The last time U.S. universities witnessed protests on this scale was 1968, amid rising resistance to the Vietnam War, when Columbia also called the NYPD to the campus to arrest students.

consensus, not aiding their repression. And for free speech to thrive, students must be protected from harassment. Universities must provide that space — not with rhetoric but with action.

As a University of Chicago student,

I saw the administration regularly call security guards to surround us when we held campus protests. Yet, the university presented itself as a bastion of free speech to the nation through the socalled Chicago principles.

But when outside pro-israel groups put up posters targeting students and professors who’d advocated for Palestinian human rights with false accusations of supporting terrorism, the university failed to take action against those responsible. When an online blacklist circulated labeling students as antisemitic in an attempt to prevent them from gaining future employment, the university again declined to act.

What are free speech principles worth if universities fail to stand up to hate groups targeting students for saying what they think?

Over the last few months, pro-israel harassment tactics have gone into overdrive. We’ve seen a level of attacks on students previously unimaginable — from trucks covered in students’ faces roaming near campuses to online harassment campaigns.

For years, I’ve conducted research on protest in the Middle East. Universities are crucial sites of dissent for activists, places to organize and envision social change. But when administrations cave in to government pressure, tolerate outside harassment, and invite police to crush protests, they not only surrender an important space of freedom, but they also sacrifice their students’ lives and futures.

This is what is now occurring across America.

At Columbia, protesters were not only arrested; they were suspended and some evicted from their housing. Their arrests will go on their permanent record and will inhibit access to future employment, potentially condemning them to poverty if they’re unable to pay back student loans. The university didn’t just silence them; it potentially robbed them of a future. All in response to using their voices to express outrage over human rights abuses.

Is this how America should treat its young people?

Our universities must remain a bulwark of freedom against this onslaught — places to critically reflect on our role in the world rather than silencing those who question orthodoxies. It is not too late. Administrations can still change course. They must lead the way out of this darkness by protecting students — and creating a campus atmosphere that welcomes debate rather than silencing it.

USC must reverse its ban and let the valedictorian address graduates. Columbia must apologize for silencing student voices and should consider students’ demands. Other universities must allow students to hold events and protests questioning their complicity in events in the Palestinian territories.

And Biden must listen to the voices of the largest student movement America has seen in decades — and take seriously their demands to cut aid to Israel.

Alex Shams is a writer and political anthropologist with a PH.D. from the University of Chicago.