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Tag: Palestine protests

  • UCF changes campus protest policies following pro-Palestine demonstrations

    UCF changes campus protest policies following pro-Palestine demonstrations

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    Photo by Mauricio Murillo

    The University of Central Florida’s board of trustees last week, joining other colleges and universities across the country, adopted changes to school policies that aim to restrict protest activity on campus.

    Changes adopted Friday include language prohibiting people on-campus from “restricting the movement of others” and from wearing items such as a mask or hood in order to “intimidate” someone or otherwise conceal their identity “for the purposes of evading or escaping discovery, recognition, or identification in connection with or during the commission of a violation of law, regulation, or policy.”

    In addition, the Orlando-based public university now also prohibits people from refusing to provide identification when requested by a university official or law enforcement, and prohibits affixing or attaching displays (such as “signs, banners, posters, or flyers”) to university property without the university’s prior authorization.

    Youndy Cook, general counsel for UCF — the state’s largest university by enrollment — told the board’s six-member Governance Committee that they believe these rules “will help clarify expectations and practices, while upholding our commitment to free expression and maintaining many ways for students and others to express themselves.”

    Pursuant to state law, all “commonly available outdoor areas” of campus are available for expressive activities, Cook continued. “That’s expressive activities by students, by employees or by visitors to campus. What we’re trying to do now is be very clear on certain topics,” she explained.

    The rule on “displays,” specifically, “is addressing an ongoing — or, an issue that we were experiencing last academic year with flyers being attached inappropriately to buildings, benches, trees, posts, chairs, me,” she quipped to laughter, “You know, whatever they could find that stayed still enough.”

    These changes build on a university ban on encampments enacted this summer and a state-wide crackdown on anti-Israel bias in university courses. All notably follow a number of demonstrations organized by students in protest of Israeli force against Palestinians in the Middle East amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas War.

    Since Oct. 7, 2023, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, following an initial attack by the militant group Hamas on Israel that killed about 1,200. Despite criticism over Israel’s brutal force in Gaza, killing tens of thousands of women, children and civilians in addition to combatants, the Biden administration has approved billions of taxpayer dollars in military aid to Israel, funding what human rights experts have described as genocide. Universities, including UCF, have also been criticized for ties to weapons manufacturers and defense companies like Lockheed Martin that do business with Israel.

    When students first began organizing peaceful pro-Palestine protests and encampments on Florida university and college campuses nearly one year ago, university leadership responded with force. UCF saw few altercations between protesters and campus cops (beyond intimidation tactics).

    But, as the war and protests continued on into 2024, students at other universities — like the University of South Florida and University of Florida — faced more violent force from law enforcement. Students were tear-gassed, some arrested, and threatened with academic and legal repercussions as a result. State legislators earlier this year, meanwhile, attacked two Democrats in the Florida House who essentially just sought to symbolically condemn acts of violence on both sides of the Israel-Hamas dispute.

    Although the language of UCF’s new changes don’t directly reference Palestine or campus protests in support of Palestinians, some students suspect they’re linked.

    Koulson Fry, a UCF student, told Orlando Weekly in an email they worry the new rules are targeted and could be seen as an attempt “to silence critical voices on politically sensitive issues, preventing certain groups from expressing dissent.” They also worry that the new security rule that prohibits people from wearing items that could conceal their identity, such as masks, “excludes immunocompromised students who rely on masks for health reasons from participating in peaceful protests.”

    They also have concern requiring students to reveal their identities to law enforcement “fosters fear of retaliation or bias, discouraging participation in protests and stifling free speech on campus.” Under the changes approved by the UCF board, such requests by law enforcement or university officials must be made (and adhered to) by those “acting within the scope of their job duties or by a law enforcement officer acting in a law enforcement capacity.”

    As the New York Times reports, it’s not just UCF or even universities in Florida that are coming up with new rules perceived as an attempt to quell protest activity and free speech on campuses. Some universities have adopted new rules limiting “expressive activity” to certain times of the day (which UCF also has in place), while others have strictly banned encampments on campus property, restricted where protest activity can take place, or have updated anti-harrassment policies equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

    Fry said they were further frustrated by the fact that the UCF board held their public comment period for the agenda item two hours earlier than students had prepared for. While the meeting was scheduled to begin at 4 p.m., public comment began earlier, “with no prior notice,” according to Fry. “This caused all but one student to be unable to give their opinions,” they said. “We view this as further stifling our freedom of speech and our right to make our opinions known.”

    Courtney Gilmartin, UCF assistant vice president for Strategic Initiatives and Communications, told the Orlando Sentinel that public comment began earlier because other committee meetings had concluded earlier than expected. She also said they sent an email to those who had signed up for public comment to let them know about the changes.

    Beyond university campuses, pro-Palestinian activists in the Orlando area have continued organizing demonstrations and speaking out against violence in Gaza, as the death toll rises and broader devastation affecting the region worsens.

    As the one-year mark of the Israel-Hamas War nears, a group of pro-Palestinian activists in Orlando this week, organized with the Florida Palestine Network, officially launched what they have described as an Orlando-Palestine Week of Action. The group plans to hold a teach-in event Wednesday night, unveil a Palestinian Art Build Installation on Friday, according to a news release, and organize a protest on Saturday at an as-of-yet unspecified location.

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    McKenna Schueler

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  • Case Western Reserve University Bars Some Pro-Palestine Student Protesters From Graduation, Campus

    Case Western Reserve University Bars Some Pro-Palestine Student Protesters From Graduation, Campus

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    Mark Oprea

    Pro-Palestine protestors at the Kelvin Smith Library Oval last week.

    Last Friday, after a week and a half of operating a tiny tent village in front of Case Western’s Kelvin Smith Library on campus, pro-Palestine protesters announced that they would be dissolving the Gaza Solidarity Encampment they created.

    They cited two escalating sources of tension: That President Eric Kaler had days before threatened the students with possible civil law violations, and that a growing list of dissenters had been causing safety concerns, from “extremist agitators” to Zionists vowing to “set fire to the encampment,” a letter from student leaders said.

    “While the encampment is coming to an end, the commitment to the cause remains unwavering,” it continued.

    On Monday morning, despite the agreement to vacate, some protesters affiliated with the encampment were sent emails from the university’s Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards bearing news that they were the subject of an investigation concerning their involvement in the encampment.

    Those receiving notices  were issued an interim ban from campus and all campus activities, and graduating seniors would have their degrees withheld, pending the outcome of the investigation.

    “Case Western Reserve has initiated its student conduct process—including temporary withholding of degrees and bans from university property,” a spokesperson for Case wrote, “and issued notices prohibiting from campus third parties involved with the unsanctioned encampment on private property.”

    “This action follows repeated warnings from President Kaler,” it went on, “to those remaining in the unsanctioned encampment and, later, to those blocking access to Adelbert Hall.”

    Like many of the protests and encampments that have popped up on college campuses in the past month, the protesters at Case had used their sudden tent village—with its First Aid tent and own library—to attempt pressure CWRU into divesting its financial stakes in Israeli companies. Kaler hit back on May 8 with a foot-down measure: “Divestment is and remains something the university will not do,” he wrote.

    In the past week, as commencement ceremonies loom, such protests have come to a head, in a wild variety of directions. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, admins agreed to join calls for a cease-fire, and possibly abandon Israeli investments, after protesters agreed to dismantle their encampment. At Trinity College in Dublin, officials said they would do away with all of their stakes in companies tacked to Israel altogether.

    For Case protesters, their week preceding graduation is different. For the two dozen or so students that stayed for long bouts of time in the encampment, the university will now deem them “persona non grata,” and essentially bar them from campus until a formal hearing to, the email said, “ensure the safety and well-being of members of the university community.”

    Those with student housing, the office said, will have to vacate by 3 p.m. Monday. None can be on campus until their formal hearing.

    “Failure to adhere to this notice will be considered an additional code of conduct violation and may result in further conduct charges and sanctions,” the email read.

    Although about three dozen or so protesters were detained briefly in mid-May, acts of blatant violence have either not existed or not warranted major charges. In interviews with the encamped last Wednesday, those present told Scene they had been verbally assaulted by Zionist sympathizers, and had even prepared tiered response plan if counter-protesters got physical. Or, of course, if their village was raided by police.

    click to enlarge A scene from the encampment at Case Western Reserve University. - Mark Oprea

    Mark Oprea

    A scene from the encampment at Case Western Reserve University.

    On Kaler’s side, the president and his Office of Student Conduct claimed that recent chants and graffiti—especially one spelling “YOU CAN’T HIDE” on Eldred Hall—veered on antisemitism, and were threatening to Jewish students who wished to remain neutral and unopposed.

    Which, to students now banned from campus, seems a bit misdirected.

    “This is terribly consistent with what the university has been doing from the beginning of this movement,” Olivia Cobb, a third-year student and member of Law Students for Justice in Palestine, told Scene.

    “They are spinning a narrative in which they are heroes,” she added, “while they are using backdoor channels to threaten, intimidate and harass students into giving up their ability to access free speech, and giving up their ability to effectively protest.”

    Cobb, who was once hopeful for her graduation on May 18, expressed a sour feeling of discontentment at this week’s news.

    When asked if she regrets setting up camp, given the university’s response, Cobb turned immediately to Gaza’s casualties of war.

    “Yes, [the ban’s] devastating to me,” she said. “But I’m still here. I’m not starving, and I’ve never been hit with a bomb. And until I have to decide between that and standing up, then there’s not a moment of hesitation.”

    One student affiliated with SJP, and who wished to remain anonymous, told Scene he believe punishment of not graduating with his peers was overbearing for a protest that was, for the most part, reasonable and nonviolent.

    “It’s really disheartening and disappointing for me, personally,” the student said in a phone call. “It’s unfortunate that the campus claims to support First Amendment freedom of speech—but doesn’t.”

    All protesters linked to the encampment will be able to, later this week, appeal the college’s decision to ban them. One of the qualifications to win an appeal is for such students to comply with a mental health evaluation, Case’s Code of Conduct reads.

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    Mark Oprea

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