Student Protest Movement Could Cause a Tumultuous End to School Year
The New York Times
Columbia University offered students a virtual option for classes. Protesters were arrested at Yale and New York University. And new protest encampments popped up on several campuses.
As a wave of pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses showed few signs of abating on Tuesday, the demonstrations have raised new questions about what shape the end of the semester may take for thousands of students across the United States.
At Columbia University, where the arrests of more than 100 protesters unleashed a flurry of national protests, students will have the option to attend their last week of classes remotely for safety reasons. Several schools across the Northeast closed parts of their campuses to the public, in an effort to conclude the year quietly.
And at the University of Michigan, leaders were already looking ahead and bracing for graduation. They set up designated areas for demonstrations, and said that administrators would “generally be patient with lawful disruptions.”
The steps are an acknowledgment that the last weeks of the spring could be some of the most difficult for administrators at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities. Dozens of people were arrested this week at Yale and New York University after students erected protest encampments. Other demonstrations continue to emerge from coast to coast, including at the University of Minnesota, the University of California, Berkeley, and Emerson College.
A pro-Palestinian student movement has disrupted campus life, especially for Jewish students. Many have said they no longer feel safe in their classrooms or on university quads as the tone of protests at times has become threatening.
At the same time, many school leaders may face the possibility of graduation ceremonies transforming into high-profile stages of protest over the war in Gaza.
