WASHINGTON — As a junior at George Washington University, Ty Lindia meets new students every day. But with the shadow of the Israel-Hamas war hanging over the campus of Washington, DC, where everyone has a political opinion, every new encounter is fraught.
“The idea that I might say the wrong thing scares me,” says Lindia, who studies political science. “You have to tiptoe around politics until one person says something that indicates he or she feels a certain way about the issue.”
He has seen friendships – including some of his own – end because of views about the war. In public, he keeps his position to himself, fearing that future employers might hold him against it.
“Before October 7, there wasn’t really a lot of fear,” says Lindia from Morristown, New Jersey.
A year after the Hamas attack in southern Israel, some students say they are reluctant to speak out because it could pit them against their peers, professors or even potential employers. Social bubbles have strengthened along the divisions of war. New protest rules on many campuses there is a risk of suspension or expulsion.
Tensions over the conflict burst wide open last year amid emotional demonstrations in the aftermath of the October 7 attack. In the spring, a wave of pro-Palestinian tent camps led to approximately 3,200 arrests.
The atmosphere on American campuses has calmed since those protests, but a lingering unease remains.
In a recent class discussion about gender and the military at Indiana University, sophomore Mikayla Kaplan said she thought about mentioning her friends who serve in the Israeli military. But in a room full of politically progressive classmates, she decided to remain quiet.
“In the back of my mind I’m always thinking about things I should or shouldn’t say,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan, who proudly wears a Star of David necklace, said that before college she had many friends of different faiths, but after Oct. 7, almost all of her friends are Jewish.
The war began when Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack on southern Israel. They kidnapped another 250 people and are still holding about 100 hostages. At least 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s campaign in Gaza, according to the Israeli Health Ministry.
At the University of Connecticut, some students said the conflict doesn’t come up as often in classes. Ahmad Zoghol, an engineering student, said the issue remains tense and he has heard potential employers scrutinize students’ political statements at the university.
“There is certainly a concern among many people, including myself, that if we talk about it there will be some kind of repercussions,” he said.
Compared to the much larger ones campus protests of the Vietnam War eraWhen few students openly supported the war, campuses today appear more divided, said Mark Yudof, a former president of the University of California system. For many, the problems are more personal.
“The faculties are at odds with each other. The student population is at odds with each other. There is a war of ideologies going on,” he said.
Some universities try to bridge the gap with campus events about social debate, sometimes inviting Palestinian and Jewish speakers to share the stage. A recent study from Harvard University in Massachusetts shows that many students and professors are reluctant to share their views in the classroom. A panel suggested solutions including “confidentiality in the classroom” and teaching about constructive disagreement.
Meanwhile, many campuses are adding policies that restrict protests, often banning encampments and limiting demonstrations to certain hours or locations.
At Indiana University, a new policy bans “expressive activities” after 11 p.m., among other things. Doctoral student Bryce Greene, who helped lead a pro-Palestinian encampment last semester, said he was threatened with suspension after organizing a vigil at 11:30 p.m.
That’s in stark contrast to previous protests on campus, including a 2019 climate demonstration that drew hundreds of students without university intervention, he said.
“There is definitely a chilling effect that happens when speech is restricted in this way,” said Greene, who is part of a lawsuit challenging the new policy. “This is just one way for them to prevent people from speaking out for Palestine.”
The tense atmosphere has caused some faculty members to rethink teaching certain subjects or engaging in certain debates, said Risa Lieberwitz, general counsel for the American Association of University Professors.
Lieberwitz, who teaches labor law at Cornell University, is alarmed by the growing number of colleges requiring students to register demonstrations days in advance.
“It’s so contradictory to the idea of how protests and demonstrations happen,” she said. “They are often spontaneous. They are not planned in the way events are usually planned.”
Protests have continued on many campuses, but on a smaller scale and often under the confines of new rules.
At Wesleyan University in Connecticut, police last month handcuffed pro-Palestinian students who took part in a sit-in in a campus building before agreeing to leave. Wesleyan President Michael Roth said he supports students’ freedom of speech, but they “don’t have the right to take over part of a building.”
Wesleyan is offering new courses on civil disagreements this year, and faculty are doing their best to promote discussion among students.
“It’s a challenge for students just as it is for adults; most adults don’t have conversations with people who disagree with them,” Roth said. “We are so separated in our bubbles.”
American universities are proud to be so places of open debate where students can overcome their differences. Since October 7, they have been under enormous pressure to uphold freedom of expression while protecting students from discrimination.
The U.S. Department of Education is investigating more than seventy colleges reports of anti-Semitism or Islamophobia. Leaders of several prestigious colleges have been summoned to Congress by Republicans, who accuse them of being soft on anti-Semitism.
Yet finding the line where protected speech ends is as difficult as ever. Leaders struggle with the question of whether or not to allow this chants seen by some as calls for support for the Palestinians and by others as a threat against the Jews. It’s especially complicated at public universities, which are bound by the First Amendment, while private colleges have the flexibility to impose broader speech restrictions.
At George Washington University, Lindia said the war often comes up in his classes, but sometimes after a warm-up period — in one class the discussion loosened up after the professor realized that most students shared the same views. Even as you walk to class, there is a visible reminder of the tension. A tall fence now surrounds the University Yard, the grassy space where The police have broken up a tent camp in May.
“It’s a place for free speech, and now it’s just completely shut down,” he said.
Some students say moderate voices are being lost.
Nivriti Agaram, a junior at George Washington, said she believes Israel has the right to defend itself but questions U.S. spending on the war. That view puts her at odds with more liberal students, who have called her a “genocide enabler” and worse, she said.
“It’s very suffocating,” she said. “I think there is a silent majority that is not speaking.”
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Associated Press writer Michael Melia in Storrs, Connecticut, contributed to this report.
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