Some educators are using their institutional positions to help create safe spaces for student activism and challenge policies that restrict free speech.
Hundreds of faculty members, many of them women and LGBTQ+, have been advocating for the students demonstrating against U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza. In recent weeks, student protests have intensified, leading to over 2,500 arrests.
There are more women on college campuses than men, and a number of women have been at the center of the movement. The suspensions and arrests last month of student protesters from Barnard College — the women’s liberal arts institution affiliated with Columbia University — drew national attention to the anti-war cause and inspired their peers at dozens of other colleges to organize protests of their own.
Students have occupied university buildings. They’ve staged “Gaza solidarity encampments,” groups of…