OLYMPIA, Wash. — About 80 protesters have been sanctioned for breaking the student conduct code at a small college in Washington state last spring when race-related protests broke out on campus.

Evergreen State College spokeswoman Sandra Kaiser told The Olympian that students received sanctions ranging from formal warnings to suspension.

The protests in May followed after professor Bret Weinstein criticized an optional event in which organizers asked white students to leave campus for a talk about race. The event was a reversal of the college’s annual “Day of Absence,” in which minorities attend programs off campus.

Last month it was announced that Evergreen will pay $500,000 to Weinsten and his wife to settle a claim they brought alleging the school failed to protect employees from threats of physical violence and verbal hostility.