For many outside the ivory tower, it was clear university leaders needed to do something to quell the chaos surrounding pro-Palestinian encampments on their campuses. So when college presidents from New Hampshire to New York to Georgia to California invited riot police to break up the protest camps, firing "less-lethal" weapons, zip-tying students and throwing professors to the ground, it may have seemed like a tough but necessary call.
"There must be consequences," declared the president of my university, USC’s Carol Folt, for students who "foment harassment, violence, and threats." This echoed statements of other university leaders, and President Biden himself, who, despite a nod to the First Amendment, pronounced, "order must prevail." In denouncing the protestors, he also cited antisemitism and a "fear of being attacked."
