Kevin M. Kruse: Hey, look, yet another campus settling this peacefully. It's almost like the university presidents that called in armed police to their campuses to handle their own students made an incredibly stupid mistake and should be forever banned from leading an educational institution.

Hey, look, yet another campus settling this peacefully. It's almost like the university presidents that called in armed police to their campuses to handle their own students made an incredibly stupid mistake and should be forever banned from leading an educational institution.

It won't get the attention it deserves because it happened here and it's decidedly un-sensational, but the UWM administration's response to our student encampment is an object lesson in the virtues of restraint and non-escalation, and should be a national model

UW-Milwaukee strikes deal with pro-Palestinian protesters to take down encampmentwww.jsonline.com Protesters have until Tuesday morning to take down the tents. They also agreed not to disrupt commencement, which will be held May 19.

This from the Times's write-up about Dartmouth [chef's kiss]:

"Sometimes you just have to *step up* and *play administrator*!" (h/t John Madden)

OH THE IRONY

Study what you do?

TBC I'd say his decision was both stupid & unconscionable, but also pretty sure he thought of that as an example of 'not choking'.

*her

My error, thanks.

👨‍🍳😘

It's very funny when these people take the NYT's advice to crack skulls, and then get raked over the coals for it.

Definitely made more sense to send in the cops then to wait literally two weeks until finals to see if all the students would simply leave!

Well, these were the first protests ever to happen on a college campus, so they were operating with nothing to go on.

If only there were a way to judge how much the protests were actually disrupting their campuses other than to take the word of hysterical media coverage and bad-faith political actors!

The consultants were searching for a dependent variable and missed that "qualitative" story. Shocking.

You mean we can look to the past for guidance?

😱😭🤮

Yep, first time ever students have been against something the government did

“Hey, we’re just wandering in the dark here, and it occurred to us that the police have *lights.*”

If only these university leaders had access to the super secret academic calendar. Who could have seen this coming??

Nobody reads the syllabus.

It absolutely does make more sense if you're sending a message to your donors and investment managers.

Yes. Resort to force and violence rather than discuss peaceful options. There is no alternate. Police is the answer to everything... in an expanding fascist approach to public sentiment.

Same here: www.news10.com/news/william...

Williams College students shutting down encampmentwww.news10.com Williams College students said they’ll pack up the pro-Palestine encampment Monday night. That’s because they’ve negotiated with the school’s administration and have locked in meetings with the boa…

It's almost like the students weren't the violent ones... And, it's almost like calling in the cops was only a mistake in one, very narrow, sense. Sending the riot cops to crack skulls (or standing by, while rw thugs do it) produces the scenes of chaos that serves the current republican narrative.

You're so close lol

The UIUC encampment also declared victory and then was peacefully disassembled before commencement dailyillini.com/news-stories...

Encampment ends after 13 days, SJP releases statementdailyillini.com Students for Justice in Palestine released a joint statement at 7 a.m. in conjunction with Faculty for Justice in Palestine. In the statement posted to their Instagram, SJP stated, “We have chosen to...

instead they will inevitably be promoted to positions of even greater influence USA! USA! USA!

On the other hand: Trustees generally reward leadership incompetence with executive bonuses. You read it here first eh?

This is one of the reasons I hate the “well they had to keep the donors happy” line. Who’s donors do you think are happier right now?

Ben Sasse had the tiniest, most insignificant little protest at UF. But he sent the cops in for manufactured rule violations (e.g. sitting in folding camp chairs became "erecting structures") and then spent the next few days with the whole rw media praising him for being an "adult."

Harvard also: www.thecrimson.com/article/2024...

Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine Ends Harvard Yard Encampment | News | The Harvard Crimsonwww.thecrimson.com Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine Ends Harvard Yard Encampment | News | The Harvard Crimson

It’s serving as a pretty definitive test of leadership ability imho

10 years in state 2 year college system and dealing with ‘leadership’ convinced me that pronouncing PhD as “f-DUH” was not a joke, just reality… and we laughed so as to not cry

Like treating the students as high functioning humans is a valid option? Madness

Yay, for my Alma mater for doing the right thing. 👏👏

University presidents who called in the cops should be stripped of their peerages.

cc: Gene Block

how do parents send their kids back to these campuses in the fall?

Acceptance rates next year are gonna be fun.

but! we also know that there were PLENTY of parents who agreed that any protests were terrible, and blame those students for being wrong!

Look, I didn't care about the protests one way or another. All I wanted was to see an empty, freshly-mowed golf-course quality quad when I went to see Ashley collect her diploma.

yes the luxury golf cart service is worth the upgraded graduation parking package

And maybe run out of town on a rail in front of a hooting, jeering crowd.

ain't rocket science

They shouldn't be leading a one-man band.

The Corporate Plutocracy doesn't want this - it would prefer violence. That's because this shows that students and ordinary people actually have power. The power to change things for the better.

UWM didn't offer much. Students will remove encampments, and UWM made some pro-Gaza statements. But UWM won't divest from Israel or commit to policy change like ending Israel study-abroad. What makes you think Columbia students didn't receive a similar offer, and that they would have accepted it?

Acts surprised

It's also home to the Golda Meir library, fun fact.

OTOH, extreme sliver of a silver lining, these armed responses will be helpful guides on where not to send our alumni dollars, and what campuses to avoid like the plague when considering where our kids should attend college.

If you're a college with a $10 million bank account, you're an educational org with a little endowment. If you're a college with a $10 billion bank account, you're an endowment with a little educational org. These two categories define the responses.

Post