claremont McKenna College is betrayed if students are punished, harmed and silenced for nonviolently exercising their rights to free expression and free association,” according to a joint statement from the students.

Karen Hilfman, representing the Los Angeles affiliation of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ Action) questioned why the college would wait until the summer break to hold the hearing, when most students are away for the summer and can’t be there to represent themselves.

The college said in the statement that the conduct investigation and review process takes several weeks to complete, “as it has many steps to ensure due process and to provide time for students to respond and participate at each step. This process has extended into the summer because the incident occurred late in the spring semester.”

The college said students are provided with the CMC Code of Conduct during orientation and are made aware of the policies and their responsibility to abide by the rules.

CMC also pointed to the first section in the guide, which “forbids actions that disturb or disrupt the personal safety, peace or the well-being of the community or any community members, or which disturb or disrupt the normal functions of the college,” according to the college’s statement.

Gyamfi said she questioned the college’s decision to level the most severe option for campus violation, saying it’s equivalent to someone who sold drugs or physically assaulted someone on campus.

Jody David Armour, Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at USC, said the appropriate response by the administration could have been to use the protest as a teachable moment for its students.

He called on Claremont McKenna to take a pedagogical approach to sanctions. The administration could have encouraged students to strike a balance between their free speech and their right to protest, and the free speech rights of others.

“There is no justification for a punitive approach to educating students. The mission of a university is education, not retribution and retaliation and revenge,” he said.

As of Tuesday, CMC said it had not received any information about threats made to specific CMC students.

“A social media post that referenced a number of institutions who have experienced protests did recently came to our attention, and the college is forwarding that post to the Claremont Police Department,” the statement read.

Editor’s Note: this story has been updated to correct the description of the students