What did the protesters at Columbia University protest on Tuesday morning allegedly dispersed from an encampment set up in support of Palestinians?
Protesters began occupying buildings at Columbia University early Tuesday morning, after the school asked them the day before to voluntarily disperse from an encampment set up in support of Palestinians.
The protesters began climbing into the windows at John Jay Hall, a dormitory, and students entered Hamilton Hall, which is an academic building, according to the university radio station.
University officials weren’t available for comment. The public safety department was responding. If people could, they would avoid coming to the campus on Tuesday.
The New York Police Department said at about 2:15 a.m. that it had officers stationed outside the university, but not on school grounds, in case the situation escalated. It was not specified how many officers were in the area.
There was a notice given to the protest camp on Monday morning that said negotiations with leaders of the protest were at an impasse. The school was told to let the students clear out so the lawn could be prepared for the graduation ceremonies.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik said that the academic leaders and student organizers put forward strong and thoughtful offers and worked to reach common ground. We are thankful for their hard work, long hours and careful efforts but wish they had a different outcome.
Faculty members are taking part in protests of their own, calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and the removal of companies that do business with Israel.
Columbia said Monday it would not do that, but it did say the school’s Advisory Committee for Socially Responsible Investing will start reviewing new proposals from students. It is also pledging to make a list of its investments available to students, as well as provide resources toward health and education in Gaza.
However, the parties did agree that protests will be paused until after reading day, exams and commencement, as Shafik urged the Columbia community to consider that the class of 2024 did not get to have their high school commencement ceremonies in person due to the coronavirus pandemic.
After that students will need to apply for a place to hold their protest at least two days before the event.
When police stop protesting against Hamas, the university is safe: How we are preparing to protect free speech and civil rights at Columbia University
But she added the encampment has caused an “unwelcoming environment” and “hostile environment” for Jewish students, and violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws discrimination at schools that receive federal funding.
“Antisemitic language and actions are unacceptable and calls for violence are simply abhorrent,” she said. The atmosphere has been intolerable for many of our Jewish students, and other students as well. Many have left campus, and that is a tragedy. I want to make it clear that you are a valued part of the Columbia community. This is your campus as well.
She said she is committed to keeping community members safe and shielding them from discrimination, while allowing them to speak, which must mean respecting others’ right to do so as well.
Police arrested dozens of demonstrators at the University of Texas at Austin last week to protest Israel’s war against Hamas. Protesters demanded that the police leave as they chanted, “We are being peaceful.”
UT-Austin isn’t the only school where clashes with law enforcement have escalated. At Emory University in Atlanta last week, police used pepper balls and tasers to control what they described as unruly protesters throwing bottles. Nationwide, there have been hundreds of arrests, including at Columbia University, the University of Southern California and at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Other universities are not taking a more hands-off approach. MIT’s president has pleaded for an end to the protests and the demonstrations have been peaceful, though police are watching, according to a MIT spokesman.
The university has been trying to avoid calling back the police, whose intervention on April 18 at the request of Columbia administrators led to more than 100 student arrests and attracted a wave of angry protests outside the school’s gates, some of which included blatantly antisemitic rhetoric.
These vastly different approaches on when to involve police – and when not to – underscore the delicate balance between a desire to protect free speech and keep a college safe and functioning.
Alex Morey, the director of campus rights advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, says responses vary in part because individual colleges decide how to regulate speech on campus. They outline where students can post flyers, or what time of day protests need to end. According to Morey, the rules are allowed if they apply to any student group.
“If I were a college administrator and there was an encampment on my campus and it was not causing disruption, you may as well let it lie if you’re going to cause more disruption by removing it. But they do have the right to remove it if they choose to do so,” she says.
At the University of California, Berkeley, for instance, Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof says their policy is to avoid police involvement unless it’s absolutely necessary.
“Every action has a reaction, and sometimes the reaction is antithetical to what your goals are. Law enforcement is an important resource but can also have consequences.
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Berkeley’s protests have been peaceful so far. The school is committed to both free speech and to keeping the university safe.
“There can be a tension between those objectives,” he says. It is the trick to find a balance between the right to express your perspective and also your academic interests.
At Northwestern University, officials negotiated an agreement with protesters, making a plan on where students can continue to protest while not breaking the university’s rules.
It’s one of several universities in the country that has professors arrested at demonstrations, have no-confidence votes in their administrations, and circulate letters in support of arrested protesters.
On Sunday, demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles breached a barrier set up to separate pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters, resulting in “physical altercations,” according to a university spokesperson. The two groups were separated by police.
Professors at Northeastern University, where over 100 people were arrested on Saturday, sent university leaders a letter urging them to drop charges against protesters and issue a public apology and retraction of false allegations of antisemitism, among other demands. The professors signed a letter expressing support for student protesters and criticized the “disproportionate and unwarranted” response.
“All of these factors, taken together, left university leaders with no choice but to act,” Chancellor Ken Henderson and Provost David Madigan wrote. “Over the weekend, like many colleges and universities nationwide, Northeastern faced an untenable dilemma.”
Jewish students at several universities have reported feeling unsafe. A group of Jewish students at the University of Minnesota say they have seen “violent and hateful messages” on campus and no longer feel safe. Jewish student groups at other schools on Friday demanded that campus officials take stronger measures to ensure their safety.
He says schools may also face pressure from politicians and donors to respond harshly. At Columbia, hundreds of alumni signed a statement this week demanding the school strongly discipline students who engage in threats and hate speech and remove all illegal encampments.
Toward the end of its semester, Columbia University switched to hybrid classes. The University of Michigan is enlisting volunteers to be part of “protest and disruptions response” teams to work during May commencement ceremonies, and the University of Southern California recently announced it is canceling its main commencement ceremony altogether.
According to the university, only the students who remained in the encampment after its deadline of 2 p.m. Monday would face immediate suspension, not the hundreds of others who came during the afternoon to encircle the camp to protect it and show their support.
Nemat Shafik, president of Columbia, wrote in a statement to the community that they had asked the city to clear an camp once. “But we all share the view, based on discussions within our community and with outside experts, that to bring back the N.Y.P.D. at this time would be counterproductive, further inflaming what is happening on campus.”
In Manhattan, the takeover of Hamilton Hall at Columbia began shortly after midnight, as protesters marched around campus to chants of “free Palestine.” Protesters took over Hamilton, a 118-year-old building that has been the epicenter of campus protests for the last 50 years. A spokesman for Columbia was not immediately available.
“Palestine will live forever.” Go away, yo. “Free, free Palestine.” “Free, free, free Palestine.” “Shut it down.” “Palestine will be free.” Disclose and we will not rest.
The Portland campus protests against pro-Palestinian protests: Students and staff protesting the removal of a tent camp at Portland State University
Protesters wearing helmets, safety glasses and masks blocked the entrance to the building. There are chairs and tables at the entrance. A protester smashed a piece of a door with a hammer. The protesters appeared to have free rein of the building.
Students at the Columbia campus in Manhattan are bracing for possible actions against the pro-Palestinian protest site, and administrators are waiting to see if suspending the demonstrators who remained would help the protest.
In Portland demonstrators seized control of the library at Portland State University, where they had spray-painted slogans such as “Free Gaza” and “Glory to Our Martyrs.” Activists called on the university to cut its ties with Boeing, which has supplied weaponry to Israel.
Bob Day, the chief of the Portland Police Bureau, estimated on Monday night that perhaps 50 to 75 protesters were inside the building. Officials urged protesters to leave the area and warned that those involved could face criminal charges.
Students and hundreds of supporters rallied around the campsite in a show of force meant to deter the removal of its tents. Most of the protesters began to leave by the end of the day, leaving a group of students and tents inside the camp.
Just outside, several faculty in orange and yellow safety vests stayed behind to ensure their students had the right to protest.
Ben Chang, a spokesman for the university, said that they had begun suspending students to make sure the safety of their campus was assured.
She said that the students would not allow us to diffuse the situation. We don’t follow university pressures. We act based on the will of the students.”
The faculty members and staff of Columbia’s sister school were guarding access to the tents when Elga Castro, a Spanish professor in the college, was there. “I have my opinions on Gaza and Palestine, but I am mainly here to protect my students,” she said.
What do faculty members and administrators can do to protect students and the civil liberties of higher education? An educator’s perspective on the campus protests of Yale and Indiana
“If you’re not upholding it when it’s needed, then it means nothing,” she says. rebuilding of trust will be the first thing to be done. It takes a lot of time to build and repair that trust.
She says most schools already have mechanisms — like faculty senates and academic councils — through which faculty members and administrators can engage with each other over what’s happening and how to respond. But at many schools, she says, administrations are currently ignoring that structure.
The principle of shared governance — which the AAUP defines as the “joint responsibility of faculty, administrations, and governing boards to govern colleges and universities” — is key to helping campuses move forward, Mulvey says.
And faculty members at some schools — including Barnard, Emory, UT-Austin and Cal Poly Humboldt — are issuing votes and statements of no confidence in their presidents, over their response to campus protests.
“The use of policing, penalization and retribution to avoid protest or dialogue with students cannot stand, as this is no model for an educational institution,” the Yale professors wrote.
The professors of Indiana wrote in their letter that they were opposed to the anti-democratic acts that were being committed.
My job is to protect students and to protect academic freedom at this time of the year. She said she can do that better than they can. Faculty all over are wanting to protect the students, and calling out administrations that are putting the students at risk, I think.
Some are speaking up based on their subject matter expertise, like history professors at the University of Southern California and media school professors at Indiana University.
“As a faculty member who cares about freedom of speech — who sees freedom of speech as the bedrock of democracy and really as the foundation for a public education — I see it as my responsibility to speak up when I see harm being done to students and their rights being violated,” Phillips said. I will have to speak up for them in other ways if my voice isn’t enough.
When Phillips, an anthropology professor at IU, arrived at the site of the campus protest she recognized some of her students, “completely peaceful,” standing face-to-face with what she described as heavily armed riot police. She began walking towards them.
“My instincts just kicked in,” she told NPR on Monday. “And a few moments later, I found myself on the ground, handcuffed and being marched with some students and other faculty to a bus that was ready to take us away to the local jail.”
The students were protesting in front of the school’s assembly area since 1969 and the site of a camp that the administration had banned in a last-minute policy change.
On Thursday, 33 people were arrested by the Indiana state and university police as they attempted to break up the crowd. Protesters quickly regrouped, and Phillips was alarmed to hear on Saturday that armed police were once again gathering at the park.
Hundreds of students have been arrested at campus protests within the last week. There is no specific amount of professors who have been arrested, but news stories and social media reports indicate the number is increasing.
Source: How some faculty members are defending student protesters, in actions and in words
How faculty members are defending student protesters, in actions and in words: Campus-protests faculty arrests letters with no confidence votes
Demonstrators at Indiana, as in many other states, are calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and an end to both university investment in Israeli-affiliated companies and its partnership with a nearby U.S. Navy installation.
The people who were arrested on Saturday were hit with a criminal charge. All were also handed slips of paper by university police banning them from school property for one year (with the exception of one organizer who was banned for five years).
The administration later said that students and faculty who were arrested can appeal their trespass warnings with university police, and will be allowed on campus to finish the semester while that process is underway.
Phillips plans to do so. She says the last week of classes is especially important for professors in terms of meetings with students and administering finals, because that experience has already been disrupted. Her students presented their final projects on Monday, not in their classroom.
“I know we’re all being very careful to not violate the terms of that trespass ban, because we’ve been informed that, should we do so, that the consequences could ramp up and be even worse than they are right now,” she said.
Protesters at Indiana are calling for the university’s president and provost to step down. More than 800 current and emeritus faculty members from the school have also signed an open letter calling for their resignation or removal.
At Columbia University, for example, faculty members in orange vests linked arms, forming a human wall at the entrance to students’ encampment as police arrived to break it up on Monday. Professors at Emory University staged a campus walkout that same day, chanting “hands off our students.”
The president of the AAUP said that she felt like faculty were in a situation of being in different states of mind. “They’re helping the students, putting their bodies on the line … They are dealing with the administration with no-confidence votes, but also trying to get them to back off and do the right thing.
Source: How some faculty members are defending student protesters, in actions and in words
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Several officers slammed Steve Tamari to the ground during the protest at Washington University in St. Louis, with video showing them.
In a statement read by a student on Tuesday, Tamari said he was “body slammed and crushed by the weight of several St. Louis County Police officers and then dragged across campus by the police,” and remains hospitalized with broken ribs and a broken hand.
There were 28 people arrested at the college after the administration called in the city and state police to break up the protest. Both high-profile arrests were captured on bystander videos.
In another, Fohlin approaches the police officers and asks how they are doing, and tells them to get out of the way. One officer grabs her by the wrist, and flips her onto the sidewalk as she approaches. She protested, “I am a professor!”, as another came over to help her tie her hands.
Fohlin was later charged with battery against a police officer. Her lawyer, Gregory Clement, later told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the arrest was misguided.
“Caroline Fohlin was not a protester at Emory on April 25,” Clement said. She came from her office concerned about the students on the quad.
The other professor arrested, Noëlle McAfee, was captured on video urging bystanders to notify the philosophy department — of which she is the chair — of her arrest as she is led away in handcuffs.
McAfee later told 11Alive News that she was passing through the area of the protest when she came across cops “pummeling” a young protester, and stood nearby asking them to stop. She was accused of disorderly conduct after she didn’t leave when the cops told her to.
Source: How some faculty members are defending student protesters, in actions and in words
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Steven Thrasher, a journalism professor and chair of social justice in reporting at Northwestern University’s Medill School, has been acting in what he calls a role of faculty support for the student encampment on its Illinois campus.
When the camp began last week, he and other members of the group Educators for Justice in Palestine decided to mobilize to make sure that faculty members could lend a hand if needed, as well as to physically defend student protesters.
There are four of us who are there so that students know we’re there and we’re working to make sure that happens. We didn’t think we would be in a barricade position in the first 10 minutes.
At protests, Thrasher identifies himself as someone who is willing to be arrested. He hopes that doesn’t happen, but says he feels “quite committed to, if there’s violence that can happen between the students and the administration or cops, that I’m going to put my body in that space when I’m there.”
If I see students who disagree with me politically, I would think that’s a good thing. He said he would intervene on their behalf. “But for me, it’s also, I’m supporting them in something that I think is very righteous, and I’m very proud of them.”
Several faculty members have said in speeches and social media posts that they do not want to lose their jobs for speaking out.
Mulvey, of the AAUP, says it’s riskier for non-tenured professors to take a stand — and the long-term decline in tenure at American universities means that most do not have it. She said those dynamics are damaging not only to higher education institutions but democracy itself.
Mulvey sees the way forward as through education both inside and beyond the classroom. Thrasher, at Northwestern, agrees. He taught a graduate seminar called “The Theater of Protest”, and led his students on a field trip to the camp.
She says the best thing to come out of the turmoil is the deepened community, which she says she has not seen in a long time at the university.
She says there is no more business as usual. “We have really come together in a way that has shown how fragile community can be, but also how important community is.”
Source: How some faculty members are defending student protesters, in actions and in words
Faculty bending over backwards to fulfill their academic obligations to the students… but what will they tell us about grading and office hours?
“My feeling is that the vast majority of faculty will bend over backwards to fulfill their academic obligations to the students … whether it means a written final instead of an in-class final, whether it means extensions on projects, whether it means additional office hours,” she said.