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I am sure many do care but do not find the campus climate conducive to conversation, as cited in the article.
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That’s pretty much my D at this point. When it first started, she asked a lot of questions and wanted to understand, but at this point is just frustrated by the protests and wants nothing to do with them. She has been blocked from going to class on a few occasions which greatly diminished any sympathy she may have ever had for their cause. And this is a kid who was raised in Berkeley! Protest is in her DNA lol.
At this point, she just rolls her eyes at them. So they don’t seem to be winning any hearts and minds at this point; they are merely preaching to the choir and with every act of pushback they experience, they are likely strengthening their own resolve. But they are not engaging new support and do not seem to be building their movement broadly, only internally. At least that’s what it looks like from here.
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Given the not so subtle code of silence on many college campuses, it should not come as a surprise to anyone when public opinion polls release their results periodically. Not much point in discussing it on campus but students do have opinions.
At Columbia at least (the subject of the above CNN article), the Administration’s suspending of the pro-Palestine groups brought a lot of otherwise unrelated students and campus groups who had been on the sidelines into the fray in support of the suspended groups. Even hundreds of faculty members protested. The campus newspaper did a detailed article showing how the Administration revised its rules right before selectively wielding them against those two groups. It was broadly seen as the University taking a side and caving to certain donors.
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Sorry to hear this is an eye roll.
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I also think the eyeroll is not the typical reaction by students. I have been surprised by how many politically uninvolved students in both college and high schools have become both engaged and enraged. Some of the posts I have seen are quite chilling and do not bode well for a peaceful future. For any of us. Not surprising, but frightening.
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She is politically engaged in certain causes - we are also Ukrainian and have participated in the many rallies that were held at the start of that war (those rallies have turned to fundraisers and we are active participants in those, too). I will say, however, never once did any of our rallies block student access to classes nor did they involve taking over bridges and preventing people from getting to work (and in a recently local case, preventing donor organs from reaching their intended recipients!).
I absolutely believe in the right to protest. I am actually very sympathetic to Palestinian sovereignty and the current issues faced by Palestinian civilians. As Ukrainians, we are of course very empathetic with victims of war. And I fully support their right to rally and protest and raise awareness for their cause.
And while my daughter did feel some initial sympathy with this and interest in learning more, she also wants to get to her classes. How does blocking her access to class help Palestinians? It does not. it is disruption for the sake of disruption. I know - the point is no business as usual while people suffer. But tell me: how does that actually help anyone?
The eyeroll is not about the cause they students are supporting. it is about their ineffective tactics and inability to engage anyone but people who already support them and people who may in fact not care that much but who just like to disrupt things - and there are a not insignificant number of hangers on here, too. They like the excitement, they like the rebelliousness. Maybe they marginally care, but that’s not what it’s about. And frankly I roll my eyes at that, too.
That is not the same as rolling eyes at the war and at the suffering and at people sincerely working to help and make a difference.
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It is going to be a very long school year for many. It is unlikely the situation will improve on US college campuses while it is catastrophic elsewhere
Yes. And, as I said, I fully respect their right to protest. But other students have a right to go to class and they also have a right to feel alienated by the methods being used by the protestors. Which is in part what the posted article was about.
What is the point of a protest? To me it is this:
- Raise awareness of cause
- Build a broader movement by engaging new supporters
- Influencing policy
It is obviously too early to fully assess the effectiveness of these protests. No doubt some ambitious PhD student will write a fascinating dissertation about all of this someday based on their own insider experiences and an oral history of former classmates. And of course many books, maybe a film or two…
But to me is seems that, yes, perhaps they have been successful in raising awareness in the sense that many more people are aware of the situation in Palestine. But has it been positive awareness, negative awareness, or a mix of both? I am not sure. Seems like a lot of negative awareness.
Have they engaged broader support? I may be very wrong, but from here it looks to me that, no, they have not been successful at that. And the case in point are the “noncommittal” students at universities. In some cases, they are not joining the protests because the tactics alienate them (when they are prevented from attending classes that they care about and, as I asked, is a single Palestinian helped by an American student being blocked from going to their calculus class? Of course not. It is pointless provocation and alienation, imo - very important to note that this is just my opinion). In some cases, they are not joining because they are intimidated by the black and white rhetoric and the level of anger being evoked by the rhetoric. Some people are naturally non-confrontational and prefer dialog to diatribe, something less welcome at some of the protests and therefore also potentially alienating.
Have they been successful at influencing policy? Here, maybe so. We are still seeing this unfold.
And the college campus seems to be the nexus for all of these things, which is quite interesting and even a bit unsettling. And I think when we see nonaffiliated students become alienated from such movements, it could be a canary in a coal mine for larger society.
But I am just speculating. I could be entirely wrong about all of this.
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As I’ve read this thread, I keep on thinking of MLK Jr.'s Letter from the Birmingham Jail.
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Around here at least I think they have gathered widespread support among previously uninterested students and have built alliances with other student groups on campus.
As for the canary in the coal mine, well, those public opinion polls among those under age 30 is the equivalent of an entire flock of canaries. Demography is indeed destiny and what happens on college campuses has a way of spreading to greater society in time.
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That is interesting and may well be case in some areas. I live in a bit of a “weird” area in the sense that this is something that had already had fairly wide support (relative to other parts of the country) so perhaps its ability to grow was always fairly limited. Basically, support was theirs to lose, as they say. And so it appears that way to me. But that may not be accurate for other areas at all.
Or do not want to take any of the sides that seem to be the ones offered by activist groups – “oppose oppression but excuse, justify, or ignore terrorism” or “oppose terrorism but excuse, justify, or ignore oppression”, often with the stain of bigotry added on top.
The side of people who just want to live their lives in peace and be none of oppressors, terrorists, or victims is largely unrepresented.
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For anyone interested, this topic will be featured on tonight’s 60 Minutes. The promotional blurb suggests Columbia and Dartmouth will be featured.
Could you clarify to which group does the overwhelming majority of American Jewish college students who report being exposed to antisemitism on campuses this year belong in the above classification?
What did you think. 60 Minutes seemed to imply that smaller, more rural (and probably less diverse) colleges are more adept at turning these extremely polarizing events into teachable moments than large, urban universities.
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Didn’t you write above you were retiring from this topic?
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I wonder if it is the relative isolation of small rural colleges from outsiders, or perhaps the lack of graduate students, which leads to a better environment. Or perhaps both. I have noticed that it seems like older grad/ professional school students, rather than teen undergrads, are at the forefront on some of these campus issues.
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I’m certainly impressed by how easily a Columbia protest can fill its main quad with a thousand people. They can’t all be undergraduates. A lot of these universities are conglomerations of little silos where it just doesn’t pay, in terms of professional advancement, to “bridge gaps”.
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