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Since last year's Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the second battlefield of American universities has never stopped.
In the past few days, the war situation on American campuses has intensified, escalating day by day. First, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia students staged demonstrations and protests on campus, forcing universities to close their campuses and demand police intervention.
Later, student protests burned from coast to coast, from private universities to public universities.
What began as a denunciation turned into a military confrontation, with hundreds of students arrested, police even firing tear gas and rubber bullets, and turning college campuses into battlefields.
According to the latest statistics of the Guardian on April 24, more than 20 colleges and universities in the United States have held student-led demonstrations and protests in support of Palestine.
As of press time, more than 400 students at universities across the country have been arrested by police for protests.
108 students were arrested at Columbia University, 93 at USC and 47 at Yale...
After nearly a week of fermentation, it has now evolved from a clash between students and the school to a confrontation between students and the violently suppressed police.
At the University of Texas at Austin, a physical altercation broke out between demonstrator students and police.
Hundreds of heavily armed police stormed the campus, some mounted police officers on horseback and armed with batons rushed into the crowd, and multiple students fell or were arrested in the chaos.
In the operation, police arrested about 54 students, as well as a photojournalist from Fox 7 Austin.
At Emory University, Georgia state police fired rubber bullets and tear gas directly at protesting students on campus, and the gunfire continued, causing chaos at the scene.
Some police officers even used stun guns in order to arrest people, and judging from the photos released by foreign media, the scene was chilling.
In the end, several staff and students, including Professor Nöelle McAfee, chair of Emory's Department of Philosophy, and Caroline Fohlin, head of the Department of Economics, were arrested.
But students, faculty and staff gathered around the police to express their strong condemnation of the act, and the police re-intervened with wooden planks and used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the demonstrators.
At the University of Southern California, the school canceled graduation speeches by Muslim female students who had made anti-Semitic remarks, and later decided to cancel all outside speakers.
Latest News: USC Class of 2024 Commencement Cancelled
In the face of the police's violent enforcement, the students began to throw stones, water bottles, water, etc. at the police, refusing to leave and holding hands to form a "human chain" chanting.
When police tried to detain a protester, hundreds of people gathered around a patrol car, preventing the car from leaving, and collectively chanting "let him go."
That night, Los Angeles police arrested 93 demonstrators who would be documented by the Los Angeles Police Department's Metropolitan Division on suspicion of misdemeanor trespassing.
According to Phoenix TV reporter Yang Pingjun, at least two Los Angeles Police Department helicopters hovered in the air that day, monitoring the students' every move at all times.
There have even been reports of students and protesters spotting "snipers" on the rooftops of Ohio State University and Indiana University Bloomington.
Students seem to have become "enemies", whether they are demonstrators or counter-demonstrations, American campuses are spiraling out of control, conflicts are becoming more acute, and all students are shrouded in fear and unease.
How to deal with protests, how to resolve campus conflicts, and how to reach a consensus with students will become issues that universities need to solve and account for in the future.
The protest was sparked on April 17 when Columbia University's president underwent an "antisemitism hearing," the latest in the current congressional investigation into antisemitism at the university.
The president, Minouche Shafik, who will take office in 2023, is the first female president in Columbia's 269-year history.
At the hearing, she described the measures taken by schools to deal with anti-Semitic behavior, but was questioned for being too soft.
On the day of the hearing, mass protests erupted on the campus of Columbia University, with more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters stationed on the Great Lawn.
They protested Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip, demanded a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, called on the United States to end military aid to Israel, and demanded that universities withdraw their investments from companies that profit from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In the afternoon, there were fierce clashes between pro-Palestinian students and pro-Israeli students.
The president of Columbia, who had just undergone the torture of the hearing, naturally did not want to follow in the footsteps of the president of Harvard and Penn, so he authorized the New York police to station the campus and disperse the demonstrators.
Subsequently, the New York police arrested 108 protesters, but the forceful intervention of the police only provoked even greater anger among the students, and hundreds of students continued to sleep in the heart of Columbia University.
In solidarity with Columbia students, a number of prestigious schools, especially Ivy League schools, joined the protests.
On April 19, only 200 Harvard students gathered in front of the library. "Columbia students are our moral exemplars" and "The price of solidarity is expensive, but we are willing to bear the brunt of it." ”
On the same day, Yale University began a hunger strike, demanding that Yale disclose its investments in military weapons manufacturers and divest from these companies.
Brown University, Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin and other schools have joined one after another.
According to the Associated Press, "This is a revolt that began at Columbia University and spread across the United States." ”
Demonstrations and protests at U.S. universities continue to escalate, and as protests escalate, more and more universities are taking strong countermeasures.
Columbia University has closed classes to remote teaching, Harvard has closed its campus, and police have been stationed in many schools, and the American education community has ushered in the biggest crisis in recent decades.
The New York Times reported that the wave of protests at American colleges and universities could continue until the end of the year, when many college graduation ceremonies could turn into angry confrontations.
Graduation season is approaching, and it is also a question whether this year's graduation ceremony will be held.
It is not difficult to find that most of the protests have occurred in elite universities dominated by Ivy League schools. Many people think that universities are sacred ivory towers, that learning is the first priority, and that engaging in politics is "not doing a proper job".
It has been mentioned that last week's campus protest at Columbia University was similar to the April 1968 protest by hundreds of students against racism and the Vietnam War.
History has proven that it has never been difficult to draw a line between American universities and politics, and influential elite universities naturally have a sense of social responsibility.
Whenever there is an injustice or other acute problem in society, students at elite universities are always the first to perceive and the fastest to respond.
Although today's "elite" is often considered synonymous with refined egoism, it is often the elite who stand up when old and new ideas collide and speak up for the vulnerable.
Students at elite universities receive more cutting-edge knowledge, have more advanced concepts, and they have a deeper and more insightful view of problems.
They use their appeal and influence to actively enter public life, speak out for their own interests, and speak for marginalized groups.
This is exactly what ELITE universities always talk about in their admissions: leadership, influence, and the ability to change the world.
The Open Syllabus Project in the United States has compiled more than 1 million courses and book reading information from various universities in the past 20 years, and published the reading list data of American college students.
Among the 10 most read books at Harvard University, more than half are political and social books.
It can be seen that Ivy League students have always cared about politics and cultivated their political literacy in reading and participating in public affairs.
Therefore, participation in social public issues and an understanding of public opinion, opinions, and social values are essential for elite university students.
University is not an ivory tower, and university learning is not just about the content of books, nor is it just about sticking to the knowledge of one's own specialty.
At that time, the advanced intellectuals of Southwest Associated University, Peking University, and other colleges and universities were also concerned about social reality, politics, and the democratic movement.
These elites who understand politics, care about society, and speak up bravely for those in need are worthy of respect.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is an excellent course in international politics from which we can think about grand issues such as fairness, justice, and human rights.
However, international students face the additional risk of deportation or expulsion for engaging in these activities, and Chinese students should be cautioned not to participate in such activities.
And pay attention to campus demonstrations and the local security situation, avoid going to protest and demonstration areas and crowded places, and ensure your own safety.