College presidents are tired of the disruption, bullying, and ugly footage produced by anti-Israel student encampments. Some have even resorted to calling the police. But calling in law enforcement is deeply unpopular on campus, infuriating the anti-Israel protesters and their faculty backers while generating denunciations in higher education circles.
As a result, presidents at institutions such as Rutgers, the University of Minnesota, and Northwestern have decided to cut deals with their protesters instead. The press tends to rosily describe this approach as a win-win “de-escalation,” with higher education “experts” explaining that “such agreements can feel like victory to students, and offer a sigh of relief for administrators.”
Of course, there’s another term for these “success stories,” in which campus officials plead with disruptive, intimidating, and sometimes violent protesters to stop violating campus policies. It’s “appeasement.”
At Rutgers, the Chronicle of Higher Education judged that campus leaders acquiesced to eight out of 10 student demands. The president and the university’s investment committee chair agreed to meet with the protesters to discuss divestment from Israel. Campus leaders agreed to create an Arab cultural center and hire administrators and faculty with Palestinian “cultural competency.” They also agreed to develop “training sessions on anti-Palestinian, antiArab [sic], and anti-Muslim racism for all [Rutgers] administrators & staff.” (Tellingly, but unsurprisingly, there’s no mention of antisemitism.) And protesters were assured they would not face any university discipline or “retaliation.”
The University of Minnesota’s interim President Jeff Ettinger agreed to five of six protester demands at his campus, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Protesters will get an audience with the Board of Regents next week. The university will not discipline any of the students and will urge the Minneapolis city attorney to be lenient with students arrested by the police. Ettinger agreed to send an apologia to the campus community that reads: “We regret that this meeting did not happen sooner, and have committed to regular meetings moving forward to continue to discuss this coalition’s concerns.”
At Northwestern, campus officials agreed that protesters could continue to monopolize Deering Meadow, two acres of campus green space, until June 1. They also agreed to create an advisory group that could give protesters a voice on university investments; erect a designated community space for Middle Eastern, North African, and Muslim students; and create new Palestinian faculty slots and new scholarships for Palestinian undergraduate students, with a pledge to raise funds for the long-term sustainability of the program. In return, students agreed to dismantle most of their tents and to stop using amplifiers on Deering Meadow.
It’s worth repeating: in higher education circles, these agreements have not been depicted as campus leaders getting rolled. Rather, they’ve been widely celebrated as models to emulate.
Fortunately, that’s not universally true. There are sane and sensible voices out there, though they’re not the ones that most campus leaders are likely to heed. Earlier this week, for example, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, announced that the presidents of Northwestern and Rutgers would be testifying before Congress later this month. Her announcement pulled no punches:
Over the last several days, the presidents of Northwestern and Rutgers have made shocking concessions to the unlawful antisemitic encampments on their campuses. They have surrendered to antisemitic radicals in despicable displays of cowardice. As a result of these gravely concerning actions … it’s necessary to … bring in the presidents of Northwestern and Rutgers — along with UCLA — to testify before the Committee.
Meanwhile, at least one college president has acquitted himself with honor. University of Florida’s Ben Sasse clearly and firmly addressed a campus encampment after five days, arresting those who violated campus rules while ensuring that orderly protests could continue. Sasse explained this weekend 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.” Sasse added, “You don’t get to take over the whole university.”
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“We just don’t negotiate with people who scream the loudest, that just didn’t make any sense to me,” Sasse said. “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, and it’s just not what we’re going to do here.”
Teaching students that they’ll get their way if they’re willing to be agents of chaos is a poor way to cultivate citizens, not to mention a textbook case of perverse incentives. Foxx and Sasse know that, even if too many of our feckless campus leaders don’t.
Rick Hess is a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he works on K–12 and higher education issues.