Campus Events & Enforcement

PEN America Press Release

Excerpt: PEN America today sharply criticized some Republican members of Congress for their recent actions scrutinizing academic decision-making at the Naval Academy, including insinuating that an invitation to scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat to deliver a lecture could violate federal law, which led to the event’s cancellation.

Robert Shibley
FIRE

Excerpt: This election season, Pennsylvania State University appears to be unleashing its own October Surprise — against its students. In a brazen display of ignorance of (or disdain for) long-settled law, Penn State this semester has trampled over the rights of student journalists and other students registering their classmates to vote. There are times in FIRE’s case work where we can understand the flawed logic that leads an administrator to break the law, but there is no excusing or justifying what has happened on the Penn State campus over the past few weeks.

Columbia Spectator
Rebecca Massel

Excerpt: Columbia temporarily suspended Business School assistant professor Shai Davidai’s campus access, University spokesperson Millie Wert confirmed in a statement to Spectator on Tuesday.

Davidai publicized the University’s decision to restrict him from campus in a video posted to his Instagram account on Tuesday evening. In the video, he said “the University has decided to not allow me to be on campus anymore. My job. Why? Because of Oct. 7. Because I was not afraid to stand up to the hateful mob. And because I was not afraid to expose Mr. fucking Cas Holloway.”

Kate Hidalgo Bellows and Jasper Smith
Chronicle of Higher Education

Excerpt: Faculty members at Columbia University say they disagree with a pro-Palestinian student group’s recent endorsement of violence, but some support the group’s right to express that sentiment.

On October 8, Columbia University Apartheid Divest — or CUAD — revoked an apology it made in the spring on behalf of a student activist who posted a video of himself saying “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” The group, an unrecognized coalition of student organizations, said in last week’s statement that the apology was written by several organizers, not the student, and did not represent the group’s values.

Abigail Anthony
National Review

Excerpt: Four Harvard University student organizations released a joint statement on Monday denouncing the university and further claiming that the October 7 attacks on Israel showed “apartheid cannot stand.”

“One year ago today, Gaza broke through Israel's blockade, showing the world that the ongoing Nakba and apartheid cannot stand,” reads the statement released on October 7. “Every day since, the Israeli regime has escalated its 76-year-long occupation into a now 365-day-long genocide.”

Susan H. Greenberg
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: Protesters at the UC Berkeley School of Law disrupted a talk by an Israeli lawmaker last week, forcing him to deliver remarks remotely via Zoom, SFGATE reported.

The law school’s chapter of the Federalist Society had invited Simcha Rothman, a far-right member of Israel’s Parliament, to speak at an event Tuesday titled Restoring Democracy: The Debate Over Judicial Reform in Israel. Rothman is a key proponent of a controversial bill to give the Knesset more oversight of Israel’s judicial system.