Signs cover the fence at a pro-Palestinian encampment at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. on April 28, 2024. Photo: Max Herman via Reuters Connect.
Three Northwestern University faculty members and one graduate student have been charged with misdemeanors for interfering with law enforcement’s efforts to clear an unlawful pro-Hamas demonstration which took place on the Deering Meadow section of campus during the final days of spring semester, The Daily Northwestern reported earlier this week.
The individuals were charged by the Northwestern University Police Department, which said that they allegedly engaged in “obstructing a police officer during the protests,” a crime for which they could, if convicted, spend a year in jail and pay a $2,500 fine, The Daily Northwestern said. They have already appeared before a judge and will do so again in August.
“While the university permits peaceful demonstrations, it does not permit activity that disrupts university operations, violates the law, or includes the intimidation or harassment of members of the community,” Northwestern University spokesperson Jon Yates said in a statement shared with the paper.
Northwestern University has struggled recently to correct an impression that it coddled pro-Hamas protesters and acceded to their demands for a boycott of Israel in exchange for an end to their protest, which included their setting up a “Gaza Solidarity Camp” — a cluster of tents in which the students lived and from which they refused to leave unless their conditions were met.
Northwestern president Michael Schill denied during a congressional hearing held in May that he made any concessions. As part of the deal to end the encampment, he agreed to establish a scholarship for Palestinian undergraduates, contact potential employers of students who caused recent campus disruptions to insist on their being hired, create a segregated dormitory hall that will be occupied exclusively by Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and Muslim students, and form a new advisory committee in which anti-Zionists students and faculty may wield an outsized voice.
“It’s striking that you decided to negotiate a sweetheart deal with pro-Hamas students and professors who denied Oct. 7, either denied it, celebrated, or simply don’t care. I look at that as pure evil,” US Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) told Schill during the hearing, which was titled “Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos.”
Following Schill’s testimony, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called for his resignation, noting that he confessed to appointing accused antisemites to a task force on antisemitism that ultimately disbanded after its members could not agree on a definition of antisemitism.
The Northwestern University protesters are not the only ones facing consequences for alleged actions taken during the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” demonstration, which exploded on college campuses across the country.
The University of Florida (UF) handed down severe and potentially life-altering punishments to seven pro-Hamas rioters earlier this month, going over the heads of a school disciplinary body that was set on slapping their wrists and sentencing most to probation. The individuals were issued full suspensions for as many as four years.
The suspensions may not be the only punishments that the students will face.
According to Fresh Take Florida, the students were part of a group of nine that were arrested by local law enforcement for trespassing and resisting arrest, charges that are being prosecuted by the Alachua County State Attorney’s Office. They are taking their chances at trial, the news service added, noting that all nine have rejected “deferred prosecution,” an agreement that would require them to plead guilty, or no contest, in exchange for the state’s expunging the convictions from their records in the future so long as they abstain from committing more criminal acts.
One of the nine, computer science student Parker Stanely Hovis, 26, — who was suspended for three years — has proclaimed that they will contest the state’s cases.
“We did not resist arrest, and we are prepared to fight our charges,” Hovis said in a statement. “We’re standing in solidarity with each other, and collectively demanding that the state drop the charges against us.”
The University of Texas at Austin has also meted out lengthy suspensions to pro-Hamas protesters who violated school rules.
Three students have been sentenced to deferred suspensions, a form of probation which allows them to continue their studies so long as they comply with school rules going forward, according KUT News, a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate. As part of their punishment, they must pass an exam testing their knowledge of school policies on free speech and protests and formally declare their awareness of the harsher, full suspensions they will receive should they violate school rules again.
One student, KUT added, was given a “full” two-year suspension during which he is banned from campus. The suspension effectively disenrolled him from the university, but he can reapply for readmission in 2026.
“The University of Texas at Austin provided a world-class learning environment where every student can thrive,” said a letter, as quoted by the outlet, sent to one of the students who was placed on deferred suspension. “At this juncture, suspension appears to be the appropriate consequences for these serious infractions.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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