Academia has a cancerous growth on it that has been allowed to metastasize, and we are seeing the end result in these college protests that have spread from Columbia University outward. However, unlike the weak president of Columbia, some universities are telling the protesters to get off their lawns. Literally.

While the protests have been ongoing at Columbia, they have spread – with the encouragement of faculty and yes, even a member of Congress – to other colleges and universities. Hilariously, some of these protesters have proven to be nothing more than LARPing lemmings, just going where they think the next revolutionary action is.

NEW: Pro-Palestine protester has no clue why she is protesting and then asks a friend why they are protesting who also has no clue.

Remarkable.

Reporter: "Why are you protesting?"

Protester: "Demanding that NYU stops! I honestly don't know what NYU is doing… Do you know what… pic.twitter.com/cI46n6YNht

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 24, 2024

So who is egging these students on? Many times, it’s the professors and the faculty. Here they are at NYU, forming a “human chain” to keep students from being arrested.

The fact that almost every single NYU faculty member in this video is masked outside in April 2024 is maybe the best example of why the value of a degree from a “prestigious” university has never been lower https://t.co/yLQVAiS8OV

— Ian Miller (@ianmSC) April 24, 2024

Faculty at Columbia University walked out in support of the college protesters. And Ilhan Omar, the super proud mommy of a protester herself, went to go pump up the students at the University of Minnesota. I guess it would have been a little too on the nose to go to Columbia.

In a speech, the Minnesota Democrat criticized President Joe Biden for his response to the wave of student protests against the war in Gaza, and praised protesters.

“It’s been incredibly painful for the last five days to see the discovery of a mass grave of more than 200 Palestinians in Khan Yunis. That our media, our elected politicians, our president, every single leader is spending time and energy in talking about the protests as if you all are not here to give voice to the genocide that is taking place in Gaza,” Omar said.

“I am incredibly inspired by the fact that you all are standing up for humanity, that you are saying the anti-war movement in this country is not dead,” she said.

Two points for the pro-Hamas representative: first, Joe Biden has done exactly jack shit to discourage these protests (but Omar is likely upset that he isn’t encouraging them like she is), and second, these are not “anti-war” college protesters. These protesters are very much pro-war and anti-Israel. Asking for a “worldwide intifada” or demanding “all of it” is not “anti-war.”

Outside Columbia’s gate: “We don’t want no two states, we want all of it.” pic.twitter.com/qXnMMSFnPr

— Adam Rubenstein (@RubensteinAdam) April 25, 2024

Well, while Columbia and NYU are caving to the mob, along with places like Berkeley and Harvard and Yale, the University of Texas-Austin and USC have had enough of this craziness. Is this the difference between public and private universities? Maybe. At UT-Austin, protesters who tried to set up their tents were immediately told to go. When they ignored the dispersal order, they were arrested. Texas DPS reported 34 arrests, and protesters moved to the Travis County Jail. The protesters can’t say that the college didn’t warn them.

The rally was organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee to follow “in the footsteps of our comrades at Columbia SJP, Rutgers-New Brunswick, Yale, and countless others across the nation.” according to a post on social media about the rally.

UT Austin, in an April 23 letter to the PSC organizers, said that their event “has declared intent to violate our policies and rules, and disrupt our campus operations” and that the university would not “allow this campus to be ‘taken’ and protestors to derail our mission in ways that groups affiliated with your national organization have accomplished elsewhere.”

In the letter, UT Austin said that any attempt to hold the event would subject the PSC and its members to discipline, including suspension, and anyone who attended not affiliated with the University would be directed to leave campus.

Refusal to comply may end in the individual being arrested, the letter said.

USC closed their campus in the evening in order to break up the protest that had been ongoing all day, and warned that those who ignored their dispersal order would be arrested. They meant it.

Around 5 p.m., LAPD officers arrived on campus and issued a dispersal order. They ordered all protesters to move or face arrest. Up to 50 people were arrested, City News Service reported.

Law enforcement officers formed a skirmish line on the outskirts of USC’s Alumni Park. Hundreds of participants and onlookers can be seen in SkyFOX video blocking off USC’s Department of Public Safety vehicles, at times chanting “Free Palestine.”

Around 6 p.m. USC sent an alert to students, faculty and staff saying, “The UPC campus has been closed as a result of significant activity at the center of campus. Students will have access through pedestrian gates with their USC IDs. Everyone who is on campus will be able to leave.”

While they don’t have a tent city built yet, Princeton radicals are planning on it – and are betting that they won’t be punished for it, either.

The group plans to set up an encampment with at least 20 people that will have “teach-ins, community events, recruitment, dancing, music, [and] community,” although the document does not clarify the time or place. The group claims to have a trained security team, pro bono legal support, and “faculty members on our side to negotiate with administration.”

“We think expulsion is highly unlikely; only students who have been expelled in the movement at Vanderbilt were expelled for touched (‘assaulted’) a police officer,” reads a portion of the document under the subhead “understanding the risk.” It continues, “Explusion [sic] is highly unlikely; at Princeton it requires committee and we know that at least 2 faculty members who are part of the committtee [sic] are in the Faculty for Justice in Palestine.”

The document further notes that sanctions can include minor punishments like probation or serious penalties like loss of housing. The students say that “legal charges” are “unlikely to be more than trespassing” and there will be a warning beforehand that provides an opportunity to leave.

Princeton, for their part, warned the college students in an email from the Vice President for Campus Life that:

“Any individual involved in an encampment, occupation, or other unlawful disruptive conduct who refuses to stop after a warning will be arrested and immediately barred from campus. For students, such exclusion from campus would jeopardize their ability to complete the semester. In addition, members of our community would face a disciplinary process (for students this could lead to suspension, delay of a diploma, or expulsion).”

The organizers think that the Princeton administration is bluffing.

“Many of you have probably seen the email from VP Calhoun. We want to begin by affirming that this action is still on, and we will not be deterred,” the organizer wrote in a group chat. “This is a partial bluff. No university that has arrested or suspended students have done so without multiple warnings. These would be incredibly bad optics for Princeton and the email is a strategic move to weaken us.”

“We have multiple criminal defense attorneys on call ready to support us and work through any arrests that may ‘occur.’ We have people committed to jail support as well,” the organizer wrote, adding that “‘arrest’ is not the same as ‘pressing charges.’”

If Princeton doesn’t follow through with arrests, should the protest and occupation by tent happen on their campus, then they will be in the same position as Columbia, NYU, and the other colleges that have bowed down to the power of the anti-Semitic mob. I hope they are buffing up their spine to be bright and shiny in order to stand by their words, and call the bluff of these pompous and entitled lemmings, these most privileged of beings who believe that they are too special and too precious to be arrested or suspended without getting a “count to three before you’re in trouble” warning first. I hope the first person who puts a tent up at Princeton is immediately arrested and suspended. They already got their warning. If Princeton wants to avoid the chaos that is consuming their fellow Ivy Leaguers and universities, the administration knows what they have to do. Follow the example of UT-Austin and USC, and you have a chance of containing the cancer that is spreading. If you don’t, be prepared to reap the whirlwind that follows.

Featured image via Joe Piette on Flickr, cropped, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED)