The Innocent Bystanders of College Protests
The pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University reinforce the lesson that a righteous cause does not give students the right to act in a way that adversely affects their peers’ studies, careers, and memories of university life. The resulting feelings of disappointment and frustration, if not intense anger, can last a lifetime.
TOKYO – In 1968, protests against the Vietnam War swept through American college campuses and, in some cases, turned violent. At Columbia University, student protesters were angry about several issues, as James Simon Kunen chronicled in “The Strawberry Statement,” a series that first ran in New York magazine and was later published as a book.