Early in the morning of June 5, the last day of classes in the spring term at Stanford, a crowd of some 50 protestors gathered outside of the office of the president. During the year, the university had witnessed many demonstrations in response to the war in Gaza, including an encampment that had lasted for months. A tense peace prevailed. But when those early morning protesters broke into the administration building, barricaded themselves inside and assaulted a member of the security staff, they crossed too many redlines.
The university leadership, which had gone out of its way to tolerate protests in the interest of free speech and civil discourse, acted decisively. Police were called in and within hours the occupation of the building had ended, participating students were arrested and, in addition, the encampment was finally removed.
There are lots of lessons to learn from this teachable moment. First, it was important…
