As most college administrations bend the knee to the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protesters across the country, one college president took a markedly different — and brave — turn against the trend.
For weeks now, schools have been swamped by these destructive protests, which were shutting down classes, disrupting finals as the school year winds down, and even forcing the cancellation of some graduation exercises.
Tellingly, anywhere from one quarter to one half of these protesters are not even students in the schools at which they are protesting. Many are left-wing activists supported by anti-American billionaires such as George Soros.
Some schools have bent over backwards for these destructive, anti-Jewish student groups, allowing them to set up illegal tent encampments for weeks on end and causing all manner of disruptions on campus, not to mention leaving tons of garbage on the grounds in their wake.
But one college president in Rhode Island didn’t put up with all this for very long, according to The Boston Globe.
More than two dozen students at the Rhode Island School of Design had thought it was a good idea to join the wave of protests against Jews by barricading themselves in a college campus building on Monday.
The students, who were part of Students for Justice in Palestine, demanded that the school formally condemn the “Israeli Occupation of Gaza as genocide” and demanded that the school endowment divest from companies that are “implicated in sustaining Israeli Apartheid,” The Providence Journal reported.
This is the moment RISD students from the outside protest breached security to enter the first floor of the building. Once inside we’re told they met the students who have been occupying the second floor for days now at the elevators and escorted them out of the building. @wpri12 pic.twitter.com/6tWZmrphOK
— Ryan Welch (@RyanWelchPhotog) May 9, 2024
Should more school leaders take similar measures?
College president Crystal Williams spent some time trying to negotiate with the militants. But her first few entreaties were rejected, with the students proclaiming, “(We) will not bend an inch.”
But only four days later, they were running out of their keep with their tails between their legs thanks to Williams’ strong reply to their disruption.
The leftist students dismantled their barricades and left the building on Thursday after Williams gave them a sensible ultimatum.
On Thursday morning, Williams sent out a campus-wide email telling the protesters to submit to “restorative justice” and take down the barricades.
“The barricades on the second floor of 20 Washington Place violate multiple Rhode Island Fire Codes. We need you to create a means of egress and ingress by 12:00 p.m.,” Williams wrote, per the Journal. And she also ordered school staffers to assist the protesters to tear down their obstructions and return the furniture to where they belonged as the fire marshals stood by to make sure it all happened according to plan.
By noon that day, the protesters, who were calling themselves “De-Occupiers” — as in Israel should “de-occupy” Palestine — had completed the task of opening the space back up to entrance and exit. And they were also satisfying the “restorative justice” demand, which meant they had to return the area to the condition in which they found it when they arrived.
But the protesters were still occupying the second floor of the building, so president Williams issued another decree. She ordered them to clean up their messes and disperse, or face expulsion if they decided to stay in place.
“If students do not vacate the space by 2:30 pm, we will proceed with expulsion from Rhode Island School of Design,” Williams sternly warned.
The college chief also told the students her staff would “meet with students and faculty whom their actions have immediately negatively impacted, listen to the impact of their actions and engage in respectful dialog, and reimburse those who have spent personal funds on no longer viable projects as a result of the occupation.”
She had other harsh words to these disruptors, too, adding. “The student work on the second floor, some of which was intended to be showcased at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair next weekend, has been jeopardized. Grant applications have been missed because the work to support the application is in the space; finals work is in the space; crit spaces have been inaccessible, impacting other students’ education, etc.,” wrote Williams. “Their occupation of the academic space and refusal to allow students and faculty to retrieve their work oppose our college’s mission and code of conduct.”
After all that, the protesters decided that retreat was the better part of valor and they fled the building instead of getting expelled.
Still, Williams did say she would allow protesters to hoist their protest signs and spout their hate-speech outdoors, saying in her email, “I want to reiterate that peaceful protest, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression are not just important; they are the bedrock of our art and design community. We respect and uphold these values.”
Williams eventually reported that the students had vacated the building and were no longer manning their barricades.
This college president should serve as a model for the others. These protesters have no right to disrupt the education of their fellow students like they are all across the country.
And they most certainly have no right to threaten Jewish students, put them in fear of their safety, and prevent them from enjoying their American freedoms and rights.
