(From Washington, United States) Tension between US universities and Pro-Palestine students increases as the hours go by, given the decision of the academic authorities to end the occupation of the campus which started almost two weeks ago.
At Columbia and Cornell Yesterday it was decided to suspend the students who reject the vacancy of the educational properties, while nearly fifty university students were arrested on the campuses of Florida and Texas.
Students demand that universities divest in Israeli companies or companies linked to Israel’s war effort against Hamas in Gaza, and that demand is rejected without cracks throughout all academic centers in the United States. In this context, the conflict remains open and it is not ruled out that -finally- the local police forces an eviction due to the resistance of the students.
The epicenter of the educational conflict is Columbia University. And his boards announced yesterday that it was giving a peremptory deadline until 2 PM (New York time) to end the protests on campus. Likewise, the students had to sign a protocol in which they assured that they would respect the internal rules of the university in exchange for continuing their careers without administrative sanctions.
If the students did not comply with the peremptory deadline and did not sign the protocol minutes, Columbia would execute an academic suspension. This was a deterrent measure to prevent the New York police force an evacuation of university facilities.
That coercive action by the local police could not only aggravate social conflictbut it would also affect Columbia’s ethical values, which are based in the freedom to think differently without suffering reprisals or legal sanctions.
At noon, when there were two hours left until the expiration of the official ultimatum, nearly one hundred fifty students They voted to define whether they continued – or not – with the protest in favor of Palestine. Most He decided to stay in the camp.
“They have asked us to disperse, but doing so goes against the will of the students”he explained Sueda Polat, student leader at Columbiaduring a press conference.
And he completed: “We do not comply with university pressures, We act based on the will of the students, and “We will not be displaced unless by force.”
The Columbia Academic Council He moved very cautiously to avoid a worsening of the conflict. But the resistance of the students forced to execute the administrative sanction. At five in the afternoon, the identification of university students began who had remained in the camp, despite the warning from the educational authorities.
“We have started suspending students as part of the next phase of our efforts to guarantee the security of our campus,” said Ben Chang, spokesperson for the university, when asked by journalists.
Regardless of the situation on campus, the members of Columbia’s academic council are not in an easy position. They were questioned by a group of Democratic representatives, who urged them to end the protests or tender their resignations due to incompetence.
“We, the undersigned, write to express our disappointment because, despite promises to do so, Columbia University has not yet dismantled the unauthorized and impermissible encampment of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish activists on campus,” wrote Democratic lawmakers led by Josh Gottheimer (New Jersey) and Dan Goldman (New York).
Along with the pressure of the twenty-one Democratic deputies who signed the letter sent to the academic council, the role of the teaching staff must be added. Many teachers questioned the students’ anti-Semitic slogans, But there were also academics who stood by their students to protect their right to free expression.
That is to say: when the conflict ends, Columbia will find itself with the student core and the fractured educational community for the war in the Middle East.
As tensions escalated in Columbia, the panorama at Cornell It was beginning to get complicated: his academic council demanded that the tents be put up, while the students rejected official instruction. Given this situation, as happened in Columbia, the identification of students for their subsequent educational suspension began.
“The students requested and received multiple opportunities to consider their options, but ultimately decided not to move. With full knowledge of the upcoming sanctionsthey again refused to comply and we moved forward with a first series of immediate temporary suspensions,” said Cornell head Martha E. Pollack in an official statement.
And just like in Columbia, Texas, Florida, Princeton and Yale, Cornell students refused to accept the university board’s order.
The tension between US universities and their students is going in crescendo. There is no roadmap or negotiation table to end an educational conflict that was not expected and it is not known how it will end.
