With college protests spreading across the country like wildfire, many of the campus faculty have bent from their no-police stance to now having the local police in the area crackdown on the encampments that have fueled the animosity reported by fellow students Jewish and non-Jewish students.
On May 6th, 2024, colleges like Columbia who reported that even despite the violent take-over of Hamilton Hall, and the protest still active on the campus they are still going to go through with the university-wide commencement have announced that they will no longer be going through with that plan and have nixed the commencement all together along with the University of Southern California citing “new safety measures.”
Rightfully much of the focus on these demonstrations has focused on the alleged vile rhetoric and antisemitism spewed by the Pro-Palestine groups.
We often seem to overlook the reason behind the actions being taken by these demonstrators, some of these demands vary from campus to campus, but many are not even related to the ongoing war with Israel-Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Main demands that may be closely related to the conflict would be divestment from companies that fund Israel or businesses that profit from the conflict, alongside severing ties with Israeli Universities and Universities that have dual degree programs like Columbia University.
While the other demands seem to be a bit more domestically political, such as on multiple campuses have also called for defunding the campus police, full amnesty, and all charges dropped for the protesters as well, as full transparency of investments, and no restrictions on free speech.
Students at Princeton also want the University to divest the roughly $700 million it holds in private fossil fuel companies, along with disclosing and ending Princeton University research on weapons of war funded by the Department of Defense.
Students at Yale University have made a similar demand, Yale has announced that it will not divest from military weapons, claiming its advisory committee on investor responsibility had not determined “such activity meets the criteria for divestment.”
According to a Department of Education database, about 100 U.S. Colleges have reported contracts and gifts from Israel over the past two decades totaling $375 Million. However, the data does not tell you how or where the money was used, Reported by the Associated Press.
Students at the University of Arizona have asked for an end to any association with the National Center for Border Security and Immigration.
Nationwide more than 2,500 students have been arrested and charged with minor crimes.
