After vocal anti-Israel, pro-divestment protests on campus during the last school year, Princeton University has clarified its policies on protests.
The school has created a “Protests and Free Expression” section on its website to “[clarify] policies to provide additional detail that will help all members of our community understand expectations.” It says Princeton has not created a new protocol for protests and that students may protest if they don’t disrupt ordinary activities.
Signs on the Cannon Green quadrangle now explicitly prohibit “organized activities without permission,” while “informal recreation” is allowed. Some Princeton students who are calling for the university to divest from Israel see this as a threat to free speech.
“This is not unique to Princeton. Universities across the country are trying to suppress the powerful student intifada that started on campuses last spring,” senior Amber Rahman said. “The fact that they have changed their policies is a sign that they are scared and that they are threatened by the power of our activism and the power of the student intifada across the country.”
Senior Emanuelle Sippy said, “This is clearly in response not only to the events of the last year, but pro-Palestinian organizing in particular. And we’re here not only to say that we’re committed to this cause and to keep fighting, but to call them out for their hypocrisy.”
Counter-protesters have defended the university’s investments in Israel, gathering more than 1,200 signatures to an open letter defending those investments.
