Costs of the Protests, Back-to-School Plans, Old and New Campus Vulnerabilities
Costs of the Protests, Back-to-School Plans, Old and New Campus Vulnerabilities
In our newsletter July 26, 2024
Shabbat Shalom! We are back after a hiatus due to travel (see photo above), conferences, and other things. If you are curious about what we have been up to, read this short op-ed in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “The Ruthless Politicization of Science Funding.” Although it is not related to antisemitism, the topic might be of interest to readers who rely on federal funding for their research.
Costs of the Protests
The financial consequences of the campus protests are coming to light. Writing for the L.A. Times, Teresa Watanabe shares a few numbers (“UC Unveils Steep Cost of Handling Campus Protests: $29 Million, with Most for Policing,” an archived version is available here):
The University of California shelled out more than $29 million to handle this spring’s protests over the Israel-Hamas war, with 90% of that paying for law enforcement, private security and other safety measures, according to preliminary estimates obtained by The Times….
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up tent encampments, which remained peaceful on some campuses and descended into violence at others, leading to law enforcement interventions and damage to university property. Some protesters defaced buildings with graffiti, broke windows, damaged concrete pillars and left piles of trash that attracted rodents, cockroaches and other vermin — requiring UC to spend money on pest control and waste removal, according to university details of the damage.
“Across our campuses, we witnessed disruptive and destructive behavior that profoundly impacted our core mission and communities, causing many to fear for their safety and well-being,” UC said in a statement. “The right to free speech and nonviolent protest are time-honored traditions on UC campuses. These rights come with a responsibility to respect one another even when we disagree and adhere to the laws and policies that keep our campus communities safe.”
UCLA topped all 10 campuses in costs, spending $10 million on safety and security and $400,000 for building repairs, graffiti removal and other cleanup between March 1 and June 25….
UC Berkeley spent $8 million on campus protests between March 1 and June 25. Campus leaders and protesters reached an agreement to remove the Berkeley encampment voluntarily without police intervention, but some of the $7.5 million spent on safety and security involved other protests.
Shortly after UC Berkeley protesters removed their encampment on May 14, another group occupied an abandoned building, dropping banners and Palestinian flags from windows and pitching tents outside before police in riot gear from almost 20 agencies forced them out. Police arrested a dozen people on suspicion of burglary, vandalism and conspiracy.
UC Irvine paid $2.9 million to cover protest costs, UC Santa Cruz $2.7 million, UC San Diego $2 million and UC Santa Barbara $1.3 million. All of those universities called in police to remove encampments. Students voluntarily dismantled encampments without police intervention at the four lowest-spending campuses: UC San Francisco at $325,000, UC Merced at $255,000, UC Davis at $150,000 and UC Riverside at $25,000.
In addition, the UC Office of the President spent $1 million.
How much did USC spend on the protests? Probably, in the same range as UCLA. This is a considerable financial burden and an obvious question is—will there be consequences to those responsible for this damage? Outside agitators, union mobsters, radical faculty instigators, and misbehaving students—will they go unpunished? The lack of accountability is an invitation to future disruption. We hope that university leaders will learn a lesson—zero tolerance for lawlessness and vandalism; timely and consistent responses, such as suspensions of students and arrests of outside agitators; and pressing charges against violators could save us a lot of money and defer future eruptions of lawlessness.
According to Watanabe, we are not out of the woods yet:
The costs are likely to continue to climb this fall if students resume protests, as many are vowing to do. UC regents and campus leaders are signaling they will no longer tolerate encampments and will insist on consistent enforcement of campus rules around free speech activities—which could escalate the use of law enforcement to take down tents, arrest resisters, control rallies and patrol the grounds.
UC said it is “actively exploring resources and strategies to prevent future incidents while upholding the principles of free expression.”
This brings us back home to USC. Is our university taking steps to ensure the safety of our campus and the smooth functioning of the university when the fall semester begins in less than a month from now? Our “Report on Campus Climate and Call for Action” has proposed concrete steps; however, we have yet to see any action. Even such a trivial step as restructuring the Jewish Life Committee and injecting some life into it (pun intended) has yet to take place. Meanwhile, a committee of the Academic Senate is investigating the handling of Valedictoriangate, the protests, and antisemitism on campus.
Although our campus has been peaceful during the summer months, thanks to continuing restricted access, we know that the “Student Intifada” will be back. Here is one harbinger of what we can expect:
Beyond SJP, BDS, Divest From Death, and USC SCALE, groups not accredited by the university, our campus now faces additional vulnerability from the recent unionization of graduate students and postdocs. As we described in previous posts, unions—including the UAW—have aligned themselves with pro-Hamas/anti-Semitic groups. The unions promote antisemitic propaganda (see, for example, here) and also support these hostile student groups by concrete actions, such as organizing strikes in solidarity with campus protestors. Thus, these antisemitic groups now have a backdoor to our campus via the unions. Opposing union antisemitism should be a part of the plan to combat antisemitism at USC. The unions can be challenged legally on grounds of antisemitism. For example, students at MIT have filed a discrimination complaint with the EEOC against their unions. More recently, University of Chicago graduate students have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that their union’s (United Electrical) antisemitic stance violates the students’ First Amendment protection against compelled speech. As Jerry Coyne explains (“University of Chicago Grad Students File Suit Against Their Union, Alleging that It Makes Them Engage in Compelled Speech”):
Joining the union came with an unexpected downside: unions can take political and ideological positions, and as a member of one (qualified students are required to join and pay union dues), you implicitly sign on to those positions. And you may not want to do that. In the case at hand, the Union has taken pro-Palestinian positions, and some students, especially Jewish ones, don’t want to sign on to these positions. So a group called “Graduate Students for Academic Freedom” has sued the union, alleging that the union makes them engage in implicit endorsement of the union’s positions. That, they claim, is Constitutionally prohibited “compelled speech.” You may have already guessed that this involves the war in Gaza.
From the complaint:
Among much else, UE has a long history of antisemitism. It is an outspoken proponent of the movement to “Boycott, Divest, and Sanction” Israel (BDS)—something so clearly antisemitic that both Joe Biden and Donald Trump have condemned it as such. Indeed, for years, the union has had a consuming fixation with the world’s only Jewish state—a fixation peppered with all-too-common rhetoric. UE has charged Israel with “occupying” Palestine; has branded Israel an “apartheid regime”; and has accused Israel of committing “ethnic cleansing.”
Could USC deploy its contingent of lawyers to curb the unions and—perhaps—even de-unionize the campus? If we faculty are required to disclose our foreign interests—would it not make sense to scrutinize organizations on campus, such as unions, to determine whether they have foreign interests, such as ties to the Iranian regime (more on this below)?
Jewish Students Testify Before the Senate’s Bipartisan Task Force
According to Jewish Insider (“Rosen, Lankford Host Senate Roundtable on Campus Antisemitism”):
Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK), the chairs of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, hosted a roundtable with six Jewish students from around the country on Thursday morning to discuss campus antisemitism.
The event came following pressure — thus far unsuccessful — from the two lawmakers, and others, for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), to hold a public hearing on campus antisemitism. The Senate has held no formal hearings on the issue since Oct. 7.
Lankford told Jewish Insider in May that Sanders had told him that the committee would hold a hearing on antisemitism and Islamophobia, but that has yet to materialize. Sanders did not respond to a request for comment.
Once again—we cannot talk about antisemitism without also talking about “Islamophobia.”
Rosen and representatives of various Jewish organizations emphasized that universities must act now to ensure that they have robust plans to protect Jewish students from harassment and physical assault. Quotes from the students highlight the urgency of the situation and the need for administrators to act, resonating with our report on campus climate:
Skyler Sieradzky, a recent George Washington University graduate, said, “Congress needs to ensure that administrations uphold their own policies.”
Rennie Cohen, a law student at the University of Oklahoma, said that he saw a march on campus with Hezbollah flags chanting “glory to the martyrs,” a sight she said reminded her of images from Nazi Germany.
“I fear that if we do not resolve the issue of antisemitism on campus today, it will open the door for students from other racial and religious groups to be treated as second-class students on college campuses tomorrow,” Cohen said….
Jeremy Davis, a recent Ohio State University graduate, said, “it’s time to hold universities accountable and restore integrity to higher education. We must adopt policies that translate into positive cultural shifts to prevent further antisemitic campus culture.”
Who Funds the Protests?
As Benjamin Netanyahu explained in his passionate speech to Congress on July 24 (which we cover in a separate post), the protests are supported by the global Jihad and advance its ultimate agenda of destroying America and the West, with our naive students acting as “useful idiots.” In Netanyahu’s exact words:
When the tyrants of Tehran are praising, promoting, and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.
Here are two articles discussing the role of Iran in the protests, based on a statement by the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines.
“‘Actors tied to Iran’s government’ helping finance anti-Israel protesters: US intel” (The Hill, July 9, 2024)
“Iran encourages Gaza war protests in US to stoke outrage and distrust, intelligence chief says” (AP, July 9, 2024)
From The Hill:
The director of national intelligence warned Tuesday that “actors tied to Iran’s government” have “opportunistically” co-opted some anti-Israel protests in the U.S., supporting and financing some work.
Avril Haines said in the first of what she said will be consistent threat updates about Iran and other U.S. adversaries abroad that Iran is “becoming increasingly aggressive in their foreign influence efforts.”
“In recent weeks, Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza, using a playbook we’ve seen other actors use over the years,” she wrote. “We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters….”
“I want to be clear that I know Americans who participate in protests are, in good faith, expressing their views on the conflict in Gaza — this intelligence does not indicate otherwise,” Haines said. “Moreover, the freedom to express diverse views, when done peacefully, is essential to our democracy, but it is also important to warn of foreign actors who seek to exploit our debate for their own purposes.”
“Furthermore, Americans who are being targeted by this Iranian campaign may not be aware that they are interacting with or receiving support from a foreign government,” she continued. “We urge all Americans to remain vigilant as they engage online with accounts and actors they do not personally know.”
Public Interviews of Pro-Palestinian Protesters at UCLA by Francis Foster
The above video is truly a must-see. Francis Foster explores the anti-Israel protest at UCLA, featuring students blockading entry to the library building. Listen to what protesters say on camera about Israel, Jews, and their motivation to protest. From the transcript:
Zionism is a branch of fascism and the the what they're doing is just part of their ideology and they want to ethnic cleans by means of genocide by starvation by bombing by causing diseases to spread, by cutting off water by all these means is what we call and the United Nations has recognized that it's a genocide is what's going on so that's why I'm here okay how do you think we solve this crisis and this war well you know uh the students among and all of the other movements across the world have to rise up have to cause their governments to divest …
As one Jewish student describes the scene, “There is very little thinking, but a lot of screaming at these protests.” The student explains how the protests disrupt the normal functioning of the university, and, describing his discomfort being in the middle of protests, he says, “It’s like being in the war zone.” He adds that he tries to conceal his Jewish identity while on campus.
Another student comments on a communist connection to the protest. He points to communist posters and hammer-and-sickle graffiti all around. He says:
I think their ring leaders are communists. They use the conflict in Gaza as a catalyst to get people out, and then they try to covert them. They read communist literature at the assemblies.
The video also shows UWA posters amidst the mayhem.
Again, this is a must-see video.
"Outside agitators, union mobsters, radical faculty instigators, and misbehaving students—will they go unpunished?"
To ask is to answer—of course they won't.
In the Social Justice faith, which provides the ruling ideology and sacred beliefs of our progressive oligarchy, Palestinians code as poor brown Oppressed (meaning: helpless victims beyond agency and responsibility) while Israelis/Jews code as white wealthy Oppressors (meaning: bearing the ultimate responsibility even for their own murders), so anyone fighting against the Jewish state is ipso facto a warrior for Justice and Equality "on the right side of History", and deserves praise not punishment. (And this goes triple for California, the Vatican of Social Justice.)
Jews once again find themselves on the wrong side of the Friend/Enemy distinction. The American liberal class, which lives in perpetual terror of being on the receiving end of a Struggle Session, won't lift a finger to help supporters of the Jewish state because their ideology and its enforcers won't allow it. Pledging fealty to Social Justice is the only way to stay employed, and Social Justice demands the erasure of the Jewish state.
There’s a tremendous amount of pro-Palestinian stuff in English available.
Much of it is very slanted, inaccurate or just plain wrong. Someone is funding this (Iran for sure, some Arab states).
Very interesting video. I suspected there were outsiders involved.