A wave of repression is taking place on US college campuses, demonstrated by a proposed policy at the University of Michigan offering severe punishment for political protest.
The proposal emerged after demonstrators disrupted an honors graduation ceremony late last month. The protesters, echoing the demands of students across the country, called on the university to divest its endowment from Israeli companies and military contractors.
The school’s president Santo Ono was deeply dismayed by the act of defiance against a country credibly accused of genocide, claiming the action “brought profound disappointment to students, parents, grandparents, siblings, and other relatives and friends.”
The school’s response: a new policy threatening student protesters with expulsion. Sympathetic faculty could face firing.
“The guidelines are just really a huge overstep,” said sophomore Annabel Bean, who rejects the proposal. “The point of a protest is to be disruptive and if you’re saying it can’t be disruptive, then we’re not protesting, and how are you honoring your history of disruptive student protests?”
4 November 2023, 19:00 GMT
The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has also criticized the measure, claiming it would deprive students of core civil liberties. “We believe the proposed policy is vague and overbroad, and risks chilling a substantial amount of free speech and expression,” the group said in a letter.
Ono, naturally, has dressed his authoritarian proposal in the garb of liberal anti-racism, claiming the students’ protest “was painful for everyone who had gathered – and especially so for members of our Jewish community.”
But Jewish students have become some of the biggest targets of colleges’ repressive actions, with Jewish-led organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace facing suspensions across the country. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has persecuted pro-Palestine campus groups with a zeal otherwise reserved only for Disney and Guantanamo detainees.
“America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests,” claimed controversial former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Crackdowns on freedom of speech, a value held to be more sacred on college campuses than anywhere else, suggest it has no principles, either.
As with the country’s recent about face on free trade in regards to China, values are only held so long as they prove useful to the wealthy and powerful.