Articles on Campus protests

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The Trump administration detained former Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, center, for more than two months and is seeking to revoke his lawful permanent resident status. Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images

A law from the era of Red Scares is supercharging Trump administration’s power over immigrants and noncitizens

A 1952 law that President Harry S. Truman opposed, calling it a step backward, now underpins many actions by the Trump administration against noncitizens in the US.
Pro-Palestinian students pass the flag of Israel while walking out of commencement in protest at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on May 30, 2024. AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Conflicted, disillusioned, disengaged: The unsettled center of Jewish student opinion after Oct. 7

Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the ensuing war, some Jewish students have been vocal about support for Israel or for Palestinians. But many more have views that don’t fit into ‘either/or’ categories.
New research shows college professors are facing more political pressure to stifle what they want to say. skynesher/E+ via Getty Images

5 growing threats to academic freedom

From educational gag orders to the decline of tenure-track positions, academic freedom in the United States has been worsening in recent years.
Pro-Palestine protesters link arms as police move to clear remaining protesters and their encampment at the University of Calgary campus in May 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Noah Korver

Canada’s settler colonial violence in three acts: Calls for solidarity on National Indigenous Peoples Day

Limiting who public space is for and how it can be used is central to settler colonialism both in Canada and other settler colonial places. Here’s how it’s used to silence and criminalize dissent.
Students erect ‘shantytowns’ at Johns Hopkins University in 1986 to call for divestment from South Africa. JHU Sheridan Libraries/Gado via Getty Images

Calls for divestment from apartheid South Africa gave today’s pro‑Palestinian student activists a blueprint to follow

In the 1980s, university administrators called the police on anti-apartheid protesters, threatened to revoke their scholarships and ordered staff to demolish encampments.
Police have been summoned to break up pro-Palestinian encampments of protesters at colleges throughout the U.S. Scott Olson for Getty Images

5 books to help you better understand today’s campus protests

These books shine light on a rich history of campus protests in the US that goes back to the 1960s.
Protesters gather in an encampment set up on the University of Toronto campus in Toronto on May 2, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

Debates on campus safety in response to Palestine solidarity activism show we need strategies to navigate discomfort

How university campuses respond to concerns about student safety can set the stage for learning or encourage its opposite: divisiveness and censorship.
Ohio National Guard soldiers move in on anti-war protesters at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, in May 1970. Four students were killed and nine wounded when National Guardsmen opened fire on the protesters. (AP Photo, File)

Cops on campus: Why police crackdowns on student protesters are so dangerous

Even if you disagree with their concerns or their tactics, students should not be penalized for thinking critically about world events and trying to bring about positive social change.
Anti-Vietnam War protests at the University of Sydney, 1969. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy SEARCH Foundation

Vietnam, brutalist architecture, fees and Gaza: how student protests shaped Australian universities

Australian universities have long been a site of protest. Today’s students join this legacy of activists who helped shape higher education and the Australian cultural landscape.

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