How Universities Cracked Down on Pro-Palestinian Activism

Colleges and universities person tightened rules astir protests, locked field gates and handed down stricter punishments aft the disruptions of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments past spring.

The efforts look to beryllium working.

Universities person seen conscionable nether 950 protestation events this semester truthful far, compared to 3,000 past semester, according to a log astatine the Nonviolent Action Lab astatine Harvard University’s Ash Center. About 50 radical person been arrested truthful acold this schoolhouse twelvemonth astatine protests connected higher acquisition campuses, according to numbers gathered by The New York Times, compared to over 3,000 past semester.

When students person protested this fall, administrators person often enforced — to the missive — caller rules created successful effect to past spring’s unrest. The moves person created scenes that would person been hard to ideate previously, peculiarly astatine universities that erstwhile celebrated their past of pupil activism.

And astatine Montclair State University successful New Jersey, constabulary officers often outnumber participants successful a play objection wherever protesters clasp placards with photos of children killed successful Gaza and the words “We mourn.”