Commentary: The Death of Institutional Identity

Jorge Reyes
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: As Gaza solidarity encampments sprung up across university campuses last spring, students faced severe institutional repercussions for their activism. At Princeton, at least two students had their diplomas withheld and 15 were arrested. Across the country, over 3,000 students were arrested for participation in Gaza solidarity protests.

For some, these consequences are disproportionately dire. Undocumented and international students run the risk of being deported if arrested and are limited in their ability to protest, especially with politicians like Donald Trump threatening to infringe on their freedom of assembly.

Miriam Waldvogel
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: The 15 students and University community members arrested during pro-Palestine protests last spring will not have their cases dismissed following a hearing on Tuesday.

Aymen Aboushi, an attorney representing the 12 students and one postdoc arrested for occupying Clio Hall, motioned to dismiss the charges of defiant trespassing, which Judge John McCarthy III ’69 ultimately rejected to hear. Citing body camera footage, he argued that the students at Clio Hall did not receive notice from the officers who arrested them that they were trespassing. Under New Jersey law, defiant trespassing occurs when someone enters a space after “knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so.”

Miriam Waldvogel
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: The Department of Public Safety (PSAFE) is investigating small flyers found on campus reading “Nuke Gaza” and “Kill Roaches” as a bias incident, the University told The Daily Princetonian on Friday.

The pile of approximately 30 paper cutouts was first discovered by a fourth-year graduate student around noon on Friday outside entryway six of Spelman Hall. The individual gathered up the flyers and called PSAFE. Princeton’s daily crime log shows that PSAFE officers responded to the incident shortly after the call, and logged the interaction as a “harrassment/bias incident.” According to the graduate student, PSAFE collected the flyers from them at the scene.