National Post (National Edition)
When universities go insane
VILE SPEECH IS PROTECTED BY LAW, BUT THAT DOESN'T PRECLUDE PUBLIC REVULSION
SUPPORTERS OF ISRAEL HAVE CHALLENGED THE PRO-HAMAS MESSAGE IN THE STREETS AND AT COLLEGES.
— J.D. TUCCILLE
It's entirely possible to goggle at how stupid and hateful people can be while defending their right to be stupid and hateful. As challenging as that position is — and boy, is it — it's the right one to take as college students across the U.S. join protests that go far beyond questioning Israel's response to the murderous Oct. 7 assault by Hamas, and explicitly challenge the Jewish state's right to exist.
But if protesters have the right to say stupid and hateful things, that doesn't make their tantrums any less disruptive to those around them. Nor does it leave them immune to consequences.
“Classes have moved online and everything is a little weird on campus,” my nephew, a freshman at Columbia University, told me this week. An athlete, he's insulated from the worst effects of a campus convulsed by anti-Israel protests by the demands of training with his team. He did say, though, that “Jewish students are much more concerned than the general population” by the demonstrators.
There has been “hostility towards Jewish students,” he added. “I haven't seen anything physical, but there are definitely threats and aggression.”
That aggression has included chants of “go back to Poland” directed at Jewish students who were probably born in New Jersey or Michigan, often targeting those wearing kippah or Stars of David. Other protesters call to “burn Tel Aviv to the ground” and voice support for Hamas. “The 7th of October is going to be every day for you,” is one especially charming slogan.
In response, the leaders of Columbia's Hillel and Chabad Jewish organizations offered refuge to students and called on the university to ensure safety. The head of the Orthodox
Union-Jewish Learning Initiative flat-out threw in the towel and advised students to “return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.”
This isn't confined to Columbia. Protests engulf campuses and streets, involving “more than 8,000 pro-Palestine protests in over 850 cities and towns across the U.S.” according to The Wall Street Journal. And, while college administrators have been slow to act, Columbia authorized New York City police to clear out demonstrators camped on the lawn, resulting in more than 100 arrests and multiple suspensions. Police made more than 120 arrests for trespass at a similar New York University encampment. Trespassing students are also being handcuffed at the University of Texas-Austin as I write on late Wednesday afternoon.
The thing is, despite some explicit acts of violence at these demonstrations, and too much language that is extremely threatening, most of what we're seeing involves vile speech rather than vile acts. And while it's become popular to insist that “hate speech is not free speech,” that's untrue under U.S. law.
“In the United States, hate speech is protected by the First Amendment,” notes the American Library Association. “Under current First Amendment jurisprudence, hate speech can only be criminalized when it directly incites imminent criminal activity or consists of specific threats of violence targeted against a person or group.”
An environment of mass protests featuring heated and often hateful language, occasional physical clashes, frequently in violation of campus rules and property rights, requires administrators, police, demonstrators, and civil libertarians to make some fine and thankless distinctions.
“Peaceful protest is generally protected, and colleges and universities must ensure students can engage in peaceful protest on campus,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) cautioned in a statement. “But we remind students that engaging in civil disobedience may result in punishment, including arrest. Civil disobedience derives its expressive power from the willingness of participants to accept the consequences of breaking the rules. That willingness illustrates their intensity of feeling. Students occupying campus spaces in violation of reasonable, content-neutral rules risk punishment.”
“Violence is unacceptable,” FIRE emphasized. “True threats and incitement to violence, as defined by the Supreme Court, are not protected.”
So long as protesters refrain from violence, overt threats, or violations of others' rights, they're within the bounds of law. But that doesn't mean sane people horrified by the chaos are without recourse.
Supporters of Israel have challenged the pro-Hamas message in the streets and at colleges; Columbia Business School assistant professor Shai Davidai was barred from campus for fear his planned counter protest would lead to a clash with occupants of the anti-Israel encampment.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft became the latest major university donor to drop support over concerns about antisemitism. Ross Stevens, founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, withdrew a $100 million gift to the University of Pennsylvania over the issue.
But probably the strongest response has been public disgust at higher education's bizarre ideological drift. Even before Hamas supporters set up tents on college greens, American confidence in higher education had fallen to 36 per cent in 2023 from 48 per cent in 2018 and 57 per cent in 2015, according to Gallup. Some families have personal concerns about the campus environment.
“Amid growing concerns about antisemitism on elite college campuses, some Jewish families are removing top-tier institutions from their lists,” CNN reported in December. Jewish enrolment was already declining at elite politicized colleges even before Oct. 7, and that's now accelerating among families — not just Jewish ones — unwilling to pay tuition for Zoom classes and chaotic bigotry.
“I expect the decline in perceptions of elite private colleges to extend to people tasked with making hiring decisions,” writes prominent statistician Nate Silver. Among the concerns, he says, employers will believe elite grads are “more likely to hold strong political opinions that will distract from their work.”
In fact, 38 per cent of employers in a survey published in December avoid hiring recent college grads.
Silver advises applicants to focus on state schools which offer less insanity at lower cost.
My nephew applied to Columbia before it went completely off the rails. I cross my fingers for him, but he's a solid man and I think he'll do fine in the end.
However, a lot of his classmates exercising their freespeech right to indulge in hateful slogans now are likely to pay a price in diminished prospects after graduation.