Even as the spring semester winds down, pro-Palestinian protests continue on many college campuses. Here are some recent updates:
Columbia University
Columbia canceled its official commencement scheduled for May 15 and will instead host smaller ceremonies for individual colleges.
Several news outlets have reported that almost one-third of the people arrested for storming a hall on campus last week were “professional outsiders” not affiliated with Columbia. Among them was 40-year-old James Carlson, who has a history as an activist. Carlson was arrested in San Francisco in 2005 for protesting as part of an anarchist group.
Dickinson College
The private liberal arts college in Carlisle, PA uninvited national TV and radio host Michael Smerconish as its commencement speaker following student complaints. The controversy appeared to center around parts of Smerconish’s 2004 book Flying Blind, which criticized TSA screening policies regarding Arabs and Muslims prior to 9/11.
Following an editorial in the student newspaper declaring that the class of 2024 “deserved better” than Smerconish and demanding that his invitation to speak be rescinded, Dickinson’s president declared that Smerconish “faced overwhelming opposition from our faculty and students” and had become “a distraction.”
Clearly upset, Smerconish issued a lengthy rebuttal on his website. Some students and faculty at Dickinson, he wrote, “were left uncomfortable after a selective reading from my post-9/11 book through their 2024 lens. Signs at a student encampment this week displayed the demand of my cancellation alongside divestment in Israel.”
According to Smerconish, his main criticism in the book was against a Department of Transportation policy that prevented “more than two individuals of any particular ethnicity from being singled out at the same time for secondary screening” at airports. “I believed that policy to be ludicrous then — and still do now,” Smerconish wrote.
“The twisting of an uncontroversial book when I wrote it 20 years ago without acknowledgment of the context in which it was written — and the resultant cancellation of constructive graduation remarks — is regrettably a reflection of our times. This will not dissuade me from seeking to be a voice of reason in unreasonable times.”
George Washington University
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Last week, Pro-Palestinian protestors lowered the American flag on the quad and raised the Palestinian flag in its place. The American flag had been at half-staff to honor four Charlotte police officers killed in the line of duty. UNC’s Interim Chancellor, Lee Roberts, responded by standing guard as the American flag was returned to the quad.
When protestors tried again to replace the American flag with the Palestinian flag, members of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity surrounded the American flag to make sure it would not be damaged. "My fraternity brother and others ran over to hold [the flag] up, in order for it not to touch the ground. People began throwing water bottles at us, rocks, sticks, calling us profane names. We stood for an hour defending the flag so many fight to protect,” UNC student Guillermo Estrada posted on X.
A Gofundme set up to honor the fraternity brothers with a “rager” for their patriotic service raised more than $500,000 before donations were paused. Members of Pi Kappa Phi say they do not yet know what they will do with the money and that they were not involved in the creation of the Gofundme.
Following last week’s incidents at UNC, Roberts made a statement to the public:
Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
“This university doesn’t belong to a small group of protestors. It belongs to every citizen of North Carolina. The flag represents all of us.”
UCLA
Reports indicate several instances of hatred and violence during UCLA’s encampment and protests. Last week, a Jewish student wearing a Star of David necklace recorded himself being refused entry to an area of campus by masked protestors. A couple of days later, the AP reported that counter-protestors threw cones, released pepper spray and tore down barriers at a pro-Palestinian encampment. About 15 people were injured. That prompted the university to finally call in the police to diffuse the situation.
University of Chicago
Protestors provided a list of demands from the university, some of which had little to do with the war between Israel and Palestine.
Tufts University
Before their encampment came down a few days ago, protestors at this elite school in Medford, Mass. threatened to boycott commencement events if police intervened. "Any commencement celebration built on violently sweeping, arresting, or otherwise harassing the Gaza solidarity encampment is not a celebration in which we would partake,” a letter signed by about 200 students stated.
According to WHDH in Boston, university “officials said protesters brought in additional demonstrators who are not affiliated with the school.”
Some Jewish students said they felt intimidated by the protests and believed university officials should be doing more to make everyone feel safe. The protestors are “blackmailing the university and the university is falling for it," Ilana Smaletz, who is Jewish, told CBS News.
Portland State University
Activists occupied Millar Library in late April. According to KPTV, “A PSU librarian told FOX 12 that the building had been damaged enough that it isn’t safe and will need time to be fixed before it can be opened to students again.”
According to Oregon Live, “Multiple floors of library windows were covered in pro-Palestinian graffiti, and the doors to the library were barricaded.” A sign outside the library listed “needs” of the occupiers, including respirators, ski masks, eye wash and hand soap.
This sign hung inside the hall while it was occupied:
About 30 protestors were arrested after the building was reclaimed by the university.
Sanaa University
The Yemeni university, operated by the Houthis, has offered to take in U.S. students who have been suspended because of the protests.
“We are serious about welcoming students that have been suspended from U.S. universities for supporting Palestinians,” an official from Sanaa University told Reuters. “We are fighting this battle with Palestine in every way we can.”
The Houthis are a Shia Islamist political and military movement that has been accused by the United States of committing modern-day piracy in the Red Sea. According to Global Conflict Tracker, “Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when Houthi insurgents—Shiite rebels with links to Iran and a history of rising up against the Sunni government—took control of Yemen’s capital and largest city, Sanaa, demanding lower fuel prices and a new government.”
Global Conflict Tracker says that Yemen represents “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The UN estimates that 60 percent of the estimated 377,000 deaths in Yemen between 2015 and the beginning of 2022 were the result of indirect causes like food insecurity and lack of accessible health services. Two-thirds of the population, or 21.6 million Yemenis, remain in dire need of assistance. Five million are at risk of famine, and a cholera outbreak has affected over one million people. All sides of the conflict are reported to have violated human rights and international humanitarian law.”
News that a Houthi-backed university was offering to take in U.S. students amused at least one U.S. politician. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has voiced his support for Israel, had this to say: “If a homicidal, Iranian-funded, terrorism proxy wants to pick up your college education tab, you really, really might want to reevaluate things.”
For more information: This article from the Antidefamation League (ADL) details past and current protests and encampments on campuses across the country.
Gotta love Fetterman!