OAN Staff Blake Wolf
1:29 PM – Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s daughter announced on TikTok that she’s opting out of graduate school, citing insufficient support from higher education institutions for students’ rights to protest.
“I applied for one school. I kind of had my heart set on it. I am not going to name the institution, but given recent events I am not going to give my money, go into debt for, or support institutions that do not support students and the right to protest and speak out for their communities,” Hope Walz stated in a Sunday post.
“Students deserve to be protected. I am not worried about if I were to be protected or not at said institution; I am, you know, a privileged white woman. But I am not going to put myself in the position where I am giving money or supporting institutions that don’t support their students,” she added.
Hope Walz’s statement follows after President Donald Trump’s crackdown on protests at college campuses following the nationwide popup of pro-Palestinian encampments last spring.
The post also follows after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested and deported at least 300 foreign students who previously participated in the pro-Palestinian protests, which often included violence and other students not being able to attend class.
“We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campus. We’ve given you a visa, and you decide to do that, we’re going to take it away,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated last month.
Columbia University represents the most high-profile capitulation to President Trump’s demands after he threatened to pull federal funding from the institution for failing to “protect students from anti-Semitism.”
In response, Columbia agreed to hire numerous campus police officers with the ability to arrest students and tighten its restrictions on campus protests while also strengthening disciplinary policies.
The university was the site of the most extreme pro-Palestinian protests that took place last spring, which saw students take over one of the buildings on campus, warranting a major response from police.
The protests are in response to Israel’s war in Gaza, stemming from the October 7th, 2023, terror attacks by Hamas terrorists which claimed the lives of 1,200 Israeli civilians, and the kidnapping of 251 more.
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