U.S. universities spent the summer strategizing to suppress student activism. Here is their plan.

 

Schools across the U.S. have altered policies and even landscapes in an attempt to make a repeat of last spring’s Palestine protests impossible. The result is a far-reaching war on free expression and the increased militarization of higher education.

University administrators across the United States have declared an indefinite state of emergency on college campuses. Schools are rolling out policies in preparation for quashing pro-Palestine student activism this Fall semester, and reshaping regulations and even campuses in the process to suit this new normal.

Many of these policies being instituted share a common formula: more militarization, more law enforcement, more criminalization, and more consolidation of institutional power. But where do these policies originate and why are they so similar across all campuses? The answer lies in the fact that they have been provided by the “risk and crisis management” consulting industries, with the tacit support of trustees, Zionist advocacy groups, and federal agencies. Together, they deploy the language of safety to disguise a deeper logic of control and securitization.

Schools used this past summer to hear from consultants and prepare the crackdown, with no time to waste. As the Assistant Director of Campus Safety at Oberlin College reminded participants on the recent webinar, Navigating Campus Controversy: Challenges of Managing Protests and Critical Events, “if your students are gone now, this is a good time to tighten up your policies.”

Run by ex-military, law enforcement, and campus public safety officials, the risk and crisis management consulting industry constitutes a critical node of a larger repression network of state actors, partisan off-campus groups, and the Zionist lobby, who collectively work to criminalize student political dissent. Risk management involves financial and non-financial risks, everything from regulatory compliance to campus safety. Institutional investors, driven by mandates for safe, predictable returns, encourage universities to adopt stringent risk management frameworks that prioritize financial stability and institutional reputation over intellectual integrity.  (more...)

U.S. universities spent the summer strategizing to suppress student activism. Here is their plan.