The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won’t suspend certain students for their actions during an anti-Israel protest because the students could be forced to leave the country, the prestigious engineering school said.
In response to a persistent protest that led to the shutdown of a main lobby on its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for several hours on the morning of Nov. 7, MIT initially warned the many students who refused to disperse that they could jeopardize their place in the school.
The protest was organized by the anti-Israel group Coalition Against Apartheid, in violation of an MIT rule that such events may only be conducted in outdoor spaces. The event attracted a group of counterprotesters. The face-to-face confrontation between the two groups “intensified” later in the morning, prompting MIT administrators to block doors in the lobby and advise Jewish students that they stay away from the area for their own safety.
“Today’s protest—which became disruptive, loud and sustained through the morning hours–was organized and conducted in defiance of those MIT guidelines and policies,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth wrote in a campus-wide letter. “Some students from both the protest and counterprotest may have violated other MIT policies, as well.”
“After exhausting all other avenues for de-escalating the situation, we informed all protesters that they must leave the lobby area within a set time, or they would be subject to suspension,” she added. “Many chose to leave, and I appreciate their cooperation. Some did not.”
The warning never materialized. In a follow-up message to the campus community, Ms. Kornbluth said that the administrators had decided, at least for now, not to pursue suspension, because many students involved are not U.S. citizens.
“We later heard serious concerns about collateral consequences for the students, such as visa issues,” the Nov. 9 letter read. “We have decided, as an interim action, that the students who remained after the deadline will be suspended from non-academic campus activities.”
Those students will remain enrolled at MIT and will be able to continue attending classes and labs, Ms. Kornbluth said.
Critics Speak Out Online
MIT’s handling of the protest has drawn criticism from pro-Israel voices on social media, with some critics saying that this helps explain why anti-Semitic behaviors on American college campuses aren’t always met with disciplinary actions.“I can’t think of a better example of saying the quiet part out loud than @MIT admitting that they won’t expel Antisemitic students because they will lose their student visas and be deported,” wrote Joel Petlin, the superintendent of New York’s largely Orthodox Jewish Kiryas Joel School District.
“How many other colleges are protecting dangerous people who don’t belong in America?” he asked. “Incredible admission from @MIT president. Visa issues are why the students who are threatening Jews on campus are not being expelled.”
Marina Medvin, an attorney known for defending those who have been charged with participating in the breach of the U.S. Capitol, also commented on X.
“MIT didn’t want to punish antisemitic foreign students harassing American Jews on campus because suspension would lead to deportation under the student visa rules. So MIT chose to help the antisemites instead of punishing them,” she wrote.
According to MIT’s website, the school has 513 international students, accounting for 11 percent of its undergraduate student body. There are also 2,952 international graduate students, making up 42 percent of the graduate program.
Meanwhile, Jewish students comprise about 6 to 7 percent of the student population, according to Jewish student group MIT Hillel. Some of MIT’s Jewish students come from countries other than the United States.
“Many of our Jewish and Israeli students have been made to feel increasingly unwelcome and unsafe on our campus,” MIT Hillel said in a statement.
Lecture Interrupted With ‘Free Palestine’ Chant
An MIT student activist has recently gone viral on social media after he was allowed to interrupt a math lecture to protest against what he called the “ongoing genocide of Gaza.”“I am just going to finish this line, can I just finish this line?” the lecturer said to the student, who was swinging his arms and demanding to address the class as the lecture tried to explain the math problem.
The lecturer then stepped aside, giving the student the chance to speak.
“As you witness an ongoing genocide of Gaza in MIT silence, I’m joining hundreds of students city-wide walking out of class,” the student told his classmates, reading from a prepared statement on his phone. “We stand for the liberation of Palestine against active genocide that is perpetuated by MIT, Israel and the United States.”
The student then picked up a Palestinian flag and waved it, chanting “Free Palestine!” repeatedly as a handful of others in the lecture hall chanted along.
“This is the state of learning and ‘free speech’ at our top universities,” Mr. Ackman, an outspoken critic of anti-Semitism on American college campuses, wrote alongside the clip, which he said was filmed on Nov. 8.
“Imagine being a student who borrowed $250k to attend MIT or a professor who is trying to do research in this environment.”
