April 26, 2024 - Protests at Columbia and other schools escalate

Brown University has identified about 130 students who it alleges violated a school conduct code that forbids encampments on campus, a university spokesperson said.

The university's Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards has notified the students, who were identified through ID checks, spokesperson Brian Clark said in a release.

An encampment of about 90 people had formed on the school's Providence, Rhode Island campus Wednesday morning, according to Brown.

Students found responsible will be disciplined depending on their behavior and other factors, including any prior conduct violations, the university said, noting students could face probation or separation from the school.

At least 33 people were detained on Indiana University’s campus Thursday following encampment protests.

The Indiana University Police and Indiana State Police said they warned the individuals protesting “numerous times” to remove their structures and they would be allowed to stay.

“Following their refusal to comply with university policy, the group was advised to leave the area,” the Indiana University Police Department said.

Officers gave a final warning at 3:46 p.m., and at 3:57 p.m., individuals who refused were detained and removed from the area.

Thirty-three people were taken to the Monroe County Justice Center and police continue to monitor ongoing activity on campus.

“Indiana University Bloomington is a campus where we encourage and respect free speech and open dialogue,” a university spokesperson said in a statement.

A State Department spokesperson said Thursday that the Biden administration supports the right to protest peacefully.

When asked if the protesters' voices are reaching Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Patel said, “Absolutely.”

Patel added that “harmful rhetoric, rhetoric whether it be rooted in antisemitism, Islamophobia, is incredibly problematic and needs to be condemned and called out.”

Sudents inside campus encampments that have spread across the US are from a variety of backgrounds — including Palestinians, Arabs, Jews and Muslims, joined by students of other religious and ethnic backgrounds.

They hold a spectrum of political and social views: liberal and heterodox, progressive and absolutist.

Some support Palestinians: Many have been motivated by the reports and video coming out of Gaza and see the actions of the Israeli military as a continuation of a more than 70-year-long oppression of Palestinian rights, land and culture.

Protesters say they want their schools to stand against what they believe is genocide in Gaza.

Some support Israel: As reports of antisemitism have surged to record levels since Hamas’ attack on October 7, many Jews feel Israel requires more support now than ever as a refuge for Jews, who have long been an oppressed minority.

Even if they oppose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies and the country’s actions in Gaza, many Jews believe anti-Israel and anti-Zionist sentiment and even peaceful protest of Israel is itself antisemitic — because the concept of Israel as a Jewish homeland is core to Judaism.

And some support the Israeli government’s efforts to crush Hamas in Gaza.

George Washington University president Ellen M. Granberg on Thursday said DC Metropolitan Police were asked to assist in relocating an “unauthorized protest encampment” on campus.

She said the school will allow George Washington University students “an appropriate place for their protest within the defined limits of free expression” at the school but will not allow students from “other local colleges or unaffiliated individuals to trespass on our campus.”

“We can and will enforce the time, place, and manner restrictions that continue to govern activities on our campus,” she said. 

Granberg also said they will insist that protesters “meet their responsibility to university policies that prohibit the disruption of the normal academic activities of our community – the vast majority of whom are not protesting.”

Te University of Southern California canceled its main commencement ceremony for 2024 graduating students in May, citing "new safety measures in place."

"We understand that this is disappointing," the university said in an announcement on its website.

The announcement came days after the university canceled the commencement speech of its Muslim valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, due to what it called security concerns. USC then canceled appearances by prominent speakers and honorees at the May 10 graduation ceremony.

USC's commencement weekend is scheduled for May 8-11. Its main stage ceremony traditionally brought all 65,000 students and their families together. The university said it would host "new activities and celebrations" to ensure the weekend would still be "meaningful, memorable and uniquely USC."

Many students in the class of 2024 graduated high school in 2020, meaning they may also have missed out on graduation ceremonies due to Covid-19.

Palestine Legal filed a civil rights complaint against Columbia University this week through the US Department of Education, demanding the agency's Office for Civil Rights investigate the school's treatment of Palestinian students and allies.

The complaint goes beyond the events of the last week, when NYPD arrested more than 100 protesting students.

It alleged that for the past months, "Palestinian students, Arabs, Muslims, students perceived to be Palestinian, and students associated with or advocating for Palestinians" were subject to anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian harassment and Islamophobia.

The complaint represents four students and Columbia's Students for Justice in Palestine. Palestine Legal said these students received death threats and were "harassed for wearing keffiyehs or hijab, doxed, stereotyped, being treated differently by high-ranking administrators including Columbia University President Minouche Shafik."

Palestine Legal also said the school has the responsibility to protect its students, including Palestinians and supporters, and should not threaten or call the police or military. Columbia has denied threats to call the National Guard were ever on the table in negotiations with protesters.

A group of Democratic Georgia state lawmakers on Thursday condemned the “excessive force used by Georgia State Patrol” during arrests at Emory University.

“The use of extreme anti-riot tactics by Georgia State Patrol, including tasers and gas, is a dangerous escalation to protests which were by all accounts peaceful and nonviolent,” according to the statement posted on social media by Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Democrat who is also Palestinian.

The group blamed Georgia leaders and said they have created an environment where “state police feel free or perhaps are directed— to respond to normal peaceful protests with violence.”

The ACLU of Georgia also said on Thursday it was concerned about law enforcement’s response to the protests.

“Colleges and universities should be places where viewpoints, expression, debate, and free speech are encouraged, not suppressed.”

When Minouche Shafik was announced as Columbia University’s president last year, she was called the “perfect candidate” by the chair of Columbia’s Board of Trustees.

Now, some of her own students and professors, as well as the speaker of the House of Representatives, are calling on her to resign.

Just over nine months into her tenure, Shafik is under pressure for her handling of Columbia campus protests over the war between Israel and Hamas.

College administrators have been under intense scrutiny in the wake of the war in Gaza. University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill and Harvard University president Claudine Gay both stepped down in the wake of pressure over their response to antisemitism on campus.

At Columbia, some students, faculty and left-leaning lawmakers are enraged that Shafik authorized the New York Police Department to shut down student protests on campus that have been urging the university to cut off its economic and academic ties to Israel. They say the crackdown on student protests, which resulted in more than 100 arrests, violated academic freedom.

Other students, religious groups and right-leaning lawmakers say the administration has failed to stop antisemitism inside Columbia’s campus and at protests outside its gates.

“She’s at serious risk of being able to survive this,” Finkelstein added.

Read the full story.