US universities have been accused of “declaring war” on pro-Palestinian faculty and students, with a clampdown on protests against the war in Gaza set to be renewed at the start of the academic year.
More than 2,500 people were arrested in the wave of demonstrations, encampments and occupations that swept colleges last term, many of which were ended only by violent police interventions.
Seeking to avoid a repeat of the disruption, many colleges have used the summer break to introduce new regulations on campus demonstrations, including bans on tents, limits on numbers, time constraints and identity checks.
“Many institutions have spent the summer trying to determine what policies to enforce, how to enforce them and how to be extremely clear with students about what’s OK, what’s not OK and what consequences will exist,” said Steven Brint, distinguished professor of sociology and public policy at the University of California, Riverside.
But Raz Segal, associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at New Jersey’s Stockton University, said the restrictions often went too far.
“It’s very clear that a lot of colleges in the US that were hotspots of protests in the spring have basically declared war on faculty members, on students and, actually, on truth,” he said.
Dr Segal said universities should be prepared for “very legitimate pushback against” the regulations, adding that colleges had “created the conditions” to expel large numbers of students.
“People understand that this attack against academic freedom, this attack against the right to protest and this attack against research spells the end of the academic world, and maintaining the academic world is something worth fighting for,” he said.
Just like administrators, protesters have also developed new tactics, with an elected pro-Gaza student government at the University of Michigan withholding funding for all activities until the institution agrees to divest from Israel. A coalition of students at Columbia University, the epicentre of the spring protests, said protesters would continue fighting for divestment “no matter the individual cost”.
“Universities are clearly clamping down on what remained of freedom of speech,” said Norman Finkelstein, an independent political scientist and expert on the Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“This has been the biggest assault on academic freedom in American history by far. There’s never been anything remotely like it.”
Students appear to agree. A new report from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (Fire) found that large numbers of students have lost confidence in the ability of their institution to protect free speech on campus.
The organisation warned that “inevitable” protests this year, combined with the upcoming presidential election, have created a “combustible situation” and that many administrators now face an “uphill battle to earn their students’ trust back”.
Dr Finkelstein warned that it would be “very tough” for students to take part in protests in the coming term because they risked being suspended, expelled, arrested, denied job opportunities or cut off financially by disapproving parents.
Professor Brint agreed that universities faced a “very difficult” year, but said it was unlikely that many colleges would yield to calls for divestment because many states have laws in place against anti-Israel boycotts.
Nevertheless, he continued, the American Association of University Professors’ decision to reverse its opposition to academic boycotts could “empower” more faculty to join the movement.
“It will certainly provide a rationale for continued advocacy on those lines and may also convince some others that this is an acceptable tactic,” Professor Brint said.
