LOS ANGELES — Colleges across California are suspending student protesters, a move that’s evicted some from housing, barred others from final exams, and left scores navigating a high-stakes disciplinary process more commonly reserved for students accused of toting a gun to campus or raping a classmate in their dorm room.

Some of those facing punishment, including 40 students at UC San Diego, were slapped with “interim suspension” notices following mass arrests at protest encampments. But many others who avoided arrest face the same penalty for reasons that are far less clear.

One USC first-year student, who asked to be referred to by a single initial — C. — out of fear of reprisal from the university, said they were slapped with an interim suspension on Sunday and given 24 hours to leave the dorms, despite never being detained or arrested as a part of their activism.

“I’ve been surfing around friends’ couches trying to figure out if I’m going to be able to get a place to live in the summer,” they said. “If (the suspension is upheld), I’ll lose a scholarship that’s covering the plurality of my tuition here.”

Universities rely on campus discipline to manage a wide range of student behavior, from plagiarism to bullying, brawls to binge drinking, hazing to sexual assault. Experts say it can also be a valuable alternative to police involvement. But the consequences are still severe.

Some familiar with the process were shocked after USC and UC San Diego handed down scores of interim suspensions this week, saying the penalty had previously been reserved for serious and imminently dangerous misconduct.

“You very rarely see these interim suspension cases,” said Sukham Sidhu, who heads of the Office of Student Advocacy at UC San Diego and has spent her undergraduate career representing peers through campus disciplinary proceedings. “The only times I’ve seen it imposed are in cases of physical assault.”

A spokesperson for UC Riverside said an interim suspension was recently handed to a student who was caught on campus with an assault rifle.

Schools are likely within their rights to suspend those who have overstepped their free speech rights, either by threatening public safety or violating campus conduct codes, some legal experts said. But they warned that administrators should proceed with caution.

“You don’t want to shy away from interim suspensions where there’s a real threat of violence,” said Alex Morey, head of the campus rights advocacy program at the nonpartisan Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “But you don’t want to start throwing (them) around just because you want to send a message.”

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