By Atty. Howie Calleja
Since Wednesday more than 200 protesters were arrested at universities in Los Angeles, Boston and Austin, Texas, where around 2,000 people gathered. The spreading protests began at Columbia University in New York, where a midnight deadline was approaching for students to remove an encampment that has become the epicenter of the movement. At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, 93 people were arrested for trespassing, and authorities said they were cancelling events at the May 10 graduation ceremony.
In Washington, students from Georgetown and George Washington University (GW) established a solidarity encampment on the GW campus. Protests and encampments have also sprung up at New York University and Yale — both of which also saw dozens of students arrested earlier — Harvard, Brown University, MIT, the University of Michigan and elsewhere. Student protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the death toll has topped 34,305, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Such protests pose a major challenge to university administrators and the American society in general who are trying to balance campus assurances to free expression vis-a-vis grievances that the rallies have crossed a line; most especially when a distinction between student protesters and outsiders is now a big blur.
Honestly, this is a tough balancing act, for as protests spread to campuses across the country, university administrations should be careful not to allow outsiders to infiltrate legitimate student protests. Also, protests have limitations and university campuses have rules to be followed. Freedom of speech does not include encampment and days of trespassing to university grounds. Universities should be a safe haven for all voices to be heard it should safeguard people’s rights to assembly and free expression but in the context of genuine dialogue.
Moreover, as much as free speech is respected and protected; hate speech on the other hand against any group or community is not protected. More so protesting inside universities should respect the rights of other students in the campus. The freedom of one ends when the freedom of another begins. The hundreds and thousands of university students seeking to achieve higher learning should not be disrupted — and classes should never be sacrificed. The voice of the super majority of the students should be heard and reinforced in a safe environment similar too to those in protest in the same campus.
In the end, the First Amendment provides the framework for the right to free speech, there is a divide on where the line, if any, should be when it comes to protecting the freedom of speech on college campuses that is considered hateful or offensive. And, as a professor, I believe some students experience an intellectual awakening or a confidence about fighting for what they believe in when they are in college. Other students learn how to get others to listen and how to listen to others but everything must always be in the context of authentic dialogue and not disruptive discourse.