Xochitl Gonzalez writes:

One day this fall, while on campus at Brown University, I was met by two students—cellphones raised, cameras recording. They had spun off from a larger group protesting Brown’s decision not to divest from Israel. They recognized me as a trustee of the university and saw an opportunity to take me to task. They followed me for perhaps a block or two, calling me a hypocrite.

For at least one of the students, the war in Gaza was not some cause du jour that he’d picked up from TikTok. He has Palestinian relatives on the ground. I knew this because I’d spoken with him before. That time, he was passionate but measured. Now, in protest mode, he was angry. I’m sure he felt betrayed by the decision, and I was one of the only people he could hold—at least verbally—accountable.

Understandably, some of my colleagues who were singled out by protesters were more rattled by the experience. But in my view, these were students in America doing what students in America should do: questioning authority (in this case, me) and using their rights to free speech and free assembly to engage with issues they are passionate about.

That is not to say I didn’t find this period of campus unrest unpleasant or this particular incident annoying. No one likes to be called a hypocrite and accused of being indifferent to human suffering. And certainly no one wants to be shouted at. But I never for a moment felt that these students were a threat to me, let alone to America’s national security.

And yet, that is the justification the United States government is offering for its decision to revoke the visas and green cards of international students who have spoken out against the war in Gaza. [Continue reading…]

Maya R. Jasanoff and Kirsten A. Weld write:

A Columbia University graduate arrested for pro-Palestinian activism, a Brown University professor denied entry and deported after visiting her family in Lebanon, a Tufts University Ph.D. student snatched on the street on her way to Ramadan iftar by masked federal agents: In the past two weeks, we have watched in horror as scenes familiar from our studies of history have played out on and around U.S. university campuses.

Each of these individuals is or has been a U.S. lawful permanent resident or visa holder, and has been seemingly targeted for political speech that the government doesn’t like. Their persecution forms part of a frontal assault on higher education by the Trump administration designed to quash freedom of inquiry and expression. Never in our lifetimes have universities, one of the foundations of American democratic society, faced such an existential threat.

Harvard faculty recently established a chapter of the American Association of University Professors, a national organization founded in 1915 to advance academic freedom and “to ensure higher education’s contribution to the common good.” On Tuesday, the AAUP-Harvard chapter joined the national AAUP, AAUP-NYU, AAUP-Rutgers, and the Middle East Studies Association in suing the Trump administration to stop its campaign of “ideological deportation” against non-U.S. nationals.

“This is the first arrest of many to come,” crowed President Trump after the abduction of Columbia’s green-card-holding Mahmoud Khalil on March 8, essentially putting non-U.S. citizens on notice. The warning hits hard at Harvard. Roughly 15 percent of College students and over 30 percent of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences students are international; virtually every department has non-citizen faculty and staff members. The administration is wielding its power over individuals’ immigration status to coerce them into silence on political issues. And so far, the tactic seems to be working. [Continue reading…]