Students voluntarily vacated a camp at Harvard University on Tuesday, ending a chapter in protests not seen on Boston-area college campuses in decades. They did so after witnessing hundreds of arrests at other schools, including MIT, Amherst College, Northeastern University, and Emerson College, while the state’s political leaders Although he had professed to support freedom of speech, he said nothing when the police were called.
At MIT, students last week marched from their encampment to the school’s Stata Center, where they were confronted by campus, city and state law enforcement. The police were faced with the slogan, “Who do we protect and who do we serve?” before pushing the protester to the ground and handcuffing him. Early the next morning, police destroyed a pro-Palestinian encampment on MIT’s Kresge Lawn and removed tents and signs, following days of warnings from the administration that the encampment violated school policy.
By the end of the two clashes, 19 students had been arrested. A number of players were also suspended, including third-year graduate student Austin Cole.
“These were all peaceful protests,” Cole said, opposing MIT’s decision to bring in police.
Cole, who is African American, said it was ironic that she was awarded the Bridge Builder Award from MIT last year after traveling to the southern United States to study civil disobedience during the civil rights movement. Ta. But now, he says, “the university is punishing me and 23 other students for civil disobedience.”
While students like Cole feel the punitive response to campus protests violates their right to free speech, the state’s political leaders are citing security concerns and protests. It has largely stuck to its established policy, citing zero tolerance for speech deemed Jewish.
“I think the steps that the campus took were appropriate,” Gov. Maura Healey told WCVB’s On the Record.
Mr Healy has distanced himself from the protests. The Massachusetts Amherst school said she was kept in the dark until police began investigating the students last week. She also said the governor “respects” students’ right to protest and speak out, but she argued there is a difference between what she calls constitutionally protected behavior and what she calls threats and acts of violence.
“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen on these college campuses…is questionable behavior and conduct that violates the law and violates campus regulations,” Healey told WCVB. .
Professor Healy suggested that people off campus were trying to use the demonstrations to incite violence, but there was little hard evidence of that on Massachusetts campuses.
At MIT, in a letter to the campus community about the student arrests, President Sally Kornbluth said police action was a “last resort.” She said the disruption caused by the encampment was “becoming increasingly intolerable” and that protesters had been given sufficient warning to clear out.
Police operations at Boston-area schools occur primarily in the early morning hours, with little opportunity for public scrutiny. About 100 people were arrested each at Northeastern University, Emerson College, and the University of Massachusetts, and encampments were cleared by police. At Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts, school officials said they called police for safety concerns, violations of university policies, and messages that could be considered hate speech against Jews and Israelis. Stated.
In addition to billboards and chants calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, there were also statements that some people found offensive, such as the use of the phrase “from the river to the sea” and the comparison of Zionists to fascists. At some schools, including Northeastern University, administrators claimed that a small number of students shouted offensive and hateful language toward Jews.
However, students insist that the majority of anti-war demonstrators were peaceful. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), counter-protests earlier this month remained calm. In this case, police appear to have tried to contain tensions by setting up metal barricades between the two sides.
Things were different at Emerson. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu confirmed that she sent in police after the school issued a warning to students about tent encampments obstructing public rights-of-way. Some students were injured in the riot. The move received backlash, with Emerson’s president expressing “regret” over the development of the exclusion.
“Even if the university follows the letter of the law in how it deploys police, the question is whether it’s a good idea to do so,” said Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts.
Rose said calling the police to quell campus protests is almost always a bad idea because it escalates tensions. “Not only does it chill peaceful expression and inhibit meaningful dialogue, it doesn’t actually necessarily make it safer,” Rose said.
But many of the deep-blue state’s political leaders don’t seem to share Rose’s concerns.
U.S. Representative Seth Moulton echoed Healey’s message, saying free speech and the right to protest are “fundamental values.” But Moulton recently said on WBUR that the protests “cross the line of intimidating students, as is happening at some universities.” radio boston“Many Jewish students literally don’t feel safe. In that case, the university has the right to say, ‘This is too much. This is too much.'”
U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan expressed much the same sentiment. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey did not respond to requests from WBUR to speak about the matter. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss accused protesters of threatening Jewish and Israeli students, writing on X that “students should go back to class.”
One member of the state’s congressional delegation even more strongly opposes the arrests of student protesters.
U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Worcester, told New England Public Media in response to the University of Massachusetts crackdown. In these difficult and difficult times, we must listen to each other instead of shutting people out. But that also means not arresting peaceful protesters. ”
U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley’s office issued a statement in late April saying she “has consistently supported peaceful student protesters and continued to support police crackdowns on campuses in Massachusetts and across the country.” have been criticized.”
But for many of the state’s political leaders, it’s clear that tackling campus protests presents a risky no-win scenario. If you stand up for pro-Palestinian protesters, you risk being called an anti-Semite. Or standing up for Jewish students who were offended by protesters would amount to suppression of speech and anger thousands of young voters, including many voters of color.
Veteran civil rights attorney Harvey Silvergrate said sending in police to end peaceful demonstrations was a mistake many leaders would regret. Silverglate, who lives just a short walk from the Harvard and MIT campuses, remembers what happened in 1969 when Harvard President Nathan Pusey protested against the university’s anti-Vietnam War demonstrators. I remember Taka.
“Nathan Pusey, who will go down in history for his infamous response, called the state police,” Silverglate recalled. “The number of students who were hit with batons was very high.”
Police arrested more than 200 demonstrators that day, and about 75 people, including police officers, were injured in violent clashes. Silverglate believes a better approach is to let the protests run their course. University authorities can close campuses and allow peaceful protests until students are ready to stop.
“There are ways to deal with this kind of thing nonviolently,” he said. “It just takes some patience.”
Unlike in 1969, Harvard did not send police this time. Authorities closed access to Harvard Yard, where protesters were encamped, for 20 days. On Tuesday morning, protesters announced they had decided to remove the tents. They were the last students in the Boston area to take down their tents, with less than two weeks left until graduation ceremonies, which are scheduled to take place on school grounds.
Report from WBUR’s Barbara Moran
