Marc Novicoff and Robert Kelchen write for the Washington Monthly:

Pro-Palestinian protests have been rare at colleges with high percentages of Pell students. Encampments at such colleges have been rarer still. . . .

At private colleges, protests have been rare, encampments have been rarer, and both have taken place almost exclusively at schools where poorer students are scarce and the listed tuition and fees are exorbitantly high. . . .

Our best guess is that poorer students are just focused on other concerns. They may have off-campus jobs and nearby family members to see and take care of. . . . Students burdened with multiple responsibilities — like having to work a low-paying job to pay for college to get a better-paying job — are unlikely to devote what little free time they have to protesting about an issue they don’t see as a high priority.