Zubair, a junior at Stony Brook University in New York, entered the fall semester on probation. He was one of 29 demonstrators arrested for participating in a Gaza solidarity encampment protest on May 1.
Zubair, who did not want his full name printed, is one of the leaders of the university’s Students for Justice in Palestine (S.J.P.). Following the encampment, he and others were arrested and banned from campus.
Over the summer, university officials sent emails with updated policies, banned overnight demonstrations such as encampments and disallowed the use of megaphones and speakers in non-designated areas.
“The university is doing a massive crackdown on free speech currently, and they’re trying to limit us to the best of their ability, while still being able to show off this kind of idea of ‘we support free speech,’” Zubair said to The Final Call.
“And it’s all because of the protest and the amount of pressure we put on them. And going into the semester, the administration is completely cutting all communication with us. They’re not interested in talking with us at all.”
Stony Brook University is not an anomaly. College and university officials across the country are preparing for students this fall semester by implementing sanctions and measures to dissuade or punish student protesters.
A wave of student encampments swept the nation in the spring, as students protested the role their schools played in Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. Thousands of students were arrested as a result, with many still facing legal trouble.
Despite new school sanctions, students are not backing down. Student protests have already sparked across the country, with more likely on the way.
“What we have seen is administrations creating a lot more restrictions to free expression on campus as a result of the protests that took place in the spring. We’re seeing a crackdown on the ability of students and faculty to be able to voice opinions on campus, which is somewhat unprecedented.
This is happening at multiple universities in multiple states,” Kelly Benjamin, media and communications strategist for the American Association of University Professors (A.A.U.P.), said to The Final Call.
The A.A.U.P., which represents more than 44,000 faculty members, released a statement on Aug. 14 condemning the “wave of administrative policies intended to crack down on peaceful campus protest.”
Stony Brook University’s S.J.P. held their first rally of the semester on Aug. 28 at the same location as their spring encampment. The purpose was to draw in the community, make their presence known and introduce themselves to freshmen, Zubair said.
To work around the university’s updated policy, the students are approaching this semester a little differently. They still plan to rally, chant and host speeches, but they will no longer march around campus.
“Going into the semester, we are planning to embrace more of an idea of community and opening up the idea of organizing more, but for the community,” Zubair said.
He pointed out how the university has started treating them differently. Before, officials were very communicative with student protesters. During the Aug. 28 rally, “they didn’t approach us at all,” Zubair said.
“Instead, they sent a professor to approach us to tell us to put away the flagpoles, because the flagpoles are not allowed on campus. And usually, they would enforce the rules themselves, but they used their authority to pressure a professor to come over to us, because they assumed that we would listen to a professor more than the administration,” he added.
“It’s very clear through their actions that the administration is deciding to completely cut ties with us in a way, and they’re not interested in working with us or talking with us at all.”
He accused the university of fearmongering and threatening students with expulsion or harsher punishments if they step out of line.
Stony Brook’s S.J.P. is not an officially recognized club or organization. Because the chapter is not official, by university standards, official clubs are also banned from working with the group of student leaders, including booking rooms on their behalf, collaborating on events and fundraising.
Here is what is happening at other college campuses across the country.
Columbia University
Students attending Columbia University will have to deal with newly installed fencing around the lawns of the school’s quad, “peace officers” that can arrest students and levels of restriction across campus.
Instagram also recently banned the university’s Students for Justice in Palestine account.
George Washington University
In an Aug. 19 Instagram post, student organizers at George Washington University accused school officials of issuing sanctions against eight student organizations “to retaliate against students for protesting against genocide in an intimidation attempt meant to silence us.”
The university’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace were both suspended until the end of the fall semester and are on disciplinary probation until the end of the spring 2025 semester.
The organizations Black Defiance, Dissenters and Socialist Action Initiative are also on disciplinary probation until the end of the spring 2025 semester. The Muslim, Arab and Asian American student associations are on disciplinary probation until the end of the fall semester. Together, the eight student organizations consider themselves the “student coalition for Palestine.”
Members of Black Defiance have been taking action since October 7, 2023. They have protested with other student groups and have hosted teach-ins on Zionism, connected struggles and the Palestinian prisoner movement.
Early on, students received university sanctions in the form of conduct charges such as claims that students were on unauthorized property, noise complaints and disorderly conduct, Jovanna, a senior at George Washington University and president of Black Defiance, told The Final Call.
They were faced with additional sanctions after launching a student encampment that was raided by D.C. police on May 8. Student demonstrators were arrested, and the student coalition for Palestine was penalized.
The disciplinary probations mean that the organizations can no longer get school funding, but “we never really got money from the university in general because they really don’t give Black organizations a lot of money to begin with,” Jovanna said.
The disciplinary probations also block the groups from having events without administration approval.
“Last week the Muslim Student Association wanted to have their Jumuah prayer on Friday, and they had to apply to have the event approved by the administration,” Jovanna said, referring to the congregational Islamic prayer service.
Imani, another member of Black Defiance, shared that the administration had already been silencing Muslim voices and speech regarding anything related to Palestine. She recalled the lack of resources for Muslim and Palestinian students and the violence Muslim women were facing on campus that went unaddressed.
“The sanctions are trying to silence certain voices on campus to make sure that the school remains a place that is complacent, complicit and actively contributing to genocide,” Imani said.
Despite sanctions, students refuse to “cower in despair.” They are discovering new ways to organize on campus and will continue the teach-ins. They also protested on the first day of classes.
“It was just a reminder to the university that we’re not going anywhere and just because we are under severe repression doesn’t mean that we’re just going to give up,” Jovanna said.
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University updated its policy regarding “expressive activity” like assemblies, protests, demonstrations, rallies, speeches, signage, picketing and petitioning. Now, such events with 25 or more participants must be registered in advance. Consequences include event shutdown and sanctions against organizers.
Tents, encampments and structures that occupy campus space are also now prohibited.
NYU
New York University updated its non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy to caution students on using the word “Zionist.” Students who criticize Zionism, which is a political, nationalist ideology, may now find themselves in violation of NYU policy, as they are now targeting a “protected group.”
NYU Faculty for Justice in Palestine issued a statement on Aug. 25 in response to the updated policy. The faculty are alarmed by the update and view it as a precedent for allowing “far-right and ethnonationalist ideologies under the guise of protecting students from racial discrimination.”
“The new NDAH guidance represents an intensification of NYU’s year-long effort to censor criticism and criminalize protest of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the organization writes.
It also criticizes NYU’s definition of anti-Semitism and the university’s disregard for faculty, students and staff “to respond substantively to the genocide in Gaza.”
“NYU leadership trivializes the tragic devastation in Palestine as well as the realities of discrimination, including antisemitic discrimination, on U.S. campuses and in U.S. society at large,” the statement continues.
In addition to the update, Instagram suspended NYU’s student organization People’s Solidarity Coalition days after banning Columbia’s S.J.P.
Student demands
The primary demand by students across the country is for their universities to divest from Israel, including divestment from Israeli companies and companies tied to Israel. Linked to this demand is financial transparency.
“Our school partners with a lot of people and companies who are actively funding this genocide, and we wanted the school to disclose where they get their money from, who they’re investing with and then to divest from those programs,” Imani said.
Even though Stony Brook is “a public institution, their finances are handled by a private foundation called the Stony Brook Foundation, so we are unable to have any kind of record on where our money is being invested into, where they’re receiving money,” Zubair said. “We want to know where our tuition is going.”
Students at the university are also carrying out an academic boycott due to Stony Brook’s partnership with Reichman University, an Israeli university.
“This university, obviously, is a tool to legitimize the Zionist state and to further the occupation of the Palestinian people. We’re demanding that Stony Brook cut ties with this university and stop sending students from our campus to the occupied Palestinian territory,” Zubair said.
One last demand that students are calling for is amnesty. They want charges dropped against students and faculty and the elimination of academic punishment and sanctions.
Mr. Benjamin emphasized the danger students will be in if they violate the new policies. He described the policies as a form of political censorship that discourages freedom of discussion and robust debate.
“Unfortunately, we are not expecting these policies to be reversed unless there’s a legal challenge to them in the courts,” he said, noting that people should be very alarmed about what is happening.
“People who care about higher education and democracy should be taking it up with their administration,” he said. “We don’t know what kind of real impact these restrictions will have. I think there may be a confrontation, because a lot of these protest policies are in violation of freedom of speech and assembly.”
