I agree that there’s a double standard. And I want to stress that I in no way support governmental (including the administration of a public university) sanction of what is 1st Amendment protected speech.
On the other hand I have no problem with these punks suffering social stigmatization for what they did. And I decry that society doesn’t apply that sort of thing evenly. But just because one group, wrongly, is permitted to get away with something doesn’t mean that it should be excused in everyone else. Two wrongs never make a right.
The moral of the story just might be to never be in a group unless there are no spy phones allowed.