Colorado students will be crossing bull horns, spray paint, and tents off their back-to-school shopping list this fall as college campuses crack down on unruly protests.
The University of Denver told the Wall Street Journal this week that no tents are permitted and encampments are banned as educators prepare to face another school semester interrupted by by outside agitators.
“Anyone who’s a president or a chancellor who doesn’t say they’re a little nervous is, I think, misguided,” said Jeremy Haefner, chancellor at the University of Denver.
Haefner said his university flunked lessons in civil discourse but aced their exercise in free speech as pro-Palestinian protests popped across U.S. campuses in the spring.
The cost of protests and vandalism to the Auraria campus this year was nearly $300,000.
Inside Higher Education reports that both sides of the Israel-Palestinian debate are lobbying universities on how best to handle future disruptions.
Jewish organizations want to keep the peace through clear communication of protest rules and educating students on antisemitism.
On the other side is a radical Islamic group that wants universities to keep police off campus and away from protests.
They are demanding universities negotiate with protestors to meet their demands and establish a task force to investigate cyber harassment of pro-Palestinian protestors.
In other words, Jews don’t want to be victimized, and protestors want to be protected while harassing Jews and other students as well as educators and staff.
And in Denver, a lawyer defending some of the 20 students charged with breaking laws during the protests asked the city attorney last week to drop all charges that could result in stiff fines or even time in jail.
Andy McNulty told the Denver Gazette:
“That should be intolerable for a society that values free speech.”
Free speech that wasn’t the problem so much as the breaking of laws, vandalism, and harassment of students.
Colleen Walker, executive director of the Auraria Higher Education Center, also told the Gazette they intend to pursue charges that include assault.
“So, if you are arrested because you have broken a law and you have ignored the policy and you have ignored the conduct code, that doesn’t bode well,” Walker said.
Remember this when Kamala Harris carries forward Biden’s student loan forgiveness on the backs of American taxpayers.