Brown, Northwestern Make Deals With Student Protesters

It is true that Columbia played footsie with its collection of malcontents before the police arrived on the scene and fumigated the college. But according to two stories at Campus Reform, Brown and Northwestern were unnerved at the prospect of telling young adults to behave like, well, adults, and have made concessions to their protestors.

Northwestern made a deal with the protesters to remove the majority of the tents from the campus. According to the terms of the agreement, peaceful protests can continue. However, all of the tents on Deering Meadow, except for one aid tent, must come down. “Devices to project or amplify sound” must be approved in advance. Only students, faculty, and staff will be permitted to participate in demonstrations, and the college reserves the right to check school IDs. Also, protesters must ensure that everyone is safe and that there is space on Deering Meadow for other activities.

And there is this strange clause:

The University will publicly condemn the doxing of any community member and will advise employers not to rescind job offers for students engaging in speech protected by the First Amendment.

One assumes that means the school will officially shake its finger at people who want to reveal the identities of people hiding behind keffiyehs. Time will tell how the Jewish kids fare. As far as employers rescinding job offers, that is none of the university’s business. If the protesters are worried about their future prospects, well, caveat emptor, kids.

In exchange for the protesters’ cooperation, Northwestern agreed to re-establish its Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility this fall, with representatives from the students, faculty, and staff. So, that is where divestment will come in.  

The school will fund and house two visiting Palestinian faculty members for two years, and give five Palestinian undergrads a free education. Also:

• The University will provide immediate temporary space for MENA/Muslim students.
• The University will provide and renovate a house for MENA/Muslim students that is conducive to community building as soon as practicably possible upon completion of the Jacobs renovation (Expected 2026).
• The University will engage students in a process dedicated to ensuring additional support for Jewish and Muslim students within Student Affairs/Religious & Spiritual Life.
• The University will include students in a process dedicated to implementing broad input on University dining services, including residential and retail vendors on campus.

In its response to the development, the ADL posted the following on X:

The agreement between @NorthwesternU leadership and encampment protesters is reprehensible, dangerous, and a case study in failed leadership. Our full statement: pic.twitter.com/nJUuFyVpGL

— ADL Midwest (@ADLMidwest) April 29, 2024

Campus Reform notes that over at Brown, demonstrators “agreed to end the encampment and refrain from further actions that would violate Brown’s conduct code through the end of the academic year, which includes Commencement and Reunion Weekend.” Brown has agreed to invite five students to meet with the Corporation of Brown University to discuss divestment. A divestment vote will occur in October. 

The school will continue its investigation into the behavioral problems of the protesters. But the school slipped in a get-out-of-jail-free card, stating that disbanding the camp would have a favorable effect on disciplinary hearings. 

In a letter to the school community, Brown President Christina H. Paxson stated that “students who have been charged with involvement in the encampment and associated activities that violate our conduct codes will not be subject to suspension or expulsion, provided they abide by the terms of the agreement. However, the agreement makes clear that reports of bias, harassment, or discrimination must continue to be investigated by the appropriate offices.”

Related: I Got Invited to Speak at UCLA. Guess What Happened Next.

In other words, no one will be held accountable for anything they did, and the schools will make concessions they were probably thinking about for years. 

“Ya know, dese are some nice campuses youse guys got here. Be a shame if somethin’ happened to ’em.”

Meanwhile, after months of Jewish students being subjected to all manner of threats and violence on college campuses, the New York Post reports that anti-Semitic protesters at UCLA got into a brawl with counter-protesters. They have declared that their “suffering” was on par with that of war victims in Gaza.  

Anyone who has ever seen a parent dragging a screaming child through a store or has ever been a parent dragging a screaming child through a store knows what happens if one capitulates to that child. They grow up to be screaming, entitled teens and then screaming, entitled adults.