Students called on the school to cut ties with the weapons manufacturer, which donated $150,000 this year
A university in Portland, Oregon will “pause” accepting donations from Boeing after students called on the school to cut ties with the manufacturer amid the war in Gaza.
In addition to setting up an encampment on campus, students also addressed a letter to Ann Cudd, the president of Portland State University (PSU), demanding the university cut ties with Boeing.
Continue reading...Talks aimed at having encampment removed voluntarily break down as president insists school won’t bow to divestment demands
Pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University have been given an ultimatum to abandon their encampment or risk suspension, after the breakdown of talks aimed at having it removed voluntarily.
The ultimatum, setting a Monday deadline of 2pm, came after the university’s president, Minouche Shafik, announced that efforts to reach a compromise with protest organisers had failed. She insisted that the institution would not bow to demands to divest from Israel.
Continue reading...Calls for divestment continue despite hundreds of arrests, with more demonstrations planned for Democratic national convention
Student protests on US university campuses over Israel’s war on Gaza showed little sign of letting up over the weekend, with protesters vowing to continue until their demands for US educational bodies to disentangle from companies profiting from the conflict are met.
In what is perhaps the most significant student movement since the anti-Vietnam campus protests of the late 1960s, the conflict between pro-Palestinian students and university administrators has revealed an entire subset of conflicts.
Continue reading...Mumia Abu-Jamal tells New York City students they’re on the right side of history by deciding ‘not to be silent and to speak out’
In a powerful and rousing live address to students at the City University of New York (CUNY) on Friday night, the incarcerated Black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal praised the pro-Palestinian movement growing at US colleges as being on the right side of history.
“It is a wonderful thing that you have decided not to be silent and decided to speak out against the repression that you see with your own eyes,” Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther, said while calling from Pennsylvania’s Mahanoy state prison. “You are part of something massive, and you are part of something that is on the right side of history.
Continue reading...A peaceful action at the school near Atlanta, Georgia, was met with violent use of force and 28 arrests of students and faculty
Clifton Crais, a history professor, was walking to class at Emory University in Decatur, Georgia, outside Atlanta, on Thursday shortly before 10am when several students rushed up to him.
“Please, please contact president Fenves,” they begged, referring to the university president, Gregory Fenves. “Ask him to not call the police.” Several dozen protesters seeking the university’s divestment from Israel and opposing a $109m police training center colloquially known as “Cop City” had set up tents on the school’s grassy quad – the size of a football field – several hours before.
Continue reading...Multiple arrests at crackdown on Emory University campus encampment focused on Palestine and Cop City
Police have carried out multiple violent arrests at Emory University in Decatur, Georgia, in what appears to be the first campus crackdown in recent days to involve rubber bullets and teargas after students set up an encampment in solidarity with Palestine and against Cop City.
On Thursday, Emory students set up multiple tents on the campus’s lawns in protest against the university’s ties to Israel, as well Atlanta’s Cop City, a police and fire department training center that is being constructed on a 171-acre plot in a forest south-east of Atlanta.
Continue reading...Move made after more than 90 demonstrators arrested on campus and university cancels pro-Palestinian valedictorian’s speech
The University of Southern California (USC) has canceled its main stage graduation ceremony, citing new safety measures as student protests over the Israel-Gaza war have surged on the campus.
USC is one of many campuses across the country that have become hubs for student demonstrations against the war, with hundreds of arrests nationwide as tensions escalate. Police arrested dozens of students and activists at USC this week on trespassing charges.
Continue reading...At least 34 arrested at University of Texas in Austin and 50 more detained at University of Southern California while House speaker jeered at Columbia University
Dozens of protesters were arrested on Wednesday while participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations across US college campuses.
At least 34 protesters, including a member of the media from a local news station, were arrested during protests at University of Texas in Austin and at least 50 more were detained by police at University of Southern California (USC).
Continue reading...Israeli prime minister terms pro-ceasefire rallies ‘horrific’ as students demand universities divest from weapons makers
The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday condemned pro-Palestinian protests at universities in the United States as “horrific”, saying the demonstrations “have to be stopped”, as he categorized students as antisemitic.
There’s been rising tensions at campuses across the US as demonstrations began last week after students at Columbia set up encampments calling for the university to divest from weapons manufacturers with ties to Israel. The protests have led to mass suspensions and arrests of hundreds students in New York, Texas and California.
Continue reading...More than 60 people, including a journalist, arrested at University of Southern California and University of Texas at Austin. This blog is now closed.
Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, will visit Columbia University today to speak to Jewish students and hold a press conference “regarding the troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on America’s college campuses”, his office has said.
New York House Republicans have called on Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, to resign immediately for failing to end the protests.
Continue reading...Letter from 25 senators including Mitch McConnell says president ‘must act immediately to restore order’ on university campuses
Senior Republican US senators on Tuesday waded into growing tensions at leading universities over the Israel-Gaza war, demanding the Biden administration send in federal law enforcement officers to curb pro-Palestinian protests that have led to hundreds of arrests.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, and John Thune, his deputy, wrote to Merrick Garland, the US attorney general, and Miguel Cardona, the education secretary, calling demonstrators “antisemitic, pro-terrorist mobs”.
Continue reading...Hundreds of members of teaching staff demonstrate in solidarity with arrested students as protest tents put back up on campus
Hundreds of faculty members at Columbia University in New York held a mass walkout on Monday to protest against the president’s decision to have police arrest students at a pro-Palestinian encampment protest last week.
The solidarity protest came as students put protest tents back up on campus. They had been torn down last week when the New York police department arrested more than 100 students, who were also suspended by the university.
Continue reading...The university is to hold virtual classes after protests on campus culminated in the arrest of more than 100 students
Over 100 students at Columbia were arrested last week after refusing to leave a pro-Palestine protest encampment set up on the university’s main campus. The arrests have since set off a chain of events, including the re-establishing of the encampment and solidarity protests on other US college campuses.
On Monday, Columbia announced it will hold classes virtually to try to “reset” the situation on campus. Here’s what we know so far about what’s happening at Columbia.
Continue reading...Columbia and Barnard chapters of nationwide group issue statement claiming ‘flagrant disregard of shared governance’
The Columbia and Barnard chapters of the American Association of University Professors have issued a joint statement condemning Columbia president Minouche Shafik’s crackdowns on student-led pro-Palestinian protests.
In the statement released on Friday, the chapters said: “We are shocked at her failure to mount any defense of the free inquiry central to the educational mission of a university in a democratic society and at her willingness to appease legislators seeking to interfere in university affairs.”
Continue reading...Pro-Palestinian students interrupted a dinner held by a top free speech defender at Berkeley. A polarized and very public controversy has followed
During a dinner for students that the dean of the University of California, Berkeley law school held in his house’s backyard earlier this month, a woman wearing a hijab and checkered Palestinian scarf suddenly stood up with a microphone and amplifier. What followed lasted only a couple of minutes, but has led to a fierce debate about the limits of free speech, drew death threats to those involved, and created a “media firestorm,” as the dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, has put it.
Some short and chaotic viral videos illustrate part of what happened. One of them shows the woman, Malak Afaneh, as she gives a Ramadan greeting; she is accompanied by a small group of other student protesters. As Afaneh begins reading a speech about the Israel-Gaza war, Chemerinsky and his wife, the law professor Catherine Fisk, quickly cut Afaneh off.
Continue reading...Students set up encampments to demand Columbia divest from Israel while those at USC gathered in support of Asna Tabassum
Tensions on Columbia University’s campus continued to rise on Thursday as the New York police department began breaking up student protests over Israel’s war on Gaza, at the direction of the school’s president, and arrests were made.
Hundreds of students pitched tents and began camping out in the center of the famous central campus from early morning on Wednesday in protest, demanding a ceasefire and for the university to financially divest from Israel, prompting Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, to issue a stark warning.
Continue reading...Asna Tabassum says university is ‘succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice’ after decision to scrap speech
The University of Southern California is facing intense backlash for the decision to cancel the valedictorian speech of a Muslim student at the commencement ceremony in May, a decision which the student has criticized as being silenced by anti-Palestinian hatred for her views on human rights.
In a missive to the USC community, the university’s provost, Andrew Guzman, wrote that the Los Angeles university took the unprecedented step of canceling Asna Tabassum’s planned speech because the “alarming tenor” of reactions to her selection as valedictorian – along with “the intensity of feelings” surrounding Israel’s ongoing military strikes in Gaza – had created “substantial risks relating to security”.
Continue reading...University of Michigan president Santa J Ono proposes ‘disruptive activity policy’ after pro-Palestinian group cuts his speech short
The University of Michigan is facing backlash from students, faculty and civil rights attorneys following a proposal to significantly restrict the right to protest on campus.
The “disruptive activity policy”, announced last week in a campus-wide email from the university president, Santa J Ono, would create strict punishments for anyone who interrupts official university events, including speeches, classes, athletic events, field trips, performances, graduation and award ceremonies.
Continue reading...Christian evangelical institution punished victims ‘for violating the student code of conduct’ as ‘assailants were left unpunished’
Liberty University has been hit with a $14m Department of Education federal fine for creating “a culture of silence” around sexual assault, failing to support victims of violence and then failing to properly report them correctly under the law.
Announcing the fine on Tuesday, the department said in a statement that the Christian evangelical institution had punished sexual assault victims “for violating the student code of conduct”, while “their assailants were left unpunished” – a violation of federal law.
Continue reading...Exclusive: work by researchers from western universities and counterparts at Sharif University considered potentially ‘very dangerous’ by experts
Academics in the UK, Australia and the US collaborated on research related to drone technology with an Iranian university that is under international financial sanctions and known for its close ties to the military, the Guardian can reveal.
The collaborative research was described by one security expert as having direct military applications, while another called it potentially “very dangerous”. Iranian-made drones have been responsible for a number of deadly attacks in the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts, and their development is known to be a top priority for the government in Tehran.
Continue reading...