Three Perspectives on the Campus Protests – BCB #100
Where a journalist, a professor, and students think we’re going wrong.
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This week we’re highlighting three different perspectives on the recent wave of campus protests: journalist, professor, and student. Each is trying to give a more careful description on what is happening on the ground, and to offer insights about what leads to escalation, violence, and the hardening of positions which prevents any change. None of these people claim to be impartial, and none of them are pretending to have answers they don’t. What they are doing is asking better questions—and, perhaps, provoking other people to do the same.
A media perspective: focus on the war, not the students
In a recent X post, Tangle News editor Isaac Saul starts by saying how reluctant he is to say anything at all:
For anyone speaking on this topic publicly, the environment is so untenable, so unhelpful, so fraught, that it’s no wonder we are seeing protests like these play out on college campuses. It makes me both want to run to my corner of like-minded people and just shut up and disappear.
More to the point, the actions of protesters on American college campuses—while important—are nowhere close to as significant as the actions of Hamas and the Israeli government, and yet they’re receiving a disproportionately large amount of coverage. This detracts coverage of both attempts at a ceasefire and of the horrors of war itself.
Still, he takes a conciliatory view of student protests:
All students have a right to protest. In fact, I encourage them to protest (though they should find some time to study, too). Movements like the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement are perfectly rational ways to protest Israel. Personally, I hope the BDS movement fails because I oppose its goal … But guess what? It is a non-violent form of protest that offers tangible action for genuine objections to policy. When you criminalize or stifle non-violent protests like that, you often get violent protests instead.
Saul also provides useful commentary on the importance of processing the hateful comments being lobbed on and off campuses—and delineating between students and outside protestors. Both have been documented doing and saying objectively awful things; Saul adds that he has never felt more aware of anti-Semitism even in his own life, but that accounts from pro-Israel people that read as victimization porn are unhelpful to the discourse, too. Ultimately, Saul writes, he personally believes there is a “Zionist case for a ceasefire”:
…this war is making Jews across the globe less safe. Animosity toward Israel is sometimes just anti-Zionism. It is sometimes antisemitism. And sometimes, anti-Zionism morphs into antisemitism before our eyes… one takeaway I have from all of this is that my worst fears about what would happen without a ceasefire continue to come true.
In a follow-up post, Saul reiterated that the negotiations being brokered with the help of Egypt, Qatar, and the US, which would bring dozens of hostages home and stop the bloodshed in Gaza, should be the primary subject of media coverage rather than the protests on American campuses. And he calls on readers frustrated by his point of view to write in making their own case for why they disagree with him rather than unsubscribing or flinging vitriol his way.
A conflict resolution professor says there are no easy answers
Columbia professor Peter Coleman, the director of the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution recently posted his own statement about the events of the last few weeks, drawing on his many years of conflict resolution work in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Coleman makes clear that the current crisis is fueled first and foremost by the violence unfolding day in and day out in the Middle East, perpetrated by both Hamas and Israel’s far-right government. But, he argues, the anti-Muslim hate and antisemitism and on campuses builds upon trends that were apparent in the US long before October 7.
At Columbia specifically, the University’s decades-long tradition of political engagement tends to attract students, faculty, and administrators inclined towards activism. This isn’t a problem in and of itself, but it can breed a culture that prioritizes rapid mobilization to protest over taking the time to think through and reflect on actions before taking them. Plus, Coleman adds, the current generation of students on campus are particularly susceptible to stress and loneliness, and thus all the more likely to want to throw their weight behind a cause. Not to mention, Columbia has been in the middle of a string of crises and a major change in leadership.
To improve the climate on campus, Coleman makes several concrete suggestions, particularly addressed to University administrators and faculty:
- Take the summer to reset and convene the school’s best minds to fashion a comprehensive plan on 1) what is already functioning well to prevent and mitigate hate on campus and 2) what substantive changes need to happen to reduce the odds of this happening again.
- Plan out both short-term and sustained longer-term actions, perhaps building on those outlined in the first report of the Antisemitism Task Force.
- Work actively to grow a new culture that privileges belonging, anti-bias and free speech, and provides the skills, rules, norms and procedures that allow these virtues to be managed constructively. This includes establishing a more robust infrastructure for peacemaking and peacebuilding on campus with trusted, well-trained community facilitators who are prepared to step in when new crises erupt—because they will.
But as for what members of the Columbia community ought to do right now, Coleman is honest with readers that he’s at something of a loss:
Do I choose to stand in solidarity with the desperate, deplorable plight of Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere in the region, or help others to recognize the impossible security situation faced by Israelis when Hamas, Iran and their proxies brazenly seek their extermination? Do I speak out for the inalienable rights of students and faculty to protest and express even inflammatory versions of their political views against Israel on campus, or do I prioritize protecting the safety, security and dignity of the Jews in our community being harmed by these words and deeds? Do I redouble my efforts to teach tolerance, peace and constructive conflict resolution, or simply give up, throw off the gloves, march and fight for what I feel in my heart is morally right and salient — at least in this moment? These are just some of the moral dilemmas that keep me up at night.
Students say the adults in the room are missing the point
Earlier this week, POLITICO ran a compilation of responses from the editors-in-chief of 13 different campus publications. The issues on each campus are different, and it’s clear that treating students as a monolith isn’t going to promote understanding and dialogue at the national level. But if there was one through line from the students’ remarks, it was that the failures of authority figures to take students seriously is likely to provoke young people to double down on their more extreme beliefs.
These student journalists were inclined towards maintaining the position of the neutral observer, capable of interacting with and reporting on all sides. One thing many agreed on, though, was that national coverage of the protests has failed to accurately portray the range of actions and opinions that can be found on campuses, and even on each “side” of the issue.
Zhane Yamin from the University of Michigan wrote:
The protests at the University of Michigan are not equally pro-Palestine and pro-Israel. However, national media has portrayed them as so. Pro-Palestine protests are much more common, and generally bigger than pro-Israel demonstrations or rallies. However, this does not necessarily mean that student sentiment regarding the Israeli military campaign in Gaza is uniform or that there is a lack of pro-Israel sentiment on campus.
Jacob Wendler from Northwestern University adds:
One thing outside media may not see about the protests is that there’s a diverse array of viewpoints within the pro-Palestine encampment, and not everyone agrees on how protesters should carry out their demonstration or what might constitute a sufficient agreement with university administrators. The encampment includes Arab and Palestinian students, Jewish students, Muslim students and students of various other identities. They don’t always agree on how to respond to police escalation. For example: During the encampment’s first few hours, tents repeatedly went up and down as demonstrators disagreed over whether or not complying with police orders would be in their best interest, and there’s been dissent within the camp about how much to engage with the media.
Many noted a general failure of authorities to handle things well, from excessive use of force by police officers called in to clear out encampments to insufficient attempts by administrators to curb hate speech. As Leon Orlov-Sullivan from City College of New York pointed out, this can have an impact on students’ politics:
In recent days, I think a lot of people have developed the opinion that the CUNY administration is poorly handling the protests. And I think that might be pushing some people toward an opinion that is more pro-Palestinian or more against Israel’s actions during the Israel-Hamas war.
These student journalists don’t exactly offer a clear path forward. But their collected responses do make clear that students are most likely to go the more extreme route when they don’t feel they are being respected or even heard.
Quote of the Week
"When I ran toward you screaming INTIFADA NOW, INTIFADA NOW, I just meant I want you to join me in struggling against injustice."
"Ohhhhh, my bad. I totally misunderstood. When I ran toward you screaming NAKBAAAA! I just meant our present discord is a 'catastrophe.'"
[then they make out]