Universities have been cracking down on pro-Palestine student protestors. In April, the University of Michigan fired a full-time employee, and suspended four people from campus jobs for participating in pro-Palestine protests last year.

In Detroit, a number of students are pushing back against university charges. In June, a group filed a lawsuit against Wayne State University,  claiming the school violated the group’s constitutional right to protest in 2024. 

How should universities treat student protestors? And, what are the principles they should be defending? Frederick Lawrence is the Secretary and CEO of the Phi Beta Society and a Distinguished Lecturer at Georgetown Law school. He’s also the former president of Brandeis University and regularly consults university presidents.

Lawrence spoke with The Metro’s Sam Corey to discuss how Universities should be handling current and future protests.

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The criminal charges were dropped, but the punishments keep coming.

In May 2024, students at the University of Michigan protested outside the campus art museum. They chanted, linked arms, and called on the university to divest from Israel. Some video clips reviewed by The Metro show campus police escalating the situation, pushing their bikes and barricades into protesters. In another clip, an officer pepper-sprays students as they chant and raise their fists. That same month, police violently raided and broke up an encampment at the university, spraying protesters with what students say was a mix of pepper gas and tear gas.

Nearly one year later, the university began disciplining those involved. Some students were fired from campus jobs. Others were permanently banned from future university employment. One recent graduate was let go from a research position for a protest she attended as a student.

Meanwhile, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel dropped all criminal charges she had been pursuing against students amid mounting political pressure and the ongoing devastation in Gaza.

But the University of Michigan continued its internal punishments, labeling peaceful protests as “violence.”

The university also hired outside consultants and private security to surveil student activists, following them on and off campus.

After that revelation came to light, thanks to reporting by Tom Perkins in The Guardian, the university announced it was ending its undercover surveillance program.

Now, several lawsuits say the university retaliated against students not for breaking rules, but for what they believe.

Liz Jacob, staff attorney at the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, represents the students and alumni suing the University of Michigan. She joined The Metro’s Robyn Vincent to discuss the lawsuits and the broader implications for free speech on campuses everywhere.

The University of Michigan has yet to respond to The Metro’s request for comment.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

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Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

It’s been almost two years since Hamas’ attack on Israel, and each day, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is getting worse. The latest concern is starvation. On Sunday, the United Nations issued a grim statement on the situation: “The entire population of over two million people in Gaza is severely food insecure. One out of every three people has not eaten for days. And 80 per cent of all reported deaths by starvation are children.”

The number of people killed trying to get food in Gaza continues to grow. Since May, NPR has reported that over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces when trying to get food, often near aid sites run by an American contractor. 

Over 57,000 civilians and combatants have been killed in Gaza since the war started, October 7, 2023, according to the Gaza health ministry. There are still Israeli and non-Israeli captives being held by Hamas in that territory.

One word being used to describe the horror unfolding in Gaza is “genocide.” For a long time, Omer Bartov, a Jewish-Israeli professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, was averse to using the word to describe what’s happening against Palestinians.

But his views changed in 2024 when he says Israel’s tactics began to satisfy the United Nations definition of genocide. He joined The Metro to explain his thinking on how Israel’s role in the war constitutes genocide

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