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As an undergraduate student at Sarah Lawrence College, I remember attending a sit-in at one of the campus buildings to protest the decades-long treatment of BIPOC students. Though not enough action was put forth by our college president in response, that was the first time I learned that we as students have far more power than we realize; that the administration is actually afraid of us and our ability to organize, stick together and watch out for each other.

Student activism has always been part of the fabric of American college life, from civil rights to discriminatory practices to tuition increases. It’s always been our job as students to hold school administrations responsible for the welfare of our classmates and their response to global issues.

On April 17, hundreds of Columbia University students woke up at 4 a.m. and built what is now known as the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest along with Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace and Within Our Lifetime, the encampment had been planned for months. It included dozens of tents erected out on the main lawn of the campus, along with chants, rallies, a movie night and scheduled teach-ins by faculty.

Though the occupation is protesting the genocide in Palestine overall, the students are also fighting for a specific set of demands to the university. These include divesting from Israel, offering more transparency about the school’s financial investments, researching holdings to determine if they are funding Israel and making that research publicly available.

According to a memo from Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, the students were repeatedly asked to disperse by members of the administration through written and oral communication and were also accused of damaging campus property. She called the New York Police Department to campus on April 18, resulting in the arrest and forcible removal of over 100 students, which included demonstrators from Barnard College. They were all handcuffed with zip ties before being loaded onto buses and taken into custody, where they were held for more than 30 hours.

That marked the first time since 1968 that Columbia University had called the police on its own students to suppress protests. In 1968, students were demanding that the college stop supporting the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War.

Miranda Fournier | Design Editor

That said, the encampment has incited stark divisions among the community. It has since spiraled into demonstrators off-campus, apparently unaffiliated with the university, verbally harassing Jewish students. In response to reports of antisemitism on and off-campus, Jewish leaders, including Rabbi and Director of Columbia’s Orthodox Union-Jewish Learning Initiative Elie Buechler, have warned Jewish students to leave campus and go home for their own safety. Solidarity should be built through unity, not hate.

But rather than succumb to administrative, government and political pressures, university students resurrected their encampment, which has now entered its fourth day. Since then, we’ve seen student-led encampments and protests gain traction across the country, spreading to other universities including Yale University, New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, University of California Berkeley and many others. The University of Southern California also saw demonstrations after the administration called off their class valedictorian’s commencement speech.

On a single campus, even with various backgrounds and experiences, it makes sense when students work together to achieve a common goal against their administration. But, even more than that, students everywhere have a responsibility to stick up for each other, even across state and country lines.

Whether it’s through a statement of solidarity or a similar encampment, the Syracuse University student body can’t stay silent while students at another college are held in jail for hours with their hands tied behind their backs for protesting a genocide. We can’t allow administrators to believe that meeting students with police violence is anything but a moral and ethical violation.

We can’t pretend nothing extraordinary and historic is happening just a little over 200 miles from our campus, where fellow students are risking everything, even their very lives, for what they believe in.

It speaks volumes that a university like SU isn’t involved in these protests similar to other schools; above all else, we should care just as much as other university’s students about what’s happening right now in Palestine. After all, in 1970, SU students protested the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War and the increase in police violence with teach-ins, sit-ins, marches, barricades and campus damage. Why can’t we show the same support for Palestinians?

As students, we have a special responsibility to practice activism and advocacy practices, to stand up for one another and to speak out against any administration that infringes on our rights. Not to mention that every university in Palestine has already been completely bombed and destroyed by the Israeli military and there are few students in the Gaza Strip left fighting for their education. Columbia’s protests and the reactions they’re inciting are proving that students everywhere need to be advocating for each other.

Sofia Aguilar is a first-year grad student in the Library and Information Science program. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected].

Published on April 22, 2024 at 11:26 pm