Universities in the United States have faced a campus security reckoning in recent weeks as anti-Israel protesters clashed with police and disrupted school environments with encampments.
Some universities have been passive in their approach. Columbia repeatedly gave deadlines to clear encampments that demonstrators ignored and have failed to escalate countermeasures.
Others have been less amenable. Yale issued a warning to their encampment that if the protesters did not leave, they would face arrest and suspension from the school. The approach worked, and the protesters left.
At various universities, officials and individual actors took their own approaches to cracking down on protesters. Here are a few of those instances.
A video showed a group of counterprotesters, including a few Jewish fraternity members, clearing out a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on ASU’s campus as protesters were forced to leave the area.
A Jewish fraternity member at ASU, Dylan Marks, spoke to Campus Reform on why they helped officers clear the encampment. Marks is the person seen throwing away tents in the dumpster in the video.
“We had been speaking with the ASU staff who, having been called in on overtime, were eager to finish their work,” Marks said. “When we offered our help, they gladly accepted, appreciating that it would expedite the process and allow everyone to head home sooner. We figured the faster they got off our campus, the better, even if that means taking out the trash.”
Students at Columbia took a democratic approach to combat anti-Israel protesters: elect an Israeli school president. Students at Columbia’s School of General Studies, one of four undergraduate colleges there, recently elected Israeli Maya Platek to be their student body president.
Platek delivered an impassioned speech a few months ago to an audience laden with Israeli flags and enthusiasm for her message.
“Our classmates and professors choose to manipulate history in order to demonize us, as people have done all throughout history,” Platek began. “They choose to rewrite our identity in order to justify terrorist regimes. They choose to join the long list of people who advocated for the destruction of the Jewish people.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that “her election probably isn’t representative of the larger Columbia student body,” as the School of General Studies has many nontraditional students.
While she previously called on the New York Police Department to clear the protesters out, her suggestion has not invoked action either, and while her election has been publicized, it may not be impactful.
Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department has reportedly refused calls from GWU to assist in clearing protesters from its private campus, as the encampment there entered its sixth day on Tuesday.
In response, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) are pressuring Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser and MPD Chief of Police Pamela Smith to act.
The letter states that it is “deeply disturbing that while GWU has attempted to take concrete measures to protect the safety of its Jewish student body from persecution and harassment, it is hindered by the MPD’s refusal to provide assistance clearing out the encampment, over fears of public criticism.”
The letter later said that GWU will be unable to clear the encampment because it “lacks the manpower and jurisdiction to act on public land.” Foxx and Comer finish with a list of questions about Bowser and MPD’s refusal to act and what conditions will need to be met to do so, along with the fact that the inaction could come in conflict with MPD’s mission statement.
“We call on you to answer fully for the reluctance to enforce the law,” the letter said. “In the event you do not, Congress will take the necessary actions to ensure this failure will not be repeated.”
GWU officials have already condemned the encampment and said it violates “our clearly defined rules of conduct and behavior.”
Counterprotesters found out UCLA’s pro-Palestinian encampment had banned bananas due to a protester with a severe banana allergy, so they reportedly came back and taunted the encampment by eating and waving bananas at them.
Marie Salem, a media liaison for UC Divest, alleged “agitators” also threatened to sexually assault a student with a banana.
The distasteful approach leans toward bullying rather than a diplomatic resolution, but it hasn’t worked either way.
Just a few days after UNC’s encampment began, police arrested several protesters and detained many others on Tuesday as demonstrators refused calls from the university to disperse.
Protesters put up a fight against police.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“During that time, the protesters attempted to block the UNC Police vehicles by standing in front of them and throwing items at officers,” UNC Media Relations said. “Polk Place was cleared in approximately 45 minutes. After the area was cleared, the remaining protesters escalated their tactics, attempting to forcibly enter South Building by pushing officers and refusing to comply with requests from Facilities and UNC Police.”
UNC workers then began to break down the empty encampment and placed metal barriers around the site. The college’s response looks to be one of the most strict as other colleges deal with persistent protesters and long-lasting camps.