Abstract
In Oct. of 2023, Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization, launches an assault on Israel, killing over 1,000 Israelis, including several civilians. In response to these attacks, Israel begins strikes on the Gaza Strip, leading to a continued and extremely violent physical conflict. News of the violent escalation has reached the United States, and several institutions are seeing increased campus protests and encampments. Central Boston University is not immune to this increase and finds groups of their students organizing to demonstrate on campus. The university struggles to find ways to support its entire student body and staff as they have a high number of Jewish students and a commitment to inclusivity and civic engagement. This case study examines the competing needs of various student groups and an institution’s responsibility to support their students during a crisis, on or off campus.
Keywords: student organizations, international politics and conflict, advocacy, identity-based discrimination
Primary Characters
Carlon (he/him/his) – Carlon is a senior International Business Relations major who identifies as Jewish. He grew up in the nearby state of New York but has relatives living in Israel. While previously being an active member of Central Boston University’s Hillel organization, he now no longer supports the student organization as he stated he overheard ‘Zionists’ downplaying the devastation in Gaza and supporting Israel’s approach to “taking back and occupying their rightful land” while waiting for a Hillel meeting to begin a couple of weeks ago.
Naomi (she/her/hers) – Naomi is a junior Philosophy major who identifies as a Christian. She was born and raised in southern Georgia but came to school in Massachusetts to “get away from” her conservative family members. She is passionate about creating “safe spaces” on campus.
Veronica (she/her/hers/Ella) – Veronica is a young and new full-time Admissions Counselor at Central Boston University. She grew up just outside of Boston but attended the University of California for her undergraduate studies. Veronica is excited about her new position at the university but is nervous about how to support different student demographics than what she experienced at her undergraduate institution.
Samuel (he/him/his) – Samuel is a mid-level professional in the university’s First Year Experience office. He proudly identifies as Jewish and has partnered with the university’s Hillel student organization for orientation and other FYE programming.
Institutional context
Central Boston University is a small, highly selective, private liberal arts university with approximately 7,000 undergraduate students in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts. Central Boston University has a prominent Jewish student population, accounting for roughly 22% of its student body. However, only 10% of their faculty and staff identify as Jewish. They have many vibrant student organizations, including Hillel, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world. Administration has worked hard to communicate the campus’ diversity and commitment to inclusive excellence.
Case
As things start to heat up online about the Israel-Palestine/Gaza discourse, many students at Central Boston University are troubled by the situation. Some students feel torn between their faith/identity, supporting the civilian people of Israel and supporting the civilian Palestinians of Gaza. Support staff have been actively working to keep the peace between student organizations, with many stating their support for or condemnation of one another based on their stance on the conflict. However, students and staff members have been disappointed in the administration’s lack of support or response. Some faculty members have tried to avoid debates in class, while others have encouraged the discourse between their students. Tensions across campus have only escalated over this past week as reports of the targeted attacks on the Al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip by Israel flood in. (Al-Shifa was Gaza’s largest medical facility, which Israeli authorities have argued was a base for the Hamas foreign military terrorist organization).
Pro-Palestinian students have begun exercising their free speech on campus with signs and chants near an academic building and a busy street running through the campus, which is designated as a free speech zone on campus. The group was organized by Carlon, a Jewish student, and Naomi, a Christian student at Central Boston University. Most recently, the group made shirts they handed out to passing students while using a megaphone to project their message. The megaphone is beginning to disrupt classes in the nearby academic building. Administration so far has not addressed the conflict or made a public statement on the demonstrations. Faculty teaching in the nearby building are frustrated and start complaining about the loud chanting and want answers from the administration on how they plan to mitigate the disruptions to their ongoing classes. Carlon and Naomi stand firm on their convictions and state they have a right to express their opinions.
The university also has a very active Hillel organization on campus, comprised of over 1,000 Jewish students. They have reported an increase in targeted verbal and physical attacks based on students’ Jewish identities in the past week since the latest medical facility devastation reported from Gaza. Hillel is now demanding answers from faculty, staff, and administration on how they plan to stop the hate and retaliation against their organization’s members in the wake of the war overseas.
The students gathered for the next day’s demonstration were taken aside one by one for questioning by city police to get to the bottom of who had been targeting Jewish students on campus. One student, Jackson Gabbret, was arrested for “interfering with an official investigation” after refusing to meet with the police and proceeding to yell over officers when attempting to question other students. However, after interviewing each student, the city police still are unsure of who is responsible for the attacks and state that they will continue investigating the matter in the coming days. Students participating in the demonstration were very rattled from the interaction with the officers and blame Hillel students for assuming they were the ones responsible for the hate incidents, stating that they have been “nothing but peaceful.”
Veronica, an Admissions Counselor, meets with Samuel, a First Year Experience Coordinator. Veronica asks to discuss Samuel’s experience as a Jewish person and his thoughts on the campus uproar. She is concerned that prospective students will start asking her questions in her admissions meetings and wants to know what she should tell them about the conflict on campus. Samuel appreciates Veronica’s attempt to seek out information and perspective but is already exhausted from acting as a resource for his students and other coworkers.
Discussion Questions:
- Should Central Boston University administration intervene in student protests when they disrupt classes? Remember, the students are demonstrating in designated “free speech” zones on campus. How would your response differ if the students were not demonstrating in designated “free speech” zones?
- If the university does intervene, how should they approach the situation while respecting students’ right to free speech?
- What is the university’s responsibility in balancing the protection of free speech with the safety and well-being of students, especially those targeted by hate incidents like the members of Hillel?
- How can Samuel, as a staff member who identifies as Jewish, provide support to students like Carlon and coworkers like Veronica while also managing his own emotional exhaustion?
- What challenges does Veronica face as a new Admissions Counselor trying to navigate this conflict, and how might she address concerns from prospective students about the tensions on campus?
- What strategies can be used to ensure that student organizations advocating for different sides of the conflict can coexist and engage in constructive dialogue?
Author’s Bio
Kaylanii Mertin (she/her/hers) – Kaylanii is a second-year student in Clemson University’s Master of Student Affairs program and proudly serves as a Graduate Community Director in a multi-year community. Kaylanii also serves as the Director of External Affairs for the Beta Chapter of Chi Sigma Alpha honors society and as the Vice President and Media Communications Officer of the Lavender Graduate Association. She is passionate about student experience and inclusive excellence.
References
Council on Foreign Relations. (2024, October 3). Israeli-Palestinian conflict timeline. https://education.cfr.org/learn/timeline/israeli-palestinian-conflict-timeline
Kopelman, A. (2023, December 13). POV: the price of silence: how BU is failing its Jewish students. BU Today. https://www.bu.edu/articles/2023/pov-the-price-of-silence-how-bu-failed-its-jewish-students/
Plante, T. G. (2024, August 5). Ethical considerations regarding the Israeli-Gaza conflict campus protests: Santa Clara’s three C’s can help. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. https://www.scu.edu/ethics-spotlight/ethics-and-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-here-and-in-the-middle-east/ethical-considerations-regarding-the-israeli-gaza-conflict-campus-protests/