On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that even though the University of Chicago has been “pretty tame here compared to a lot of the other places” things are bad enough there the school is sending out “somewhat ominous” emails about how bad things have gotten.
Brooks said, “I’m teaching at the University of Chicago this term. And a couple of hundred yards from here, the encampment at our school is there. And the university had a very clear policy, we celebrate your right to express your point of view, but we don’t allow you to make the campus violent, we’re not going to let you disrupt campus, we’re not going to allow you to disrupt learning. And, today the president, Paul Alivisatos, sent out an email to everybody in the community saying, we celebrate the right to make your statements. Unfortunately, the students have been disruptive. They’ve torn down Israeli signs. They’ve silenced speakers. They’ve made the campus — they’ve interfered with learning in the campus. And so, he sent out a somewhat ominous email. And I have to say, things are pretty tame here compared to a lot of the other places. So, what Americans support is free speech. What they don’t support is what looks like anarchy. And so, I think, if the protests continue to veer in the direction they’re veering, you could see some pretty serious repercussions, which is why Biden is speaking, which is why Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is speaking, trying to distance themselves from what the protesters are doing.”
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