In recent weeks, pro-Palestine and pro-Hamas supporters began pitching tent encampments in solidarity with Gaza, exploding tensions on college campuses. On April 17, the first encampment took place at Columbia University, which then spread to more than eighty campuses across the country.
Source: the Guardian
The protesters are demanding that the universities stop all investments tied to Israel. Some of the criticized investments are connected to military weapons, tactics and operations. Others are tied to cultural programs and regular businesses. An example of a company that would be on the list is Google which has R&D headquarters in Israel. For some, the demands are a reprise of the “boycott, divest and sanction” movements of recent years.
Students are also calling for changes that are specific to their campus. Some of these changes include: ceasing joint educational programs with Israel, not hiring Israeli faculty, providing financial support for hiring Muslim, Middle Eastern, North African and Palestinian faculty and students and establishing centers for Palestinian studies.
We used to have the impression that most universities have similar policies and guidelines around conduct on campus. We seem to be in a different ball game. We have also seen that university responses have varied enormously. All universities have expressed their support of free expression and encouraged students to use their voices on issues they are passionate about. However, private universities are not constrained to uphold the First Amendment, giving capacity for each school to set their own standards as to what constitutes freedom of speech and protests. Therefore, the key emerging debate is what constitutes free expression and whether it should be allowed when it compromises other groups. What complicates situations on campuses is the group of protestors does not only include students and faculty but also outside protestors (who have been labeled as “agitators”) who, in some cases, are sometimes inciting violence, or who cross that line between free speech and intimidation or harassment.
The core dilemma for college presidents and boards is how to balance between the right of protesters for free speech, ensuring the safety of Jewish students and the disruption to classes and student life. Emma Siskind, former editor of The Fieldston News (‘22), a sophomore at Northwestern, shared that the “protests and counter-protests have been pretty peaceful” and that the administration has been doing a “pretty good job at handling the situation…talking to different student groups and coming up with proactive solutions.” However, she and her Jewish friends “have felt a rise in anti-semitic dialogue and conversations,” and the administration “has not done much about managing the increased anti-semitic rhetoric on campus.” Moreover, “some professors have canceled classes to let people go to protests,” raising the question about the “fine line between faculty being involved and impacting the academic courses.” Overall, Siskind thinks it’s an ongoing “balancing act.”
Northwestern, along with Brown and Vassar, have been the only universities so far to reach agreements with the protesters by offering them concessions. Brown, for example, has agreed to review its investment policies, and will re-examine a recent internal report. On other campuses, protests have grown more disruptive, leading to an increasing number of universities asking for police intervention and suspending students who are breaking school rules. Clashes with the police turned especially violent at Columbia and UCLA, where administrators initially held back on calling the police. In total, more than 2,000 student protesters have been arrested across the country.
With commencement ceremonies scheduled in upcoming weeks, the pressure on the universities to end the encampments is mounting. USC was the first to announce canceling the university-wide commencement this year, but most are vowing to proceed with the annual graduation ceremony. At the University of Michigan’s commencement ceremony on May 4th, students waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans.
We spoke with Michelle Ross, a reporter from Channel 5, who shared that Columbia students she interviewed who are not affiliated with any protests “just want the protests to be over….. Many of the seniors at Columbia did not have a high school graduation because of COVID-19 in 2020, and they do not want another graduation to be compromised because of something out of their control.” That sentiment is echoed by an international student from Italy whose family already bought plane tickets to come to NYC for his ceremony: “It’s a coronation, the ending of an adventure of a journey, and it would be such a disappointment in these protests.”
