How universities cope with heightened tensions, months after pro-Palestinian protests

How universities cope with heightened tensions, months after pro-Palestinian protests

As the academic year draws to a close, university communities across the country remain concerned, not only about political action but also about the response, if any, it might force.

While the latest arrests have drawn much attention, US colleges have been trying to control student protests since October, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing more than 1,200 and taking more than 200 hostages. Israel’s devastating retaliation in Gaza — with more than 34,000 Palestinians killed, according to its Health Ministry — has fueled a deep-seated view of students and faculty on all sides.

Despite widespread insistence by US students that their tactics are peaceful, administrators often denounce campus protests as disruptive. Some use the rules governing the use of public space to threaten or enact discipline or request police backup.

Implicit in the crackdown is a built-in tension in higher education: leaders must balance the campus’s role as a bastion of free speech while ensuring the safety of students, including those who are Jewish and have publicly expressed concern for their well-being. antisemitism that has surged nationally since October.

Administrators lately seem quicker to impose consequences on campus protesters than they did six months ago, according to Zach Greenberg of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

But, he said, calling the police carries risks. It’s a “drastic measure” that “should be reserved for only the most direct and severe threats to campus security,” Greenberg said.

In many ways, it’s a dark time for college campuses that may need to do so.

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