A petition is circulating among the University of Chicago community about our weeklong Encampment, which violated numerous University “time, place, and manner” (TPM) restrictions on free expression.
Our own encampment began on April 29 on the University Quad. After the President and Dean of Students warned the protestors that they faced university sanctions for violating TPM restrictions, there were some negotiations between the protestors and the administration, but they came to naught. By May 3, the patience of the administration was at an end. On that day the President issued a statement that ended this way:
At 5 a.m. on May 7, after about a week’s existence, the encampment was taken down by the University of Chicago Police. (Apparently the Chicago City police, on orders from our bumbling mayor, wouldn’t do anything, though Mayor Brandon Johnson did allow the city cops to remove an encampment at the Art Institute.)
Before that time I had beefed that the University didn’t seem interested in identifying any protestors violating TPM restrictions despite the threat of sanctions; indeed, when the encampment was taken down and the Encamped fled like fleas off a drowning rat, the campus cops didn’t take names or look at IDs, but simply drove the protestors onto a nearby street. How would they know who the Encamped were?
Without sanctions and punishment (it needn’t be severe for first-time violators), there is no deterrent to actions that violate our freedom of expression. (Yes, it’s okay to put “time place, and manner” regulations on speech in colleges, as those regulations support an atmosphere of free expression. No deplatforming or shouting down speakers, and you can’t block buildings or use megaphones outside of prescribed hours.)
And, in my view, the University had been lax in punishing violators. In the end, that only impedes free expression and creates chaos on campus. (I am, of course, fully in favor of free speech that doesn’t violate the regulations we have in place.) But, mirabile dictu, now there’s a petition going around reporting that there have indeed been sanctions imposed on some Encampers. Four of them, all seniors, won’t be receiving their degrees, presumably until their actions are examined and judged by the relevant committees.
That, of course, angers up the coterie of Palestine supporters, many of whom seem to believe that any expression of their ideology constitutes free speech, even if it violates university regulations. It’s OKAY, they think, to block campus access, deplatform opposing speakers, fence off an area of campus for Tentment, and cancel or disturb regular classes by chanting through megaphones. These folks really do need a lesson in what free speech means here.
But let’s look at the pushback to the punishment (probably temporary) for those four seniors. Below is the text of a Google document for a petition addressed to the University community. In the petition is the report of sanctions.
The bolding in the first and last two sentences is part of the petition, while that in the middle is mine.
NO WITHHOLDING DEGREES FOR SUPPORTING PALESTINE: UCHICAGO, LET THE SENIORS GRADUATE
On May 24th, the University of Chicago told 4 seniors that their degrees are being withheld without justification just 8 days before graduation set for June 1st. UChicago administrators engage in their latest form of repression and intimidation against Pro-Palestine student activists. We demand UChicago let them graduate!
The administration claims these students “may have been involved with complaints” regarding the UChicago Popular University For Gaza Palestine solidarity encampment. Friday Morning, a University adminstrator from the Center for Student Integrity sent the student activists a “Disruptive Conduct Process Notice” informing them the conferral of their degrees will be delayed, therefore, preventing them from graduating with their diplomas despite the students completing their degrees. The Center for Student Integrity went on break for 4 days after notifying the students, preventing students from asking what the complaints were or questioning how they were selected to be a part of this process.
The University of Chicago administration continues to target these 4 students for their support of Palestine on campus. Administration has intimidated, repressed, threatened, and harassed students who show support for Palestine all year. This new intimidation tactic follows the university arresting 26 students and 2 faculty at a sit-in in November, subjecting those same students to disciplinary proceedings that stretched on over 6 months, and repeatedly destroying pro-Palestine art memorials throughout this year. Most recently, the administration used sleep deprivation against people in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment by threatening overnight police violence multiple nights in a row before ordering a brutal police raid on the encampment at 5am, attacking in riot gear while the exhausted people in the encampment were asleep in their tents.
The University of Chicago forsakes its role as a university and eschews its responsibility to its students, workers, and community. As Israel continues its genocide of the Palestinian people, UChicago continues to invest in weapons manufacturers and Israeli companies collaborate with Israel through programs like the Israel Institute and study abroad at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. UChicago cares only about appeasing donors, not about people’s lives.
In the last few weeks, Israel has launched another assault on Rafah where it told people to flee, blocked all aid to Gaza, and attacked northern Jabalia where Palestinians are trapped in a hospital under siege. Yet, UChicago is more concerned with targeting and harassing its students than with addressing its complicity in genocide. After 8 months of genocide, after days of meetings with students from the Popular University for Gaza encampment, UChicago admin refuses to even name Palestine. UChicago’s President, Paul Alivisatos, refuses to acknowledge the undeniable fact that every Gazan university has been destroyed. Over the past 8 months, UChicago has evaded, stalled, and ignored even the most basic demands of its students–hiding behind its bureaucratic structures. But in one email, a single administrator can make the baseless decision to prevent 4 students from graduating.
We, students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community members demand the University of Chicago let our seniors graduate.
See the full petition and list of signatories here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VEpMFO_Roxbb00AVR80rz_p3-bsgJht-meU2o2yqvVg/edit?usp=sharing
As far as I can see, the bit in the middle is both erroneous and funny. Pro-Palestinian students have indeed been allowed to engage in repeated demonstrations, even illegal ones, without either no or perfunctory punishment. I kept an eye on the art memorials, like a huge installation of Palestinian flags, and I saw no destruction of legally permitted installations. (Illegal stickers and posters were removed by the University, and graffiti painted on buildings was cleaned off.)
But the weirdest part of the petition is the claim that the University was using “sleep deprivation” to torture the Encampers. If they intended that, they’d play music all night. The “sleep deprivation” was experience by Encampers who heard rumors on two nights that the University Police were going to take down the encampment in the early morning. And indeed, on the second night, they did. This is in fact a measure designed to ensure the safety of everyone, preventing clashes between police and protestors because the protestors were simply woken up and told to leave campus. And it worked: nobody was injured—no Encampers, no cops. Beefing about this as a form of torture is just another way to claim victimhood, a leitmotif of these protests and not in keeping with pose of resolute civil disobedience.
I’m not going into the bogus claims of genocide or our supposed “complicity” in it. This post is just about the petition. I don’t know how many people have signed it, but they have to realize that if there are no sanctions for disrupting the campus in this way, the campus will continue to be disrupted. These people fail to realize that the purpose of the University is teaching, learning, and promoting thought—not promoting a preferred ideology that comports with “social justice”.
Students are of course free to enact civil disobedience, but part of that is accepting the consequences of the disobedience. Students who beg not to be punished, as well as people who signed the petition above, undercut the very moral suasion essential to civil disobedience, so they damage not only the university’s mission, but the concept of civil disobedience itself.
Only four? What a bunch of crybabies. How do they expect to achieve revolution, if they can’t handle academic discipline? In fairness, this document is just propaganda, and its claims of oppression are intended to smear the University while downplaying the protestors’ infractions. Who for, though? Who is going to be influenced by this? The pro-Palestinians have already chosen sides. It’s all just cosplay, except for the consequences. Let us have more consequences.
One of the protesters’ chants was “Disclose. Divest. We will not stop, we will not rest.”
But now they’re complaining about sleep deprivation–i.e., complaining that they weren’t allowed to rest!
This made me LOL for real – great point!
Hmmm. “[T]hat their degrees are being withheld without justification” is obviously nonsense. How should the university respond? Not every petition requires a response.
Even the title is completely false. No one has their degree withheld for supporting Palestine. They might have their degree withheld for violating university rules after clear warning. That’s a pretty big difference.
An impressive number of signatures. Also impressive is the incredible ratio of the total number of signatories to the number of STEM signatories (especially actual faculty at UChicago).
A huge number of “community members” who could be anyone.
The only complaint that seems to have a germ of legitimacy is this one:
>The Center for Student Integrity went on break for 4 days after notifying the students, preventing students from asking what the complaints were or questioning how they were selected to be a part of this process.
It’s just basic due process to inform people of the charges against them.
The rest of the petition is like the protesters themselves – contemptible.
Ridiculous and petty complaints from students.
On a happier note I can report that my sleepy suburban university *does* at long last have an occupation of its own!
x.com/bobmackin/status/1793820611908952161
Of course it’s our downtown campus close to amenities (piercing & tattoo parlours, pink hair salons, many many dispensaries) rather than our main campus. The encampers occupied the library, effaced the names of the (ahem, Jewish) benefactors who funded its construction, and renamed the library for a Palestinian terrorist. For equity.
themainlander.com/2024/05/24/khalidajarrarlibrary/
The “Free Khalida Jarrar” Library!
How did the students get that name: she’s a 61 year old Palestinian. According to Wikipedia, she’s not currently in prison.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalida_Jarrar
I found this website a short time ago, and, there is much written here of which I am personally critical. Still, Dr. Coyne is well-spoken, whence it has been worth the time to return and consider what he shares. Postings about the campus protests have been a particular attraction.
I attended the college at the University of Chicago. It had been a terrible mistake. Somehow, the pretty pictures I drew on a bubble test impressed somebody — the influence of ivory tower life, I guess.
For three years prior to my entrance as a freshman, I lived as a runaway on the streets of Chicago. I had been able to find shelter in the neighborhood which constituted the boundary between the Latin Kings and the Insane Vice Lords. I had had many interactions with the Chicago Police Department.
There had been a protest during my freshman year,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/05/22/award-to-mcnamara-puts-university-of-chicago-in-uproar/2c832742-7f49-4790-aa6d-e5b3a23dccd8/
At one point, a sophomore assaulted a Captain of the Chicago Police Department with a shaving cream pie. I shudder to think of what outcome I would have suffered for such an act. No charges were filed because of an intercession by the university administration.
In my final year, the University of Chicago football squad “crashed” a party of my friends. I arrived late because I had been studying. My friends were beaten and bloodied, broken furniture strewn about. The football players had ripped chairs apart to use the legs as clubs.
No charges. No reprimand. No repercussions.
Acknowledging exception for the few, one ought not look to ivory towers for integrity. Platitudes, yes. But platitudes are mostly words without substance because of skepticism.
Skepticism is a two-way street.
No doubt viewers here – who are for the free speech of those with whom they disagree and are not disposed to avail themselves of the Heckler’s Veto – will look forward to your rational, reasonable, logical critiques.
Re: your “At one point, a sophomore assaulted a Captain of the Chicago Police Department with a shaving cream pie. I shudder to think of what outcome I would have suffered for such an act. No charges were filed because of an intercession by the university administration.”
Are you for or against flinging a shaving cream pie at someone? (Would you draw the line at a cow patty?) Does it depend on whom the recipient of the pie flinging is? Would you be no less agreeable to having such a pie flung at yourself? Does the “context” matter? Come to an elementary school field day or fund-raising event and volunteer and submit to having a pie flung at yourself.
My text did not refer to a “someone.” It referred to a law enforcement officer.
As for context, what is there to say about freely volunteering for what is perceived as otherwise harmless? Not much, if, in fact, the choice is free. Many do-gooders are adept at perverting altruistic sentiment with peer pressure. The many neighborhood festivals in Chicago — ostensibly promoting neighborhood tourism from the perspective of city government — are “supported” by local businesses under threat of how they can be portrayed on social media. Often, business revenues are harmed because foot traffic becomes confined to the thoroughfare away from storefronts.
As for myself, I am uncomfortable with human beings committing demeaning acts toward one another. I am no saint, but I try not to engage in it. This applies to your other examples.
I’m not convinced that the university as a community, as an institution, is completely on side with the concept that TPM restrictions on expression are justified. Rather, if you believe in a cause passionately enough, not only should you be immune against TPM restrictions but you and you alone should also be able to silence the benighted and the hateful who disagree with you. Just imagine how this faction would expect the university to respond to an occupation encampment by the Proud Boys that sought to intimidate the university into abandoning DEI and canceling the enrolments of all foreign visa students.
In trying to make these academic sanctions stick, the universities are swimming against a strong internal tide that knows it can’t change minds so it will resort to intimidation, the so-called ad baculum argument, to get what it wants.
I agree. It’s even worse than just an internal tide of activists within the university. Governments in many US states and Canadian provinces have their back. Provincial laws and human rights commissions enable or require universities to engage in some of the worst progressive political actions (race-based hiring, gender woo).
The University of Toronto is talking the talk:
But can they walk the walk?