After the 2 pm deadline for students to leave the Columbia University encampment passed, not much happened. President Shafik’s negotiations over the previous few days (since the last deadline) came to naught. Eventually, Columbia began suspending some students who refused to abide the university’s rules.
The alternative to bad is not necessarily good. It can always get worse.
–Scott Greenfield
You’ll never guess what happened next.
Protesters at Columbia University marched across campus and occupied a building early Tuesday, hours after the university had begun suspending students who had refused to leave a pro-Palestinian encampment.
Protesters began marching around the Manhattan campus to chants of “Free Palestine” after midnight. Within 20 minutes, some had seized Hamilton Hall, a building that has been at the center of campus protests since the 1960s.
The protesters used furniture to blockade the entrance. They smashed windows. In response, Columbia has effectively shut down its campus.
Columbia University has just posted a message confirming that protesters have occupied Hamilton Hall. The statement advises members of the university community and non-essential workers to avoid coming to the Morningside campus today, and that access to campus may be restricted. “The safety of every single member of this community is paramount,” it says.
Across the country, there are similar encampments and a variety of means being employed to end them, including police arresting protesters at the University of Texas and elsewhere. At the same time, encampments are proliferating on campuses, now including the University of Utah.
It’s worthwhile to bear in mind that these are a tiny fringe element of the student and faculty population. But what they’re doing affects all students and the entire campus. Somehow, this doesn’t enter into their calculus.
The total enrollment at Columbia University is around 36,649. A few hundred are involved in the encampment.
There are about 7200 full and part time faculty at Columbia University. A few dozen are involved in the encampment.
They are not the majority.
— Scott Greenfield (@ScottGreenfield) April 29, 2024
For those of us of a certain age, visions of Kent State run through our head as the options dwindle for ending these campus takeovers. As colleges seek to conclude classes, hold finals and prepare for graduation, these no longer appear doable while the campuses are in turmoil. At the same time, bringing police on campus raises the potential of violence as students resist and, in some instances, attack police, leaving police with few options to perform their job and protect themselves in the process.
I have the same fear. Far too much police action is involved in these student protests, and more restraint is needed. https://t.co/BRRTqsfFP7
— Nicholas A. Christakis (@NAChristakis) April 29, 2024
At this point, the students are in too deep to walk away, and suspending them doesn’t appear to be doing anything to dissuade them from digging in deeper. Indeed, seizing buildings makes the situation worse than tent cities.
It’s not that the students have left universities with many alternatives. They refuse to leave. They have a laundry list of childish demands as if anything their university could do would change anything in Gaza, not the least of which is amnesty for themselves. If they won’t leave of their own accord, and will only escalate the disruption and damage if suspended (and presumably expelled), what option remains other than removal by force. And yet, it seems almost inevitable that this will end in needless tragedy and violence.
Still, the students believe that their support of the side of terrorism makes their cause righteous. Granted, they may be incapable of grasping why this is so, why “from the river to the sea” calls for the destruction of Israel and why “intifada” calls for death of Jews, but their ignorance doesn’t change what they’re doing. And granted, these universities have birthed these ignorant activists, reaping now what they’ve sown through years of progressive indoctrination.
But no one wants dead students. No one wants another Kent State. How can this be prevented other than capitulation to the students?
*Tuesday Talk rules apply, within reason.
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This phenomenon is the end result of a years-long rot of mollycoddling these behaviors on campuses. There is no short-term police solution short of tanks and utter might, and that will produce a Kent State. Perhaps the university brasses must adopt an equally years-long tack that reverses the rot by hitting where it hurts: in the pocketbook. If parents paying $120k p/a slowly find their little activist tossed, their tuition room & board unrefunded and their hopes for a sheath dashed, the next wave of parents and donors will likely seek out campuses where the rot did not take such a deep hold. The college presidents will fail to protect the targeted ethnic minority in the short run and the next generation of those recruits will also look elsewhere. And upon the Fall return to campus the resumption of encampments will hinge on the war’s status in Gaza, much like Viet Nam era protests. For now police should only seek to protect the right of the majority to attend (for instance, as escorts to exams) and in general ignore the encamps altogether. Nothing creates protestor malaise better than a lack of publicity. The publicity stems from the universities’ use of ultimatums and confrontations, not from the childish chants of the attention-seekers. Oh, and infiltrate to find and remove the non student agitators.
Screw them. They made their bed, let them sleep in it. Call in the national guard and arrest them all, deal with those who resist appropriately. Time to learn that actions do have consequences in life.
Trespass, destruction of property, breaking and entering, resisting arrest, assault. Did I miss any? Can we add “Providing material support to a terrorist organization” to the list or is that one not workable?
“Fortunate Son” might have been more appropriate.
Or perhaps something from Kinky Friedman, though I’m not well versed enough in his repertoire to make a specific recommendation. A duet of Friedman and Willie doing “Turn Out the Lights” would seem apropos… if such existed.
They don’t send the National Guard with loaded rifles to quell college “mostly peaceful protests” anymore and haven’t since 1970, so stop playing the Kent State card. They also don’t send cops in with nightsticks and helmets to give hickory shampoos like they did in Chicago in 1968.
If the cops are called in, they’ll move those willing to move off campus and issue citations. Those that want to fight will be downed, handcuffed and taken away to be booked into jail with the force necessary used. I’d be surprised if they even used pepper spray or tear gas. Columbia should expel any student the cops have to book, and suspend for a semester those issued citations.
I’d be surprised if blocking access by the faculty members isn’t a violation of their tenure or contract. And the University should begin termination proceedings against all of them involved.
To do otherwise will only encourage bolder action by students and faculty in the future as we have seen.
You seem awfully sure of that. There was some real violence used gains the Occupy protests a few years back. And those protesters folks actually were peaceful.
As a non-lawer, I’m wondering if they will be treated as harshly as the January 6th folks.
Apprehend, book, misdemeanor cite and release seems to be the common response. Not even close to J6. The outcome will likely be a swarm of penny-ante bench warrants that will be ignored as the children return to their home states or countries.
As a dumb old cop I would think an enterprising municipal judiciary could consider making bail on the citations quasi-mandatory just to siphon off some useful cash from the bail payment funds that are springing up around these “protests”.
I, for one, am shocked, shocked I tell you, that appeasement didn’t work. Anyway, turn off the power. Turn off the water. The problem will solve itself in a few days. If you want to speed it up, turn up the boilers. Now that they are hanging banners celebrating “intifada,” treat them like the little terrorists they pretend they are.
Btw, the faculty involved in protecting these fools should be terminated immediately.
One common theme of these protests is that the chosen campground is generally the location of commencement. That’s not an accident, it was chosen intentionally to put the college in a no win situation.
Columbia has reached the point that I see little recourse other than having the students arrested and expelling them. Breaking into buildings and barricading them is far over the line from legal protest, and it has forced the university to cancel classes. Those involved deserve the consequences of their actions. While I hope there are no serious injuries, the choice to risk that was taken by the protestors when they moved up to more substantial crimes in their protest.
Hopefully reasonable and clear statements of impending enforcement of the rules (such as the one by the president of MIT) will convince students at other colleges that their little rebellion is over. If not, those students are also choosing their consequences and they should receive them.
Civil lawsuit time. While the mooks are all conveniently in one place, serve them with process and get the ball rolling on joint and several liability for the trespass and property damage, plus punitives. Take out a TRO on the “occupation” so the fines for contempt start piling up.
As much as I agree with the tough talk, I don’t see it happening except in a few cases.
The colleges are all about butts in the seats and they don’t want to alienate the parents that throw money at the schools to get their little darlings out of the house.
Are you replying to something? Oh right, that’s not my job.
There’s a whole building without butts in seats. Seems problematic to the mission of butts in seats to me. Time for the coppers with shields and gas and water cannons to move in and restore order, I’d say. There is no alternative to arrests and expulsions. The inmates do not run this prison.
Caught between sadness and frustration, I wonder: were students and faculty insufficiently passionate, say, 5 years ago? Did I miss that campuses were flooded with righteous rage over the systematic, state-sponsored destruction of a minority muslim culture? Did the pandemic keep people from occupying buildings, demanding that universities refuse all funding from China, cut ties with any companies doing business there, and pledge support for Uyghurs? Or was it enough just to boycott Mulan on Twitter?
Or, perhaps, despite howling to the contrary, is it that little if any of today’s furor-of-the-moment is about actual oppression?
I’m old enough to remember the South Africa protests, and I remember the same handwringing by “responsible adults” about the childish demands of those unreasonable protestors.
I was on campus from 1969 to 1973. There was much street violence by the “peaceful protestors” against the non-protesters that never got reported or ever made to any rosey tinted movie made about the The All Holy 60s (TM).
One example: My future wife was shoved heavly into a plate glass door for trying to attend class.
FWIW, The Onion is reporting that Columbia will allow students to complete classes from jail if they’re incarcerated.
HTH
Follow the money. Find out who is financing these protests. If you pay attention to the photos and videos of all these encampments, the common theme is all their “camping equipment” at each college, looks exactly alike. Someone at each campus is buying the tents wholesale and giving them out to the protestors.
Wait till those who are expelled find out they’re still on the hook for their student loans and tuition up to that point.
Siege is the natural consequence of a refusal to surrender. This is a concept lost on modern minds. The solution is simple, really, surround the protesters, cut the power, telecom and the water. Don’t let them out, except under terms favorable to the campus administration. These kids will not last 36 hours without the internet, and water.
Odds are none have spent any time on a ranch. Cow shit dropped from helicopters. Their sensitivities won’t take it.
I thought that one of the most effective tools to deal with Occupy was cold running water. A small, continuous flow of it into the tent areas. It is very hard to sleep and hold meetings with cold, wet feet.
I like the way you think.
Really? Is THIS what you wanted? Second round of Columbia sending in the NYPD, and for the second time there are reports that the students did not resist? At ALL?
This conjures images of Kent State, but not Jackson State, the closer parallel in history? If there is bloodshed, what will be the trigger, given precedent?
Childish? Compared to the other comments to your bizarre question? Where is the bloodthirstiness coming from, but most commenters to your question who seem eager to set New York City on fire?
What are the marchers on CUNY chanting? 40,000 dead in Gaza? Are they stupid, not being able to count the 34,000 or so that have perished in that sorry strip…or is it in reaction to Netanyahu’s confirmation this morning that the offensive against Rafah will begin regardless of ongoing truce talks?
What will be the endgame here? Not just on American college campuses, that’s on the road to Jackson State, isn’t it?After starving Gaza, will this coming offensive be directed at pushing the Palestinians that are still alive through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt into the Sinai Desert?
Too harsh Greenfield? Can’t take a series of simple questions? Can’t abide protest at college campuses unless it is your stupid bugbear about Title IX? Why are you relying on others to answer your own question?
https://www.bennettandbennett.com/blog/10-practical-rules-for-dealing-with-the-borderline-personality
People are breaking the law to protest, be it occupying property, destroying property or simply lying on roads.
If the police don’t act then sooner or later someone will feel the need to counter protest in some way, because police are not doing the job they are supposed to.