A CSU-Monterey Bay student says his First Amendment rights were violated when he was fired from his job with the campus police for staging a silent protest during a speech by university President Peter Smith.

A university spokeswoman said the timing of the student's termination, which occurred during the protest, was "unfortunate" but coincidental. The student was fired, she said, because he failed to disclose a previous employer on his application and delayed providing full details on a petty theft conviction.

Some faculty members and students said the incident, as well as Smith's mocking reference to a protester from last year's State of the University address, is part of a campuswide insensitivity to students' rights.

Aaron Sass, 24, was one of about 20 students who walked out of the auditorium during Smith's annual address Jan. 22 to protest discussions by the university to force them out of campus apartments to make way for families.

While a final decision is not expected until late February, the university may move the "single students," who now reside at Frederick Park II apartments, into the new North Quad Suites and Apartments. The students complain the North Quad accommodations are smaller and more expensive.

If Sass is correct, the issue just cost him his job.

Sass was employed with University Police Department as a community service officer -- driving campus shuttles, providing night escorts and doing desk work at the police department. On the job for three months, he was still on probation when he decided to accompany two friends to stage a silent walk-out at the beginning of Smith's speech.

Sass said a campus police officer approached him before Smith took the stage, noted that Sass was an employee and warned that he would "arrest you three first" if they pulled anything. When Sass assured him he would not do anything illegal, the officer told him it was illegal to disrupt a university event.

When Smith took the stage, Sass said, he and 20 to 25 students stood and quietly walked out of the building. Sass was met on his way out by his boss, Troy Holt, manager of the transportation and parking services division of the police department.

He told Sass to turn in his uniform and equipment. "We can't have you work as a CSO anymore," Sass said Holt told him in an angry, quivering voice.

When he asked Holt if he was being fired for standing up for what he believes, he said, Holt answered, "yes."

The next day he asked Holt for another explanation, he said, and was told "by forming a political opinion toward something, I am biased toward that cause."

He said Holt also mentioned a previous brush with the law and told him his protest was the final straw.

Noting that Sass's personnel issues were being discussed at his request, University spokeswoman Holly White said Sass's termination had everything to do with his arrest record and nothing to do with his protest.

Sass was convicted of petty theft in San Luis Obispo in 2001 after his friend allowed him to take some tools from Sears, where Sass had also worked. Originally filed as a felony grand theft, the charge was reduced to a misdemeanor after he and his friend turned themselves in, he said. With the exception of a speeding ticket, he said, his record is otherwise clean.

According to White, Sass excluded his employment with Sears from his application and delayed turning in requested court documents detailing his court case. When Holt finally received the paperwork Jan. 21, she said, he realized Sass' omission and decided to fire him.

"The timing, I think, everybody would agree, was unfortunate," she said.

Sass said he told Holt about the conviction when he was interviewed and was told he needed to turn in court documents. When he failed to turn in the paperwork in a specified time, he was suspended. However, Sass said, he is positive he turned in the paperwork the week of Jan. 11 because his supervisor, Irazu Ma Sui, asked him to return to work on Jan. 19, which was a holiday, and he worked on Jan. 20, two days before Smith's speech.

"If they were going to fire me for that, they should have fired me before," said Sass, who hopes to become a high school history teacher. "(Holt) told me I was fired because I formed a political opinion."

Sass's university adviser, professor Gerald Shenk, said he and other faculty members were disturbed by Sass' termination and when they asked for an explanation from campus Police Chief Fred Hardee, they were told it was a confidential matter.

While there may be other issues involved, he said, he has only Sass' story and finds the timing of the incident suspect.

"He was told he was fired as he was walking out (of the protest). His supervisor was there. The juxtaposition would lead you to believe (the protest) was the reason," Shenk said. "It's highly irregular for an employee to be fired when he is off the job and not close to where he does his job and to just tell him in a public place, 'you're fired.'"

"If Aaron's story is correct, I think it's outrageous," he continued. "I can't imagine how an institution of higher education could fire a student for protesting the president's speech and the university's policy."

Professor Ruben Mendoza said he and other faculty members are concerned that the incident sends a message to students that they will face consequences if they exercise their First Amendment right to redress grievances with those in power.

Mendoza said he's been told by students who work in the campus housing areas that they've been threatened with termination if they discuss the incident or comment about it online. Sass' termination has been a hot topic on the campus' online open forum.

"We're concerned the students are being corralled into making no statements," he said. "It's as though the university is paying them minimum wage to forsake their First Amendment rights, and we all see that as very problematic."

That impression was not helped, Mendoza said, when Smith opened his State of the University address by walking on stage with a megaphone and making a comment that drew laughs from the audience. Smith was apparently mocking a student who protested him with a bullhorn on stage at last year's speech.

"It creates a chilling effect, which is one of the issues the campus has been dealing with for years," Mendoza said.

Smith was off-campus and unavailable for comment Friday. The university's White said Smith welcomes those who were offended by his humor to see him.

"To those, Peter Smith would welcome a direct dialogue," she said. "Peter Smith is one of the most accessible presidents you can find and welcomes free expression -- whether it be from students, employees -- anyone."

Sass, meanwhile, has contacted an attorney.