Saeed Jones: It’s actually impressive how university administrators have consistently managed to escalate the situation on seemingly every damn campus. The semester is practically over. All they had to do was respect their students and wait.

It’s actually impressive how university administrators have consistently managed to escalate the situation on seemingly every damn campus. The semester is practically over. All they had to do was respect their students and wait.

What’s also notable, I think, is that the situation *hasn’t* seemed to escalate at the campuses where administrators have chosen not to escalate it

Excellent point.

Local to me the situation at Pitt has been fine the whole time and they graduated Sunday so a bunch of them just left on their own. The hyped admins are choosing the climate of conflict.

Yep. www.latimes.com/california/s...

At USC, arrests. At UCLA, hands off. Why pro-Palestinian protests have not blown up on UC campuseswww.latimes.com At USC, police in riot gear arrested 93 pro-Palestinian protestors, while UCLA sent in observers who kept their hands off students in a peaceful encampment.

And places like GW in DC where DC Police, used to protests, refused to remove encampments because, you know, using police is not always the best idea.

Lots of people have said it already, but when the police think you're being too authoritarian, you might be the problem.

That's pretty much always true. I had been to dozens of anti police brutality marches, over decades, and only the one where the cops opened fire into the crowd turned into weeks of wide spread protests and the national guard called out

Remarkable how that works, huh?

yeah! plus I think it bears repeated mention that so far the American anti-war movement has been incredibly successful (though not as much as everyone wants) the pro-war folks wanted to join a ground invasion and start a nuclear war, no joke, and neither has happened yet

It goes back to the rationale that ultimately undermines virtually any zero tolerance policy - if I'm going to face the most severe sanction for the smallest offense, the only logical response is to say "fuck it, let's ball" and escalate

An example I like to use of that dynamic was when some jurisdictions decided to make kidnapping a death penalty offense -- meaning that when things went south, the kidnappers "might as well" murder the hostages.

There's a whole pile of campuses that *haven't* escalated like MIT and Northwestern and for obvious reasons, they get little more than a mention as coverage and attention focuses on schools where admins are hostile to encampments.

If I'm not mistaken, Northwestern actually talked with students and agreed to outlandish* demands like establishing a scholarship for Palestinian refugees and a responsible investment oversight committee. (* outlandish = entirely reasonable and relatively inexpensive)

They also put out a thoughtful, reasonable statement about the encampment.

The mayor of Irvine has put out their own statement in relation to UC Irvine and basically heading off anything from that campus requesting local police.

The university? I haven't seen that, but it seems like something more universities could consider.

Let me try to find it. Someone sent it on another platform yesterday.

Ah, apologies. I was confusing what was said in the article I read about the agreement to end the encampment and a U of Chicago statement about the protests there (that I also read yesterday). My bad! Still, handled well by NU.

I was just thinking that the other day. It's mind-boggling. If they'd say tight for 3 weeks, the students would've gone home in early May. Instead they threw cops at them, made a spectacle, inspired similar protests, and now it's a global movement. Thank goodness American evil is also stupid.

All evil is stupid.

I agree, and it's telling that fascists can't seem to help themselves from starting a war on like fifteen fronts and consequently get their asses handed to them

Maybe they think they'll win. The actual BDS movement has been winning for a long time, and pro eat politics has won for decades.

This reply is evil.

It's really wild. Like, the playbook changed dramatically in the past 20 years for what reason. Ignore and delay worked for them for decades, so they pivoted to cops and beatings. There must be piles of war money buried in these endowments.

buried is a strong word

Plays beautifully into the right wing agenda though. Scare the public. Make them think things are out of control and the country is in chaos. Blame Biden for both the genocide and the unrest at home. Young people don't turn up to vote out of anger and ordinary people vote for "law & order."

Works everytime.

Jews don’t feel safe on campus, and literal Neo-Nazis are cheering on those idiots.

Right?? My kid's classes ended yesterday, and now she's in finals grind. Except she takes study breaks to go over to the quad and protest. If they'd just left them alone, it would all be over by now.

Here in Pittsburgh they packed up last night because it was the end of the semester and the administration seems to have mostly just let them do their thing.

After listening to a coworker talk about their very transphobic experiences with Pitt, I just imagine they decided quietly to do the bullying they can get away with ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The stark reveals showing which unis are being run like hedge funds and which uni presidents are the "best" middle managers/company men for them.

I mean, isn't Harvard the canonical hedge fund with some classes offered? They are basically leaving the protesters alone.

Both can be true. My point is that uni decisions aren't made by uni presidents, but by stakeholders/trustees/VIP donors. "Why didn't she punt until the semester was over" was never Minouche Shafik's decision. Following orders etc etc. Harvard lets them protest = also a stakeholder decision.

The "College Presidents have agency" model is 15-20 yrs past us. Which is why so many takes have missed; the take havers with these takes haven't been on a campus in 20 years and seen the mission creep away from faculty, students, and to top-heavy admins middle managing a uni's "assets"

In the case of Harvard they also already sacrificed their uni president scapegoat to Congress, so were further along in the "fuck around and find out" decision tree than Columbia was.

They suck at dealing with young people, but of course they don’t see that as their real job.

This has good replies on schools that aren’t cracking down (Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard, Michigan State, Swarthmore, etc)

Has any college or university tried NOT clearing an encampment, but just providing general security around the area, keeping it chill, waiting for the semester to end?

I'm guessing a lot of it is fear of losing big money evangelical donors who skew pro-Israel.

Oh, for sure.

As usual, the choices are between "something that has been proven to work" and "something that conservatives will get furious about if you don't do."

Or hedge fund assholes like Bill "my wife is plagiarist" Ackman.

They see respect as submission and obedience and take offence at the idea that they should employ it towards those they consider below them.

Sounds like a corporate view

I’m constantly reminded that, as a class, administrators are usually the most conservative group on any campus. They might occasionally make non-conservative noises, but they mostly reinforce conservative norms and practices.

How else are the universities supposed to prove to the right wing nut jobs that they can be monsters too?

One of the first things you learn as a teacher is not to get into a power struggle with students bc you will not win.

Is a university administrator that respects students even a real university administrator in the first place?

Shoot, give reasonable expectations: pick up after yourselves, don't kill the grass (requires moving the tents, etc), let traffic move, don't go into academic jeopardy, & stay peaceful. Then let the protest continue.

Exactly

The Winchester Theory of Crisis Management

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