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Baby Boomer Professors Join Student Protests, Risking Arrest and Violence. Faculty take to the front lines at universities, often in support of students’ right to protest
Wall Street Journal ^ | May 4, 2024 | Douglas Belkin and Melissa Korn

Posted on 05/05/2024 6:01:03 AM PDT by karpov

More university professors are joining the demonstrations roiling college campuses, both to voice support for Gazans and to defend their students’ right to protest.

Faculty, many of whom are in their 60s and 70s and came of age during the era of Vietnam War protests, are pushing back against university presidents, accusing the leaders of heavy-handed and inconsistent crackdowns on free speech, and warning against a wave of authoritarianism some say has been creeping onto campuses for years. Professors in leadership positions are guiding calls for votes of no-confidence, spearheading classroom walkouts and visiting encampments alongside students. Many are facing punishment from police and their employers.

In recent days, police have arrested professors during demonstrations at schools including Washington University in St. Louis, Emory University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

At Indiana University, more than 3,000 faculty, graduate workers, students, staff and alumni have called for the resignation of President Pamela Whitten, saying she escalated confrontations between demonstrators and police last week by changing the rules of engagement for protesters at an encampment without adequately informing the campus.

In a statement, Whitten emphasized the school’s commitment to free speech and defended her actions, saying, “Antisemitic episodes have been linked to this national encampment campaign” and have “become magnets for those making threats of violence.”

At the University of Texas at Austin, more than 700 faculty signed a letter pushing for the school’s president, Jay Hartzell, to resign. The letter says he needlessly put students, staff and faculty in danger by calling in law enforcement to campus.

Pauline Turner Strong, a professor of anthropology and women’s and gender studies at UT Austin, said the show of force by police at a recent demonstration she attended was greater than other times since she started teaching there in 1993

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: academia; antisemitism; college; domesticenemies; education
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1 posted on 05/05/2024 6:01:03 AM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

The “Deep State” narrative of the WSJ on Ukraine obvious so why should this be any different.


2 posted on 05/05/2024 6:02:26 AM PDT by Nextrush (FREEDOM IS EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS-REMEMBER REV. NIEMOLLER)
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To: karpov

Many of them are geriatric draft-dodgers.


3 posted on 05/05/2024 6:04:06 AM PDT by ComputerGuy (Heavily-medicated for your protection)
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To: karpov

Someone at UCLA installed a videoscreen near the former demonstration. They’re playing the events of October 7 - showing the genocide - on a loop.

Jordan Peterson nailed it. He said the college kids are taught every human relationship is oppressor - oppressed. Once define as the oppressed jt excuses any conduct, including murder, by the oppressed. Hamas has been defined as the oppressed. So the leftist loons support them.


4 posted on 05/05/2024 6:05:22 AM PDT by TigerClaws
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To: karpov

Are we talkin’ real professors or studies ones?


5 posted on 05/05/2024 6:05:23 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: karpov

They are riots, not protests, and there is no right to riot. The WSJ is a joke of a newspaper.


6 posted on 05/05/2024 6:05:49 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Delusionary people should not be given power over normal people.)
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To: karpov

Revoke their tenure immediately.

Free Speech?!?! These are the people who want to silence any voice they disagree with and label it “hate speech.”

What they mean is their freedom to do whatever the hell they want, including sending us to prison for the simple crime of not being them.

Communists. All of them.


7 posted on 05/05/2024 6:06:08 AM PDT by FlipWilson
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To: karpov

I have no problem with college teachers joining their students and exercise their privilege to protest. But if they are not taking an approved leave of absence, then they are not available to teach and should have their pay docked. I’m not absolutely sure, but I’m willing to bet they don’t have a clause in their contract that gives them the opportunity to protest for pay.

wy69


8 posted on 05/05/2024 6:07:13 AM PDT by whitney69 (yption tunnels)
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To: karpov

Fire them on the spot. Full stop.


9 posted on 05/05/2024 6:08:33 AM PDT by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: karpov

I support peaceful protest. That whole First Amendment thing.

Actually, I prefer if the people with whom I disagree speak out. Sometimes they actually make decent points. That or they expose themselves for the ignorant stupid people they are for all to see.

However, what these agitators and their idiot followers are doing is far from peaceful protest. Very far. That I do NOT support.


10 posted on 05/05/2024 6:10:21 AM PDT by piytar
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To: bk1000
Fire them on the spot. Full stop.

Agree 100%.

11 posted on 05/05/2024 6:10:55 AM PDT by piytar
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To: karpov

BTTT


12 posted on 05/05/2024 6:13:24 AM PDT by nopardons
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To: karpov

these are the same people who said ANTIFA/BLM riots were peaceful compared to Jan 6.

As the nation keeps allowing them to get away with these violent gatherings, the more gatherings will happen and the violence will increase.


13 posted on 05/05/2024 6:13:44 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (This is the end of the Republic....because we could not keep it.)
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To: ComputerGuy

> Many of them are geriatric draft-dodgers. <

Some might be extra-careful folks. Or shall we say, cowards. A professor who doesn’t join the mob might well become a target of the mob. That’s how fascism works. Even neutrality is not permitted.

Awhile back I read a story about a professor who received a mass email. It demanded that everyone on campus support BML. The professor didn’t argue with the message. He simply chose not respond.

Well, all hell broke loose. His office was picketed. Protesters followed him to his car. Neutrality was not permitted.


14 posted on 05/05/2024 6:13:47 AM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: karpov

Free speech on college campuses has been dead for years. Ask any conservative or Doctor Charles Murray. It’s the height of absurdity to suggest otherwise.


15 posted on 05/05/2024 6:15:24 AM PDT by Spok
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To: karpov

Now if the Universities wanted to play hardball with these tenured radicals they would void their contracts under the moral clauses if they got arrested or were documented to incite. Then fire them.


16 posted on 05/05/2024 6:16:26 AM PDT by allendale
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To: karpov

Breitbart warned everyone about the white ponytail crew


17 posted on 05/05/2024 6:20:24 AM PDT by Steven Tyler
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To: karpov

Academia is the last place people believe Communism works.


18 posted on 05/05/2024 6:21:10 AM PDT by bray (Science says a human life begins at conception.)
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To: karpov

Old stoners and young stoners


19 posted on 05/05/2024 6:22:47 AM PDT by SMARTY ("A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies." Tennyson)
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To: Spok

Liberals are extremely tolerant of everyone they agree with.


20 posted on 05/05/2024 6:23:10 AM PDT by bray (Science says a human life begins at conception.)
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