The Hyde Park Herald reports that the University of Chicago, which previously withheld diplomas from eleven students for participating in our encampment, has given them back. This means that although the students were warned that being in the encampment was illegal, they, along with all the encampers, suffered no penalty for breaking University rules. The encampment was the fifth violation of University regulations by protestors that went unpunished.
This seems to be the general trend in most universities. Now that the tumultuous year has ended, universities are experiencing a wave of forgiveness—a wave that will come back to haunt them this fall. As far as I can see, no students were disciplined by the city of Chicago or by the University despite multiple and clear violations of both the law and University regulations. (This includes the Ciry of Chicago dropping trespassing charges against 24 students and two faculty who were arrested for violating University regulations for sit-ins in University buildings.}
In April I recounted the sad story of how remiss Chicago has been in punishing pro-Palestinian protestors who violated University regulations. As far as I know, the only puniahment levied the entire year, as described above, is a simple warning to the Students for Justice in Palestine that they had better desist from illegally disrupting and deplatforming opponents:
Official Warning – An official warning indicates the organization has violated University policies or regulations and will be placed on file. If the organization engages in any additional misconduct, the appropriate disciplinary body will be informed of this official warning, the related circumstances, and must consider the warning in determining further sanctions.
No that’s really going to deter illegal protests, isn’t it? As noted below, the protestors are proclaiming they’ll return this fall resuming their disruptions. Why wouldn’t they, when they know there’s no penalty for doing so?
Click below to read the Hyde Park Herald’s account of the restoration of diplomas:
An excerpt:
The last of the disciplinary cases against 10 University of Chicago students for their involvement in the pro-Palestine campus encampment was dismissed this week, student activists announced Monday.
Among those facing disciplinary cases were four graduating seniors and a graduate student, whose diplomas were withheld pending U. of C. investigations into potentially “disruptive conduct” at the encampment, which was erected on the Main Quadrangle in early May to protest the institution’s investments in weapons manufacturers arming Israel in its war on Gaza. Most of these cases – including those for another six undergraduate students – were dismissed last month, and the final one, the case of the graduate student, was dismissed and the degree conferred on August 12.
Youseff Hasweh, one of the four graduating seniors, said Monday that this final dismissal after months of pressure from students, alumni and faculty “tells UChicago that we’re never going to back down.”
“Students are even more fired up to join the movement and to let UChicago know that this wasn’t okay, that everything they’ve done this past year,” he said.
In addition to tearing down the encampment, U. of C. police officers arrested more than two dozen students and two faculty members during a November sit-in demanding divestment in the Israel-Hamas war and that the U. of C. cut ties with Israel altogether. U. of C. officers also arrested one person during a commencement walkout this June.
As I said, the City dropped all charges against the two dozen students and two faculty members. I don’t know why this happened, but surely some punishment should be meted out by the University (as did Vanderbilt–see link above) for illegal sit ins, even if it’s only a note on the student’s transcript.
University regulations that aren’t enforced are regulations that are toothless and can be violated with impunity. I predict that the whole brouhaha will begin again this fall, as there’s simply no way the conflict between Israel and Hamas will be resolved by then. I’ll add this: those calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, including candidate Kamala Harris, realize that, by leaving Hamas in power, such a move will ensure that Israel will be forever subject to Palestinian terrorism—until the Jewish state is destroyed by an Iranian nuke.
As for my University, the paper says this:
Administrators for the U. of C. could not be reached for comment regarding the alleged photos as of press time.
That, of course, means they have no comment.
Get ready for fall—it will be a bumpy ride.
Appreciate the update.
I think readers here learned a lot lot lot from the coverage here in spring – I certainly did – also appreciated.
+1
Yeah, I can’t wait to see what the DNC is like next week.
Ha ha, me too! They’ll do fine. It’s not 1968. Generalized optimism and hoping Taylor Swift patches in to sing the National Anthem.
Israel must live, and will not be destroyed by “an Iranian nuke”. But most of the Middle East would be.
Summer vacation—and the brief respite from campus takeovers—is coming to an end. My guess is that administrators were hoping that the war in Gaza would be over and that the protestors would quietly go back to teaching and learning in the fall. I rather doubt that this will be the case and I doubt that universities are well-prepared for the opening of classes. It could be a tumultuous year on campuses nationwide.
Wonder what the UChicago administration would have done if the protests were advocating “Send blacks back to Africa”, or LBGTQ “are mentally ill and should be hospitalized”?
Unfortunate but not unexpected.
There will be more of the same this year.
Sure does look that way.
Given the thorough-going spinelessness of campus administrations, it seems lawsuits against universities by affected students (for having their education disrupted and for allowing a hostile and intimidatory atmosphere) might be the only way left to force them to get a grip on the issue.
How depressing that none of them seem to have used the summer to prepare a more robust response.
I was talking about these occupations with my Leftie sister at lunch the other day. (Her son is taking forever to finish his humanities PhD and we were both expressing gloom about academia, especially for straight white guys trying to get a look in.) She started to natter on about “freedom of assembly”. Ignoring my wife’s kick against my ankle under the table I said assembling on private property has to be with the consent of the property owner otherwise it is trespassing. Sis started to repeat the standard Canadian Broadcasting Corporation talking point that since the universities get government funding they aren’t private property and anyone can camp anywhere they feel like it. I was going to ask her if the government funding she received her entire working like as a schoolteacher meant that she had to let protestors sleep in her living room. But I thought better of it and simply pointed out the Court didn’t agree with her and granted the university an injunction against the trespassers who cleared off in advance of the Toronto police coming to enforce it. But I can see why civil wars pit siblings against each other.
(McGill took matters into its own hands and cleared its encampment with front-end loaders, with the Montreal riot squad standing by in case there was trouble. Only University of Windsor capitulated abjectly, although if you read the agreement closely it mouths a lot of anti-Israel propaganda but doesn’t actually commit to any positive (or negative!) concrete action.)
But yes, at all our encampments there were no consequences, either, and the protestors and their labour-union muscle have promised they’ll be back.