you answered your own question. Colleges should stop taking positions unless it affects theri students or faculty. The only public position they shoudl take is that we encourage free discussion and debate but not harassment and intimidation, which will be dealt with harshly. Demonstratoins in the public square are welcome, but hate speech or inciting violence or threating students in a library will result in suspension/expulsion.
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Maybe so. But then they have people - including major donors - clamoring for some sort of response or stance. They can ignore that, and perhaps they should, but there is also a chance of backlash at that. It seems no matter what they do, they canât win.
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yes, they are clamoring to hold intimidators accountable, which is not something the faculty & Admin wants to do.
OK, but how do you do that without issuing some sort of public statement on the matter?
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Umm, try enforcing the schoolâs rules. For example, those in the library incident at Cooper Union ignored the ID card swipe in system. Campus security was there, but did not ask for ID. Some of the agitators might not even have been connected to the school. Remove them, forcibly if need be. And tell the students with ID, they have exactly 15 seconds to stop intimidating those behind the glass windows or they will be arrested and their actions will be reviewed to see if they comply with the schoolâs conduct code for suspension/expulsion. Simple. But that takes backbone, not a public policy letter.
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Did you all see the George Mason response on Twitter to the Stop Antisemitism video of people ripping down kidnapped/hostage posters? They have been soundly mocked for their lack of legal understanding.
Sometimes effective security/policing includes de-escalating a situation, rather than upping the ante. Maybe it was sensible to let one group pass, regardless of ID, then close the door behind them â and thus separate both groups until they both dispersed, without physical injury or property damage.
And it might actually require more backbone.
The college did say that they would do precisely that.
Force, even if âpermissibleâ, may not always be the best option.
@bluebayou A confrontation would have increased the chance of bodily and property damage â which would have helped nobody and clearly was avoided. Sometimes, the moderate choice is just smarter.
A few community officers had been at various locations on campus all day, observing no infractions.
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except they were separated by tempered glass. If they wanted to de-escalate, just clear a pathway at the door so those in the library could freely leave (with an escort).
They did!?
They offered students in the library the option to take an alternate exit (AND offered an escort, if I recall correctly.)
Oh, how we all glamour for the return of the good-old dark ages. 
Then again - Kent StateâŠ
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NYPD was onsite and said all were safe so folks shoudl be able to walk out the front door. De-escalation does not mean that the intimidators get to keep intimidating with hate speech, while the targets go out the back door.
Did they ever ask for IDâs? If any non-students were upstairs, they should have been arrested for trespassing.
Back in the dark ages, getting arrested for protesting was a badge of honor. None of this mask-wearing, anonymous protesting.
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It is collegesâ own fault that they decided to start taking political stances on issues that they felt were easy ways to gain kudos (BLM, Ukraine). And many avoided trying to stand up for free speech on issues where it might cause controversy (eg conservative speakers on campus). Now it has come back to bite them and I have no sympathy. They dug their own grave.
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Even if they avoided politics as much as possible, they will still get dragged into some of this stuff when there is an argument about whether some act crosses the line beyond freedom of speech and into harassment, threats, prohibited discrimination, etc. that their conduct rules prohibit. Many of the angry protesting groups try to test where the line is and push the boundaries as much as they can, and those who oppose them want to push the boundaries in the opposite direction (though each group may have very situational views on what is âfree speechâ depending on who is doing the protesting).
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Do you have a gift link or a summary? I canât read it. 
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November 1, 2023 1:30 PM
âIt is not enough merely to note the obvious, namely, that this is a disgusting display. If this student were black and being physically intimidated and prevented by racist activists from walking the Harvard campus, those racist activists would already be under arrest, and rightly so.â
****Regarding this incident
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1719661454893134112 *****
âŠâ What is happening at American universities, such as Har vard, is at least as un-American as participating in an uprising at the seat of government. Whatâs more, itâs against the law.
As Iâve previously observed, federal penal law harshly punishes civil-rights violations. For example, Section 241 makes it a felony, punishable by up to ten yearsâ imprisonment, for two or more people to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in the exercise of rights and privileges secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States. It is not just disgusting, it is unlawful, to menace a Jewish student so that he is physically impeded from walking from place to place, as all other students are free to do on campus.
The FBI should be identifying these antisemites and the Justice Departmentâs Civil Rights Division should be prosecuting them. Now. And other antisemites must be put on notice that prosecution is whatâs in store for them if they engage in this kind of unacceptable behavior.
So what do you say, Attorney General Garland? Does this get the J6 scorched-earth treatment, or are Jewish students akin to Supreme Court justices for whom the ârule of lawâ is no sanctuary?â
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Really shocking. I wonder why Harvard is an outlier on this ( yes, I know, incidents have happened elsewhere, but nothing similar occurred at say, Dartmouth or Princeton or Chicago).
Well, a correction. There was that Princeton staff member who assaulted a student at an off campus Palestinian rally, but that was off campus thus less subject to University security. Seems worse when it is fellow students and on campus. The Harvard incident looks like it might be on campus?
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Why hasnât Harvard identified, suspended, and expelled these students?
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The House of Representatives is voting for colleges and universities to publicly condemn antisemitism on their campuses. Text the word âcampusâ to 72572. It will take you to a link to your state representative. It takes less than a minuteâŠ
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There is a difference between free speech and hate speech.
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