What's going on in the American Ivy League colleges?

[Primroseoil]

I can't understand what they are hoping to gain?

They're protesting US involvement in the genocide of Palestinians.

Are you really confused by this? I can't imagine that you are, they've made it very clear and explicitly said what they are up to. More likely you just disagree, and are using faux confusion to make the students out to be so unreasonable as to be beyond comprehension. Students protesting US involvements in wars is hardly novel is it, almost every generation of US students have done this (and have usually been correct in their assessments).

Also, get your facts right. The colombia student said that students who have paid for meal plans should be able to have those meals that they've paid for, and that they should be allowed to bring that food in.

Bloody delighted to see them being pepper sprayed tbf.

Why? And follow up question: are you also delighted to see professors having their ribs broken and their heads smash against concrete for just being there, or is it just students you like seeing being violently attacked by law enforcement?

@StarsHideYourFir3s 😂 pretty much! People project onto George Soros what Rupert Murdoch is actually doing.

Being delighted at people being subjected to pain says a lot about you and not in a positive way. Is your moral compass broken?

Divestment of the university from Israel, to stop funding the genocide and forced displacement of indigenous Palestinians from Palestine, stopping the indiscriminate murder of women and children by IOF.

God bless and protect those students. The response by the uni and police is unconscionable especially when you consider how ineffectual the police response was on Jan 6/ Capitol insurrection day.

The NYP spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories, what else is new?

I just found out that the NYPD has historically been trained by the IDF.
Where Do Many Police Departments Train? In Israel (amnestyusa.org)

Pretty well yes, the pre election political situation isn't helping.

Also that universities are full of young (mostly) people who have a very fresh and different point of view to the establishment. As much as some in the US might like to follow an isolationist path I don't think it can honestly.

People saying students are being stupid for throwing away their opportunities are spectacularly missing the point. A liberal democracy depends on citizens having the right to peaceful protest - only in an authoritarian state does this incur punishment.

Most US colleges have the meal plan tied to enrollment. If you drop out, are suspended or expelled, you lose the plan. That’s always been the case.

Additionally, most dining halls prohibit you from taking food out. Not commenting on whether that makes any sense, but in my experience you had to eat the food in the hall .

Edited to say that I didn't intend to quote the above post

What's going on in the American Ivy League colleges?

Are you unable to read up the news stories about it?

I can't understand what they are hoping to gain?

Why don't you ask them? Or again, read about it?

They broke into a building and barricaded themselves inside and interfered with janitorial staff and their ability to leave.

And they want food brought in?! That seems a bit ridiculous 🙈

I think the right to protest is important. But you surely can’t expect to be served food? What on earth

This is why I’m a little “eyebrow” raise about this. They don’t seem to understand that protesting like this has consequences. Fighting for what you believe in doesn’t give you a free pass. There will likely be hardship.

They don't want food brought in, from what I can tell, they want to be allowed for they themselves to bring food in. Seems reasonable to me.

I had wondered why they were protesting on campus and not to the government, but as @ChimneyPot and this BBC articles explain, they're protesting about their universities investing in Israeli companies. US universities are funded differently from UK universities (well, apart from Oxbridge), ie massive endowments which are invested for income.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68908885

Has protesting worked?

Pro-Palestinian campus groups have for years called on their institutions to support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, as a means of pushing back against Israel.

No US university has ever committed to the BDS framework, although some have cut specific financial ties in the past.

While divestment would have a negligible impact, if any, on the war in Gaza, protesters say it would shed light on those who profit from war and help build awareness of their issue.

Yes, these people seem genuinely amazed that someone at university might have empathy for other people, and act on that empathy even though there is risk to themselves.

Re the food issue, from what I understood from a radio item, some students have pre-paid meal plans (I assume as part of their accommodation package) but some of the buildings have been closed because of the protests and this has prevented some students (non-protesters) getting their meals. I think if you weren't able to get the breakfasts/dinners due to you and had to make alternative provision and pay for it, you'd be pretty pissed off too.

This probably explains why they are so brutal. Your post is disingenuous OP, the students are protesting because they don’t want THEIR TUITION FEES going to fund a genocide happening right now. They are asking their universities to divest from investments in Israel. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

Currently they are being brutalised by state police and also Zionist gangs are going round beating, pepper spraying, using explosives, fireworks, etc on peaceful protesters with impunity. Has echoes of israeli settlers/land thieves who operate with impunity and the backing of IDF to harm, kill and evict palestinians in the West Bank.

According to community notes, the dining halls are still open.

But it wasn't non-protestors complaining that the protestors were preventing them from eating, it was some dimwit protester saying that the university wanted the protestors to starve and that they demanded humanitarian aid, and that the university didn't prevent the aid getting in.

The protestor appeared to think that she was in Gaza when she could actually just pop down the road to Starbucks.

That isn't violence

Not to get sidetracked by issues of food.
yes you can take food out of Columbia dining halls, they provide take out boxes
Yes dining halls were open but most students were not allowed to access them because only students whose dorms rooms were in the closed areas of campus were allowed to enter. Most students were not allowed in. One dining hall that serves lunch only was open.

Protesting students did ask that they be allowed to Bring in food and water. It seems like a reasonable request. Though at a guess like most buildings it probably has bathrooms so unless the administration cut off the water supply no one was going to die of dehydration.

Making fun of students requesting to be allowed to bring in food is an easy way of sidestepping the reasons behind the protest and the actions taken by the university and many other to both inflame and then end the protest.

Do you think the protests at Columbia in the 80s agitating for divestment is South Africa were stupid and self indulgent? They were effective. I was there.

I know one of the student leaders of the current protests at Columbia. He is Jewish and Israeli.

How would you feel if you were trapped in your workplace? It’s not violence but it’s not acceptable to treat people that way, whatever you think you’re fighting for.