While some students open textbooks to learn about past protests and movements, college students nationwide are turning the page to write history themselves.
Student protest itself is not a new concept, with many prominent boycotts, rallies and protests occurring from the 1950s through the ‘70s as a part of the Civil Rights Movement and in protest of the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
On May 4, 1970, over 6,000 University of Washington students took to the streets in protest of Vietnam War efforts expanding into Cambodia. Other protests have had further reaching messages, like the Kent University shootings, in which the Ohio National Guard killed four student protesters and sent a powerful message about the government and administration’s treatment of student protestors.
This demonstration followed many from years prior, including the Greensboro sit-ins in North Carolina which tackled unfair segregation policies, the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley that addressed campus rules restricting political activity, and the East Los Angeles Walkouts due to inequality for Latino students in public education. They varied in scale and type of educational institution, but were all similarly influential, bringing awareness to their respective causes that may not have otherwise been noticed.
Most recently, college students have taken a stance against the ongoing war in Gaza, using campuses as a platform to express solidarity with Palestinians. The goal of many pro-Palestinian protests is for their universities to divest from Israel and cease all partnerships with Israeli companies. However, people across the country have had increased concern for their impact on students.
As the conflict in Gaza continues to escalate, more and more college students across the country are being reprimanded by the Trump Administration for participating in protests against the war in Gaza.
The protests have been led by student activism groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
However, the student activists are not the only ones impacted by the protests.
A Bridging Divides Initiative (BDI) analysis found there have been around 1,150 “encampment related demonstrations” across 150 different colleges and universities in America.
Although the goal of these protests are for their universities to cut ties with companies related to Israel, the report of Hillel International, 6 in 10 Jewish students claim how the encampments, “have made it more difficult for them to learn, study[,] or concentrate,” with 51% noting how their classes have been canceled, interrupted, moved to zoom, or completely blocked from attending.
While looking for colleges, protests on campuses play a role in many high schooler’s decisions.
After touring Columbia University, senior Phineaus Whedon of Wall, “immediately fell in love with it.” However, since some of his family was Jewish, they worried he would face antisemitism. Whedon explains, “No matter your take on the Israel v. Palestine conflict, it’s impossible to deny that it could not have felt safe to be Jewish at Columbia.”
In response to the protests, many colleges and universities are taking action. According to the New York Times, students must now receive the approval of their administration before they can protest at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. At Indiana University, “expressive activity” must remain between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. Recently, UCLA has banned SJP as a campus association.
The Trump Administration has frozen $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard, claiming to combat anti-semitism and curb “wokeness”, as well as pulling $400 million from Columbia for not protecting their Jewish students. Additionally, Muhammad Khalil, a demonstration leader at Columbia University, has been arrested. According to President Trump, Khalil is, “the first arrest of many to come,” for participants in these protests.
While educational institutions aim to cultivate thinking and foster discussions, will the increasingly hostile atmosphere around protests prompt colleges to end their decades long tolerance in the name of safety?
