The best strategy to address campus unrest

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May 06, 2024 View in browser   By Bianca Quilantan SEEKING THE RIGHT ANSWER — While college presidents are facing backlash for their responses to protests on campus, some leaders may have found strategies to handle them well — but it depends on who you ask. — Pro-Palestinian encampment demonstrations have shut down campuses, commencement plans and upended the spring semester as hundreds of students and faculty have been arrested at universities over the past two weeks. Students are expressing support for Palestinians in Gaza, and demanding their institutions cut ties with Israel. — College presidents have been feeling intense pressure on all sides to quell the unrest. Former President Donald Trump has called on presidents to “remove the encampments immediately.” And GOP leaders have been praising colleges that have swiftly tamped down on the encampments or called on law enforcement to clear them, including UT Austin President Jay Hartzell, Washington University in St. Louis Chancellor Andrew Martin and University of Florida President Ben Sasse. University of Florida President Ben Sasse has drawn praise for how he is handling pro-Palestinian protests on campus. | Alex Brandon/AP — Sasse on Sunday touted his peaceful commencement ceremonies over the weekend as well as the policies he’s used to navigate protests on campus. “The line is between speech and action,” he said on CNN’s State of the Union. “What we tell all of our students — protesters and not — is there are two things we're going to affirm over and over again. We will always defend your right to free speech and free assembly, and also we have time, place and manner restrictions. “You don't get to take over the whole university,” Sasse said. “You don't get to barricade yourselves in buildings. You don't get to disrupt somebody else's commencement.” — Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has been careful to disavow violence on campus while trying to uphold students’ right to free speech so he doesn’t alienate young voters who might be crucial to his reelection. Civil rights groups and free speech advocates have been urging college presidents to take the approach of other leaders who they think are handling things well without using law enforcement. The key, they say, is: Allow peaceful protests to continue, negotiate the terms, and stay in contact with the student protesters to make sure they understand what the lines are before they cross them. — “The way forward is through education, dialogue, communication, talking with the students, engaging students, letting them have their voices heard,” said Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, which has been critical of the use of force on campus. “There are lots of campuses doing the right thing,” she said. “The repressive, violent, militarized crackdown on speech, which was largely peaceful … was absolutely the wrong response on a college campus.” — College presidents at schools including Wesleyan University, Northwestern University, Brown University and Vanderbilt University have drawn some praise for how they’ve deescalated protests on their campuses. They’ve seemingly struck a balance to allow protesters to use their First Amendment rights under negotiated conditions, while also keeping campuses under control. IT’S MONDAY, MAY 6. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. WHAT SHOULD WE BE LOOKING OUT FOR THIS WEEK? Drop me a line at bquilantan@politico.com. Send tips to my colleagues Mackenzie Wilkes at mwilkes@politico.com and Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com. And follow us: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.   Pro Analysis intel helps you understand the members, committees, and interplay influencing policy debates. Download a complimentary look at Analysis here to help you navigate legislative decision-makers. Already a Pro Analysis subscriber? Visit the Analysis library now.     Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories. Driving the day Pro-Palestinian supporters continue their encampment protest Friday on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville, Tennessee. | George Walker IV/AP CAMPUSES DOING IT RIGHT? — Vanderbilt University has allowed its encampment protest to continue for more than a month — longer than most of the protests that have garnered national attention. Some students were arrested, suspended and expelled after a March sit-in at the chancellor’s office. University officials told the Tennessean that they don’t plan to remove students, as long as they continue to follow the institution’s policies. — “We had a couple of expulsions, some suspensions and some probations,” Chancellor Daniel Diermeier told a local news station this week. “Overall, our community really did well, but we had that incident where we had to take action because fundamental rules of student conduct were violated." — At Wesleyan, President Michael Roth’s response acknowledged that the student encampment on his campus is breaking university policy. But he also promised not to clear the encampment as long as the protest remains non-violent and doesn’t disrupt campus operations — and protesters assured campus leadership they wouldn’t harass or intimidate people on campus. — Some free speech advocates are also lauding Northwestern University’s agreement with students and faculty announced last week. The agreement allowed protesters to continue their demonstrations through the end of the spring quarter, but all tents on campus except one aid tent must be broken down. And others are pointing to Brown University’s agreement, where protesters agreed to break down their encampment after university leaders agreed to discuss a vote on divesting from companies connected to the Israeli military. Demonstrators unfurl a banner on a lawn after an encampment protesting the Israel-Hamas war was taken down Tuesday at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. President Christina Paxson has committed to an October vote by the school's governing board on the students' divestment proposal. | David Goldman/AP — “The more campuses can really engage with protesters, that's really the best path forward,” said Kristen Shahverdian, PEN America director of Campus Free Speech. “We want to hopefully see as little police involvement … and that people who really have expertise and knowledge because they're on the campus … be the people who are really willing to continue to engage in these conversations with students so that these protests can hopefully stay as safe as possible and really uphold the freedom of expression of everyone involved.” — But conservative leaders say a lot of campuses are past the point of looking at negotiations. “We are well beyond the operation of these time, place and manner restrictions,” said Sarah Parshall Perry, a Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow and former general counsel in the Trump Education Department Office for Civil Rights. “We've now essentially fallen into anarchy at many of these schools.” —  On Sunday, Sasse pushed back on the agreements colleges are using to disband protests, saying: “We just don't negotiate with people who scream the loudest, that just didn't make any sense to me.” “What you see happening on so many campuses across the country is, instead of drawing the line of speech and action, a lot of universities bizarrely give the most attention and most voice to the smallest, angriest group,” he said, “and it's just not what we're going to do here.” EDUCATION AND 2024 WANT MORE COVERAGE ON THE PROTESTS? — Here’s a quick roundup of what you might have missed Friday and over the weekend from our POLITICO reporters. — On Friday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told college presidents he is “disturbed by the sharp rise in antisemitism” on college campuses amid pro-Palestinian protests that have been ongoing for weeks. More from your host. — Biden finally weighed in on the college protests, this is why. POLITICO’s Jennifer Haberkorn and Jonathan Lemire break down how the president’s address on Thursday unfolded. — And our Juan Perez Jr. lays out what the summer could look like on college campuses. The upshot: Activists at some schools say they’re planning to carry on their protests well past graduation.   DON’T MISS POLITICO’S ENERGY SUMMIT: The future of energy faces a crossroads in 2024 as policymakers and industry leaders shape new rules, investments and technologies. Join POLITICO’s Energy Summit on June 5 as we convene top voices to examine the shifting global policy environment in a year of major elections in the U.S. and around the world. POLITICO will examine how governments are writing and rewriting new rules for the energy future and America’s own role as a major exporter. REGISTER HERE.     Syllabus — The committee that felled university presidents turns its focus to high schools: The Wall Street Journal — ChatGPT is transforming Colorado education, for better and worse. Experts say maybe that’s a good thing: The Denver Post — The school from ‘Footloose’ lobbied Kevin Bacon to visit. He delivered.: The Washington Post — Inside a rural Iowa school district’s fight to save public education: Iowa Capital Dispatch — Biden vs. Trump on college protests: What their clashing messages say about 2024 election: USA Today   Follow us on Twitter Delece Smith-Barrow @DeleceWrites Bianca Quilantan @biancaquilan Juan Perez Jr. @PerezJr Mackenzie Wilkes @macwilkes   Follow us

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