‘A police state’: US universities impose rules to avoid repeat of Gaza protests

Universities across the US are planning tougher rules to restrict protests when students return from summer vacation , an effort to avoid the chaos of last semester when demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza led to police crackdowns on campuses nationwide.

Columbia University students, who were at the vanguard of the movement, may encounter the most changes. The university president, Minouche Shafik, resigned this week in the wake of criticism for her handling of the protests, but not before overseeing the installation of fencing around the lawns of the school’s quad – the heart of campus life and the site of large protest encampments.

The barriers are not the only novelty the university introduced as it seeks to avoid a repeat of last spring’s showdown with protesters, which culminated in 109 arrests when Shafik called in the NYPD for a second time in April. In an email sent to students last month, the administration also announced a “color-coded campus status” system, with varying levels of access restrictions “based upon the potential disruption to our academic mission and/or campus operations”.

University administrators are also considering bringing in “peace officers” with the authority to arrest students – something Columbia’s current 290 security personnel cannot do, according to the Wall Street Journal .

“They’re sacrificing all their public space to crack down [on students],” said Jonathan Ben-Menachem, a sociology PhD student who participated in last year’s protests. He compared the color-coded system to the threat level advisories implemented by the US Department of Homeland Security after the 9/11 attacks.

A spokesperson for Columbia did not answer a list of questions from the Guardian but pointed to a statement issued by Shafik before her resignation in which she detailed measures the administration was undertaking to prepare for the year, including faculty and student engagement and a review of university rules.

Columbia is not unique in its preparations. As they plan for a new academic year and the prospect of more protests, university administrations nationwide have issued a flurry of new policies and proposals seeking to limit protests. Students, faculty and advocates warn that the policies endanger free speech, run counter to educational institutions’ mission to foster debate, risk deepening tensions on campuses, and – in the case of public universities – may run foul of schools’ constitutional obligations.

The American Association of University Professors issued a statement this week condemning the wave of anti-protest measures. The policies “impose severe limits on speech and assembly that discourage or shut down freedom of expression”, wrote the group, which represents more than 44,000 faculty members nationwide. “Those who care about higher education and democracy should be alarmed.”

Pro-Palestinian student activists have been taking “summer school” with seasoned organizers and pledging to resume fierce protests.

Universities across the country have been rocked by protests since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, following the Hamas attacks on 7 October, as students and faculty pressed their administrations to divest from Israel , among other demands. As dozens of solidarity camps sprang up on campuses nationwide, several schools called in police, leading to more than 3,100 arrests. Scores of students faced criminal charges and disciplinary measures, and several schools scaled back graduation ceremonies.

Administrators scrambled to respond to the protests in the face of growing pressure from donors , lawsuits from Jewish students alleging antisemitism, and Republican-led congressional hearings grilling university presidents – three of whom have since resigned, including Shafik. Campus leaders who called in law enforcement were widely condemned by students and faculty for escalating tensions.

Shafik’s decision, which she attributed to the “considerable toll” the tensions took on her family, took students and faculty by surprise – with some fearing it signaled more uncertainty and conflict ahead. Katrina Armstrong, the dean of Columbia’s medical school who was appointed interim president, called for unity and dialogue in an email to the student body. “The habit of critical thinking and humility that gives birth to tolerance of contrary points of view is the most essential lesson taught in Columbia’s classrooms.”

‘A dangerous precedent’

In the aftermath of last spring’s protests, many universities moved to amend their policies , with several introducing bans and restrictions on camping, overnight protests and the use of banners and signs. Over the summer, the University of Pennsylvania introduced a new prohibition on camping and banned any speech that “advocates violence”. Critics note that such speech is constitutionally protected – as long as it doesn’t entail a clear threat. As a private school, UPenn is not bound by the US constitution’s first amendment protections, but like many private universities it claims to uphold free speech values .

Elsewhere, the University of Illinois imposed restrictions on the use of “event tents, tables, walls, outdoor displays, inflatables, freestanding signs, huts, sculptures, booths, facilities, flashing or rotating lights, illuminated signs, or similar objects and structures”. The University of Louisville, in Kentucky, proposed bans on chalking and yard signs and a requirement that other signage “align with the university mission”. (A spokesperson for the university told the Guardian that the policy “has not been enacted”.) Other schools, like Case Western Reserve University, in Ohio, introduced a seven-day notice requirement for any demonstrations. The University of Michigan introduced a new “ disruptive activity policy ” that speech advocates criticized as overly broad and punitive.

A spokesperson for the university said the draft policy had come on the heels of “a serious disruption” to an honors convocation last March and that following feedback from the university community the policy had not been implemented. “Disrupting speakers and events is not protected speech under the law and is a violation of university policy,” the spokesperson added.

The University of California, a 10-campus system that saw some of the worst violence in response to pro-Palestinian protests, is set to announce a system-wide new policy, probably including a ban on encampments, in the coming days. California state legislators are also debating a new bill against conduct that “creates a hostile environment on campus”, which advocates warn would “set a dangerous precedent”.

“I’m concerned that students are going to show up on campus [nationwide] looking to participate in protests that they heard about when they were in high school and to engage in expression and to share ideas with their fellow students, and I think that if they hear the message that those sorts of things are inherently disruptive, that you need to plan them seven days in advance, they’ll be very discouraged,” said Laura Beltz, director of policy reform at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

The Guardian reached out to all the schools named here for comment about the new policies and their free speech implications, and has included the responses received.

Political pressures

As they prepare for the return of students and protests to campus, universities are also grappling with mounting accusations of antisemitism – many leveled by lawmakers and in two dozen lawsuits .

Earlier this month, a federal judge cleared the way for a lawsuit brought by Jewish students alleging that Harvard failed to protect them from harassment as fellow students called them “murderers’ and “colonizers” or chanted “from the river to the sea” – a popular slogan in support of Palestinian liberation that some claim has genocidal connotations. Other universities settled similar lawsuits , while a federal judge in California this week ruled that UCLA cannot allow student protesters to block Jewish students from accessing parts of campus. The ruling – the first issued against a university over the demonstrations – came after protesters in the spring denied entry to a pro-Palestinian encampment to students they identified as “ Zionist ”.

Since October, the education department has opened more than 100 investigations of alleged discrimination, including antisemitism – and sent a 20-page letter to more than 5,000 campus leaders detailing schools’ obligations, in response to “recent increases in complaints filed with the department’s office for civil rights”, the letter noted. A spokesperson for the department did not offer more detail about the investigations but wrote in a statement to the Guardian: “Schools have a number of tools for responding to a hostile environment – including tools that do not restrict any rights protected by the first amendment.”.

Universities are also coming under pressure from local and elected officials. In California, state legislators are withholding $25m in state funding until the administration clarifies its policy on protest. In Texas, the governor, Greg Abbott, issued an executive order in March that prompted schools across the state to rush to write into their speech code a sweeping definition of antisemitism aimed at silencing some criticism of Israel. In Florida, the state university system administration ordered its 12 universities to essentially “ keyword search ” syllabuses and course descriptions for terms like Israel, Palestine and Zionism and report any materials containing those words to the system’s board of governors for review. In a follow-up email sent to the universities, and shared with the Guardian by a spokesperson for the system, the chancellor, Ray Rodrigues, wrote that the directive was intended to “flag all instances of either antisemitism or anti-Israeli bias”.

Other legislators have proposed bringing third-party “ antisemitism monitors ” on to campuses receiving federal funding.

Related: ‘Summer school’ activists plan pro-Palestinian protests at US colleges in fall

Dueling pressures have put university administrations in a difficult position.

“We understand that as leaders of your campus communities, it can be extraordinarily difficult to navigate the pressures you face from politicians, donors, and faculty and students alike,” the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in an open letter to campus leaders in April, noting their legal obligations to combat discrimination and responsibility to maintain order. “But as you fashion responses to the activism of your students (and faculty and staff), it is essential that you not sacrifice principles of academic freedom and free speech that are core to the educational mission of your respected institution.”

As tensions over the war in Gaza have escalated, several schools have introduced mediated conversations , antisemitism training and initiatives aimed at fostering dialogue . Before resigning, Shafik had promised a “ vigorous ” program of antisemitism training for faculty, staff and students in the fall.

Students are already planning ways to get around new protest restrictions.

“It’s going to be more of a police state than it was, but I don’t think that means no one’s going to do anything,” said Ben-Menachem, the Columbia graduate student. “The war is still there … nothing has changed in Palestine.”