Today's student protests are different from those of my youth when we were against U.S. policy. These students are protesting against the investment policies of their universities. They see the hypocrisy of schools that teach equity and justice yet support war with their financial policies. In the past, schools have changed their strateg…
Today's student protests are different from those of my youth when we were against U.S. policy. These students are protesting against the investment policies of their universities. They see the hypocrisy of schools that teach equity and justice yet support war with their financial policies. In the past, schools have changed their strategies to disinvest from apartheid and oil and gas companies without losing money and shirking their roles as fiduciaries of their endowments. When schools like Brown and Wesleyan agreed to meet with students and then to vote on where they invest their money, there was no need to think about calling in the riot police. We all need to see that decision-makers listen to us, that our voices have power, that our colleges and universities practice what they teach.
They are also protesting against the use of their tax dollars to pay for the weaponry with which our President and now our Congress have been enabling the slaughter.
It's not necessarily one thing or the other, but my sense is that those who voted some version of "uncommitted" in the Democratic primaries were protesting against the government's involvement in the war, but that the students were frequently protesting against their school's funding of entities that were contributing to Netanyahu's war.
Yes, precisely. But they're aware also that beyond their address to the administrations and trustees of their universities lies a nation that has had little access to education about Gaza's awful and worsening situation over the last 76 years, and that the press reactions to their encampments, however biased, will bring (and have brought) attention to a wider array of facts and views. Which could have an effect in Congress and above all on the President.
Today's student protests are different from those of my youth when we were against U.S. policy. These students are protesting against the investment policies of their universities. They see the hypocrisy of schools that teach equity and justice yet support war with their financial policies. In the past, schools have changed their strategies to disinvest from apartheid and oil and gas companies without losing money and shirking their roles as fiduciaries of their endowments. When schools like Brown and Wesleyan agreed to meet with students and then to vote on where they invest their money, there was no need to think about calling in the riot police. We all need to see that decision-makers listen to us, that our voices have power, that our colleges and universities practice what they teach.
They are also protesting against the use of their tax dollars to pay for the weaponry with which our President and now our Congress have been enabling the slaughter.
It's not necessarily one thing or the other, but my sense is that those who voted some version of "uncommitted" in the Democratic primaries were protesting against the government's involvement in the war, but that the students were frequently protesting against their school's funding of entities that were contributing to Netanyahu's war.
Yes, precisely. But they're aware also that beyond their address to the administrations and trustees of their universities lies a nation that has had little access to education about Gaza's awful and worsening situation over the last 76 years, and that the press reactions to their encampments, however biased, will bring (and have brought) attention to a wider array of facts and views. Which could have an effect in Congress and above all on the President.