Long Island colleges prepare for possibility of more pro-Palestinian campus protests

After a summer hiatus, colleges and universities across Long Island are gearing up for the possible renewal of pro-Palestinian protests that fractured the Stony Brook University campus last spring and nearly led to the passage of a censure vote against the president.

Student leaders of the protest movement at Stony Brook told Newsday they had no intention of backing off and planned to resume their demonstrations with the new semester.

"The student movement for Palestine at Stony Brook has grown rapidly and there is no threat great enough to silence us," the students said in a statement on Saturday.

Noting that Stony Brook and other SUNY schools divested from apartheid South Africa a few decades ago, they believe a similar demand regarding Israel "is within our reach — we will not slow down."

Stony Brook's previous president, Maurie McInnis, had said the university would not divest from Israel, largely because it did not have any direct involvement there. 

As the first day of classes nears on Aug. 26, more than a dozen Jewish professors are calling for a "reset" at Stony Brook as an interim president takes over following the arrests of 29 of the protesters in May. They want a more open campus where demonstrators can freely express their views without fear of arrest or seizure of their cellphones. 

At the same time, some other Stony Brook professors are worried about the divisiveness returning to campus. They want the interim president, Richard L. McCormick, to continue a security policy that they said helped fight antisemitism and provided a peaceful and safe environment for students.

McInnis left the university at the end of June for a job as president of Yale University. Her policy had called for arresting students who did not follow campus rules on protests. 

McCormick, meanwhile, sent a message to the university community on Wednesday laying out his position.

While the protests in May were "predominantly peaceful and largely free of the violence that disrupted many other universities," he wrote, Stony Brook "must ensure that the university remains unwaveringly committed to free speech and equally committed to providing everyone in our community with an environment free of discrimination."

He referred to the university's existing guidelines on how it handles protests, which state that free speech is permitted as long as it does not interfere with the school's operations or jeopardize the safety of anyone on campus.

After the nationwide campus turmoil of the past year over the war in Gaza, which led to the resignations of the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and, most recently, Columbia, some schools are taking steps to try to minimize the potential for conflict and chaos this fall.

Columbia University became an epicenter of the protests after students set up the first "tent city" on April 17. This week, it started restricting access to its Morningside campus as it prepares for the start of classes on Sept. 3. Only individuals with campus IDs and pre-authorized guests will be permitted on campus.

On Wednesday, Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, resigned after one year in the post, following widespread controversy on the campus over her handling of the protests. She called in the NYPD twice, with more than 100 students arrested.

The Columbia encampment inspired dozens of similar ones at colleges around the country, including at Stony Brook. About 2,500 protesters nationwide were eventually arrested. Disorderly conduct charges against the Stony Brook demonstrators were dropped in June by prosecutors.

Josh Dubnau, one of two Stony Brook professors who were arrested, said 18 Jewish professors were sending a public letter to the campus newspaper calling on McCormick to take a different path in dealing with protests than the one pursued by his predecessor.

"Let the students speak," said Dubnau, a neurobiologist. "We don’t have to agree with everything the students say or do, but free speech has a place and nonviolent public protests should be permitted. That’s part of education."

Dubnau said the Jewish professors who helped write the public letter were reacting to the policies of McInnis. Under McInnis, campus police, aided by Suffolk County police and New York State troopers, made the arrests, while campus police also seized and kept for more than a week the cellphones of Dubnau and other protesters. 

Peter Brill, a lawyer representing the protesters, has contended the seizure was illegal. Stony Brook has stated it followed all legal procedures.

McCormick "has an opportunity to reset this dialogue," Dubnau said. "I hope he takes us up on that."

Dubnau expects the protests to continue after classes resume the last week of August, he said.

In mid-May, the Stony Brook Faculty Senate defeated by a 55-51 vote a motion to censure McInnis for her handling of the arrests.

Feeling safe on campus

McInnis is gone but some professors say they hope her security policies continue, and that they are approaching the semester with trepidation. They feel the protests tore the campus apart, and made Jewish students feel targeted with the chaos around them. They said some protesters used antisemitic language, though the protesters denied that.

"I am very worried," said Gallya Lahav, a professor of political science. "It was distracting, very divisive, and very unsettling, especially for me. I am Israeli."

Lahav said she just returned from a summer of volunteering in Israel, and that the pain of the people there is still raw after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

"There, people just don’t understand the protests" in the United States, she said. "They’re looking at college campuses and they are in the middle of real physical warfare."

Lahav said she supported continuing McInnis’ protest policies.

"I actually thought that the last president dealt with it very appropriately, given the circumstance," she said. "So we’re hoping for that."

The pro-Palestinian protesters were demonstrating against the killing of thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip during the conflict. Israel has killed an estimated 40,000 people in the Palestinian territory, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Israel says the civilian deaths have been unwanted collateral damage of Israel's defense of itself as it fights to root out Hamas, which killed 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7.

In their statement on Saturday, the Stony Brook student leaders said that after the university refused to cut its economic ties with Israel, "we had no choice but to escalate our demonstrations   — a successful tactic used by student activists on the right side of history generations before we were even born."

They added that Stony Brook administrators "used their authority to suppress students' rights to freedom of expression," and that some had to spend a night in campus police headquarters while under arrest. Some also were banned from campus for months, they said.

McInnis had said the students were arrested because they refused to move their tent encampment after multiple warnings, and that the university followed its stated guidelines for such violations.

In his message Wednesday, McCormick included a summary of existing rules on protests, and said they would be enforced regardless of who is protesting.

Although free speech is an essential part of university life, "It does not extend to events and activities that impede University functions and operations," he wrote, adding that Stony Brook has "an unwavering commitment to the safety and security of" all on campus.

Open dialogue with protesters

Complicating the situation even further, Nassau County just passed a law making it illegal to wear a mask in public except for medical or religious reasons. Some protesters at Stony Brook and other campuses around the country wore masks in the spring apparently to conceal their identities.

The masks became more prominent after instances at colleges and universities, including Harvard, in which "doxxing" electronic billboards were mounted on trucks showing the names and faces of pro-Palestinian protesters and those who signed an anti-Israel statement. Some companies said they would not hire those named after they graduate. One truck was driven around Harvard Square. Another circled Columbia.

Adelphi University in Garden City said Friday that "if necessary," the university "will comply with the new Nassau County law, given that it allows for medical and religious accommodations. We will also educate members of our community about this law and make sure they understand their rights."

Molloy University in Rockville Centre "will follow applicable law while also ensuring students' rights to free expression," said Edward Thompson, the university's vice president for advancement. Similarly, Hofstra University in a statement said, "As with any law, the Hofstra community will comply."

While Stony Brook saw the most intense protests on Long Island last spring, other colleges saw smaller ones, or none, and they say they are watching the situation closely.

At Adelphi, Students for Justice in Palestine — a major national activist group with local chapters that organizes protests — held two peaceful demonstrations last spring, said Bobbie Dell'Aquilo, a spokesperson for the university. "The demonstrations lasted a few hours, and the students followed all protocols prescribed by our policy," she said. 

The relative peace was due in part to Adelphi keeping an open dialogue with the protesters by holding regular meetings with them, she said. This fall, Adelphi also plans to hold sessions and classes for students on topics including interpersonal communications, conflict resolution, nonverbal communication, and the meanings and protections of free speech and hate speech, she said. 

"Freedom of expression is vital to Adelphi University’s shared goal of the pursuit of knowledge," Dell’Aquilo said in a statement. "At the same time, the University has long recognized that the right to demonstrate does not include the right to engage in conduct that disrupts the University’s operations, endangers the safety of others, or violates any other university policies."

At Hofstra, about 75 students attended a protest in May organized by Hofstra Student Voices for Palestine. Twelve faculty members also joined. No one was arrested, and the protesters followed Hofstra’s rules, the school said.

Like most schools, Hofstra said that it "is committed to the expression of free speech while maintaining a safe and diverse campus community."

Last spring, the college "showed that there can be free speech, civility, and peace even amid conversations and demonstrations where beliefs and feelings are at odds," said Terry Coniglio, Hofstra’s vice president of marketing and communications, in a statement.

Students who want to protest must fill out a form, which is reviewed to ensure the demonstration won’t pose a threat to public safety or violate Hofstra’s bias and discrimination policy, he said. 

SUNY Old Westbury did not have any pro-Palestinian protests in the spring, but "as a campus committed to social justice, we always expect some expressions of dissent, big or small, no matter what the current affairs of the day," spokesperson Michael Kinane said. "We have protocols in place ... that are consistent with our campus' values of social justice, expression and safety, and that are compliant with SUNY expectations."

Molloy said it did not expect any protests this fall. In the spring it had none, but saw students on both sides of the issue peacefully raising funds to help those in need in Israel and Gaza. Janine Biscari, vice president for student affairs, said that in her 13 years in the post, no students had ever applied for a protest permit.

"While they may not agree on everything and have opposing views, so far people have been very respectful of one another and very civil," she said.