Once champions of free speech, colleges crack down on pro-Palestinian protests
Arrests, suspensions, canceled commencements.
What should have been a season for celebrating the waning academic year is being overshadowed by a tug-of-war between college students who oppose Israel’s military actions in Gaza and university administrators cracking down on widespread protests.
More than 2,600 students have been arrested across the U.S. in recent weeks, The Associated Press reported, as universities that were once havens for free speech contend with escalating campus unrest, including violent confrontations with counterprotesters and aggressive law enforcement officers.
On Tuesday, student protesters at the University of Chicago received a notice from administrators threatening to arrest and place them on “emergency interim leave of absence” if they did not immediately abandon their encampment.
Instead, many linked arms and formed a human chain in direct defiance of campus police officers who had dismantled the protest area hours earlier.
Graduate student Christopher Iacovetti said he was asleep in a tent around 4:30 a.m. when university police first descended on the pro-Palestinian encampment.
