The Alliance of Concerned Faculty put out a call to MIT students to share their reactions to the events of the past weeks and how they were affected. In just a couple of days, we received more than 70 responses. Messages below have been anonymized.
I’m an undergrad upperclassman. Before this academic year, I never felt as if I would be arrested without a justification. Now, I feel as if I could be arrested by just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Before, I would avoid protests due to the inconvenience. Now, I avoid them due to MIT police…
* admin threatening to take away housing and dining access as a punishment for something that doesn’t pose a danger to others makes me fear for my own housing and food security
* our housing and dining swipes aren’t cheap, and my family doesn’t make a lot of money. if I were kicked out for peacefully protesting something I believed in, I wouldn’t have anywhere to go
* made me consider moving off-campus even though I love my dorm culture so much
undergraduate student
I am an [REDACTED] graduating this May. I’m writing about the impact that admin decisions have greatly negatively impacted my ability to enjoy my senior year and graduation as well as my overall view of the Institution. Though I am not a vocal participant of the protests and am more of a bystander, even with the minimal disruption introduced by the encampment and protests, it hasn’t been a large disruption in my student life (in fact, protests from both sides have minimally disrupted my mit experience). However, once MIT has sent in police to violently arrest students, it has taken a great toll on my mental health. Knowing there are police everywhere on campus makes me extremely uncomfortable especially knowing they are armed. Furthermore, inviting cops known to have murdered a high schooler with little repercussion and overhearing cops converse about being excited to arrest students is just terrible and greatly makes me uncomfortable on campus. Furthermore, knowing that administration would send in droves of police armed with weapons to kill (guns) and intention to brutalize (as caught on video) also makes me incredibly uncomfortable on campus and extremely unhappy with administration as this directly conflicts with the view I had of MIT when I chose to come here to learn— that it is a place where it teaches students and allows them room to grow, not somewhere where the administration unilaterally sends in the state police to arrest peaceful protesters who never resisted arrest.
I am a PhD student but am leaving early as I don’t see sufficient support or allyship from SoE [Schoo of Engineering] faculty. I can’t be ‘apolitical’ and look the other way while Palestine is massacred to ‘focus’ on research.
I will remember that MIT broke my heart in my final month here, by killing the Scientists Against Genocide Encampment at 4am, with riot gear cops looking scarier than stormtroopers. You knew it would fizzle out as people left after graduation, but you chose to enact this violent display. I did not realize that my dreams of what college would be like (which I never implemented but found at the encampment) are so hated and unwelcome by the MIT decision makers. MIT’s tap-blocked corridors, excessive camera surveillance, and hatred of hackers and ‘quirkiness’ makes a lot more sense now. I had other admissions to choose from, and I sincerely regret my choice. No amount of technical expertise makes attending and supporting this militarized institute worthwhile. I get a degree, while my classmates that aren’t white get cut from mealplans and housing; while students my age in Gaza get bombed by MIT’s “academic freedom” research outputs. This is terrible. This is evil. MIT decision makers, every day you are here you have another chance to make a better decision. Consider supporting the thousands of scholars who lost their universities. Consider NOT supporting genocidal scholasticidal colonial racist apartheid regimes. Right. Now.
End CIS et al, cut ties with LL, MITRE, Draper, etc FOR REAL THIS TIME
I live a door away from one of the evicted students.
In the past week, I’ve had the experience of waking up to boxes filling my lounge. Boxes which I helped to fill, to pack, to seal.
As I helped my friend pack, I had plenty of time to reflect on the climate on campus. Although I was never personally impacted by the encampment, although I have never felt unsafe around campus due to pro-palestinian protests, although I never felt marginalized or attacked by my friend because of my identity, to say I feel unsafe now would be an understatement.
While I filled boxes, I reflected on how the administration that touts safety as it’s biggest priority, the administration that sent my parents countless emails telling them not to worry, the administration that locks up public spaces to keep so-called aggressors out–is the same administration that is now putting my friend on the street with an inhumane amount of notice. The same administration that sent hundreds of city, state, and campus police to violently arrest protesters outside of state. The same administration who sent police in riot gear to erase the encampment which so many students came to call their home. The same administration that will put vulnerable students at risk to keep up their public image.
It has become painfully obvious that as a lowly student, my life does not matter to the administration. It does not matter if I feel safe, if I have housing, if I have food security, or even if I have civil rights, so long as my existence is a threat to the administration’s status quo.
Before the erasure of the encampment, I never felt unsafe on campus. But with the administration’s recent actions, I can’t even walk to class without feeling paranoid. To students like myself, the administration has shown that it does not care about us or our safety, and it will stop at nothing to remove us if it thinks it needs to.
Thanks for taking the time to read. I hope it matters.
Hi! I’m an undergraduate student at MIT writing about admin’s decisions.
First of all, it’s made me really distrustful of the administration. It’s hard to believe that they have my best interests in mind when their idea of promoting safety includes evicting students, trashing their belongings, and preventing them from taking final exams. Additionally, the cameras on Lobby 7 and other places are just excessive. Trust is a two-way street: if admin can’t trust its students and needs to monitor us everywhere we go, how are we to trust admin in return?
Second, I feel very unsafe on or around campus with heightened police presence. A lot of my friends are deeply involved with protests. Some have been suspended. I’m worried that being seen with them, even just catching up or studying together, will make me guilty by association. MIT’s arbitrary ways of deciding who’s an “organizer” include taking the names of whoever’s on mailing lists, so what else can they decide is enough to convict?
Third, I feel ashamed to be a part of this institution. The climate that admin keeps trying to promote is very sterile and sanitized, encouraging students to keep their hands off when MIT’s core mission is “mind and hand”. The whole institute just feels very fake: we advertise ourselves by being a quirky, liberal school with exciting hacking culture. But students speaking out against genocide are suspended and evicted, so how liberal can we be? And hacking culture is made harder every year with restrictions on movement and constant tracking of students. A speaker at a recent rally I went to sums it up the best: last year, he was given an award for creating a tour that visited historic sites of civil disobedience, yet the reason he was suspended was “participating in acts of civil disobedience”. How two-faced can we get?
Thanks for taking these inputs.
I witnessed MIT police detain two students for improper postering regarding Palestine last Friday. I was nearby at the time, and whoever called in had mentioned three people; had the students not exonerated me, I’m… not sure what would have happened, honestly. Four officers in total were involved. There was some mention of “tagging” and “destruction of property” (which traditionally refers to graffiti, not postering), and something about potentially getting the DA involved — all for taping a poster to the wall.
I don’t feel comfortable walking around campus like normal anymore. What if someone watching security cameras sees me going out the back entrance of my dorm and deems me “suspicious”? What if someone notices me tapping into W11 for an event and figures that I must be on my way to trash the Hillel room? What if someone accuses me of something or other, and whoever’s investigating takes my everyday routine and twists it into some narrative about how I’m some dangerous fiend? Even the absence of ID taps can be construed as evidence if you’re trying hard enough.
I grew up walking on eggshells; I had to do everything right and avoid even the appearance of doing something “wrong” or “improper” or “shameful,” all to avoid the wrath of my impossible-to-please parents. When I realized I might be non-binary, I painstakingly hid my identity from my parents, going so far as to use Tor and Tails OS for any gender-related web traffic, all so they wouldn’t somehow find out I was trans and withhold financial support — or worse, become violent.
I came to MIT primarily to get away from that.
I’m not sure why I bothered.
– [REDACTED] Undergrad
I’ve often heard an idea in response to ongoing protests that first and foremost we are students, and that students should focus on their work and not get involved in politics – why did they come to MIT after all? I say first and foremost we are human beings, who feel and who hurt.
Which makes it particularly ironic when students are hurting and crying out to an administration to listen to them, and are instead met with suspensions and arrests. I cannot even speak to the suffering that those students are going through. I’ve seen some of the mentally strongest people I know break down into tears upon hearing they would be kicked out of their dormitories. These are our friends, neighbors, floormates, and colleagues.
I do not care about how political differences between the administration and the SAGE protestors impact policies, or about how these students have consistently gone against MIT policies for protesting. The violence I have seen has come directly from the MIT administration sending cops in full riot gear to clear out a field of sleeping students, and from police shoving protestors to the ground to arrest them. Evicting students and cutting off their access to dining halls is also a form of violence committed by the administration. Consequences exist for bad actors, but you cannot hand out the harshest consequences for everything. We ban people from campus if they break into labs and steal equipment, not if they are our own students who have only broken bureaucratic rules as opposed to moral ones.
I’ve heard stories of students being given suspensions who were not even at the SAGE encampment last Monday, or who were accused of being organizers when they were not. The fact is that the MIT administration should not have the power to hand down these harsh consequences for breaking bureaucratic rules, and especially not without having due process BEFORE getting evicted. I’ve been thinking about how administrators could possibly have been okay with what they did, and the only explanations are that they didn’t spend a second to think about how their actions would impact the students they claim to serve, or that they knew exactly what they were doing and just did not have a shred of empathy. The administration also seems to think suspensions are not worse than arrests, and I would have to disagree. An arrest can end up on the public record, but some students can be deported if they lose access to their school, or can have their lives turned upside down by the sudden lack of housing or food. Not to mention some students were about to graduate from MIT and now their futures are in the hands of administrators who do not care for them.
I again cannot speak to the pain of those who were suspended or arrested. I can however speak for myself. I’ve been constantly worried for my friends who were active organizers in the protests, or who got arrested. On multiple nights, I’ve stayed up until the early morning just hoping police didn’t raid the encampment. The day the encampment got removed, I had gone to sleep at 4am and woke up out of nowhere at 7:30am. I check my phone and see dozens of frantic texts from everyone involved. I couldn’t go to class that day or get any work done since I was incredibly stressed about what happened to my friends. How am I expected to care about classes when my friends don’t know where they will sleep tonight? When I cannot focus on work since I am busy coordinating with people who don’t live in campus housing to see if anyone can host evicted students? When friends are worrying about whether they will lose health insurance, because they cannot afford another visit to the emergency room? When I’m frantically trying to find out whether they will spend the night in jail, and when are their court hearings, and oh no do they have lawyers, how will they get through all of this? When I think about what my life is right now, I am not a student. I am instead someone worried for what is going to happen to people who I care about. Why should I care about anything else when my people are suffering?
The MIT administration has not considered the human aspect to the consequences they have handed out without any thought. Do better.
A few words on the complexities of my positionality vis-a-vis these events, since identities are being invoked so frequently in these discussions. I am an observant Jew (Modern Orthodox) and visibly Jewish in the context of MIT. I have a great deal of extended family living in Israel, including cousins and grandparents, many of whom have served in the IDF. I have friends-of-friends/-family who were killed or abducted in the October 7th attacks, some of whom are still in captivity; I have family members who were mobilized in the months since. The lives on the ground that are impacted by violence in the region are not abstract to me. And—both despite and because of this—I am aghast, angry, in mourning, and implicated in the horrific, sustained attacks on Gaza, as well as the man-made famine and cascading public health crises. The civilian death toll defies my comprehension; it is an avoidable crime against humanity that is still unfolding. I am angry that the Israeli government’s response to the terror of Oct 7 consisted of a 30-fold (and growing) murderous reprisal against innocent Palestinian civilians, a response that has also resulted in the deaths of Israeli soldiers (including people I know) and hostages (hopefully none of the ones that I know). This number does not even include the 70,000 civilians wounded in Gaza, or the irreparable cultural losses. I am angry, too, that the US is continuing to enable this destruction and not putting hard limits on its military support.
My feelings about these events as they relate to MIT cannot be boiled down to a slogan or a placard. They are multifaceted, messy, and sprawling. They include some of the following seemingly-conflicting ideas:
- I can understand the frustration felt by students witnessing these horrors and wanting to do something practical to address it. I myself have spent almost my whole life feeling powerless in the face of the fact that the iniquities established during my parents’ and grandparents’ generations in Israel/Palestine remain unresolved, and these feelings have only been exacerbated over the last seven months.
- I am not personally bothered by words like “intifada” or “genocide” or “from the river to the sea” but understand why some find them uncomfortable.
- While I wholeheartedly reject antisemitism as the explanation for why this particular issue has become such a volatile political touchpoint on campuses, I still don’t fully understand the mechanisms by which this conflict/tragedy, out of so many others, has gained momentum in the context of campus politics. (I also have ties to Ukraine and was involved in campus events following the full-scale invasion, which did not produce as divisive or active a response at MIT.)
- In general, I think that pro-ceasefire protests and protests against taking IDF funding/contracts are especially important, given that MIT *does* play a role in geopolitics, and I believe that students should be able to make their views known—even/especially when they do not conform to the position of the institution.
- These protests have never made me, as a Jewish student, feel unsafe.
- I think that concerns about safety are vastly overblown from a vocal minority, and that grief, trauma, and shock play a large role (and I do relate to that grief, trauma, and shock, but experience and react to it quite differently).
- I am aware of (some of) the various pressures (internal and external) on university administrators as MIT moves through this moment in the public eye.
- And I join pro-Palestinian activists and families of hostages in calling for a ceasefire, and want the work of the diaspora to be dialogue and coalition-building instead of further polarization—which only serves to push any political solution (the only kind of viable solution) further away.
Given these complex feelings, my present concerns about the rapidly-changing situation at MIT are as follows (but are not limited to these most salient points):
1) Education on the tropes of both antisemitism and Islamophobia/anti-Arab racism would be beneficial to all. Simultaneously, I think discussing antisemitism in official communications without giving equal mention to Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism allows tropes against *all* of these groups to fester.
I was surprised to find myself increasingly frustrated and concerned (though NEVER afraid) by occasional antisemitic discourse among my friends and peers, both those affiliated with the encampment and those not. To be clear, I do not consider criticism of Israel to be inherently antisemitic (though the Jewish exceptionalism implicit in restricting the criticism of a single country makes me raise my eyebrows). Most instances of antisemitic discourse that I have heard on campus have been people unknowingly invoking millennia-old antisemitic tropes about money, power/control, and puppet-mastery. Other comments have focused on questioning the legitimacy of vocalizing Jewish suffering (on Oct 7 or from antisemitism in general) given Israel’s military power (a conflation of government/ethnicity I find dangerous, as many Israelis are not Jewish, and most Jews are not Israeli), the use of “Zionist” to mean “Jewish” (also concerning, and inaccurate), and the use of “Zionist” as the moral equivalent of “skinhead” (Zionism is and has meant many things historically, some more palatable than others; if “nationalism” is not inherently a dirty word, reducing “Zionism” to refer to its most reprehensible form of nationalism feels disingenuous). My peers have generally been receptive about being gently challenged about these statements if/when I bring them up; sometimes, however, the moment doesn’t feel right for me to say something (usually when the topic at hand is more pressing), or it doesn’t feel important/like it warrants addressing at all. (I have only, for example, shared my thoughts regarding particularly blatant invocations of the oldest tropes.) I also worry that continuing to point out these instances will make my peers not feel that they can be as open with me as they are now, and I deeply value their openness.
Similarly, through conversations with friends, I have also realized that I have gaps in my own ability to recognize the tropes of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism. I and others would benefit from a more robust toolkit to identify these tropes so we can resist perpetuating them.
2) I have been frustrated, concerned, and embarrassed by the behavior of Jewish pro-Israel MIT students/faculty (and outside groups), including verbal and visual incitement and aggression towards pro-Palestinian/anti-apartheid protestors. I am distressed by the lack of symmetry in MIT’s addressing pro-Israel actions as compared with pro-Palestinian/anti-apartheid actions. I have not seen evidence of, or heard about, any disciplinary actions against the pro-Israel protestors (although this may be my own oversight). In addition to being unjust, this asymmetry contributes to discussions of Jewish power and impunity that I find challenging and, at times, feeds antisemitic discourse.
3) Too strong a focus right now on antisemitism as an “active threat” instead of as an “ideology” compromises the eradication of antisemitism at the latent, systemic level where it is most active and powerful. This nuance is missing from conversations on (and off) campus, as well as in official university communications. I am upset that the pro-Israel lobby (including many non-Jewish groups) has weaponized “antisemitism” so that to name it now is a politicized act. This has done irreparable damage, curtailing our collective ability to name real antisemitism when it does occur. When my cousin’s Cornell dorm was evacuated in November due to threats of shooting and rape of Jewish students, some of my peers treated the invocation of antisemitism as merely a right-wing talking point meant to stifle the burgeoning political discourse against Israel’s response to the Oct 7 attacks. This is not entirely my peers’ fault, when the blunt excuse of “antisemitism” *is* in fact continuously wielded against peaceful protest against apartheid. Again, this purposeful misuse of the term contributes to misunderstandings of what “antisemitism” actually is, how it functions, and how it is perpetuated on the ideological level across time and cultural/geopolitical contexts.
4) A complicated, uncomfortable truth: The greatest threat to my ability to speak freely as a leftist Jew on campus comes from the Zionist community (both Jewish and non-Jewish—though, for me, particularly the Jewish Zionist community) both on campus and, given the media attention, beyond campus as well. The same pro-Israel lobby and its supporters (again, both Jewish and non-Jewish) have also cherrypicked which Jewish voices to platform and which to delegitimize. In the public sphere, which Jewish voices are taken at their word? Am I less of a trustworthy Jewish voice than my peers because I criticize a country that I hold to universal standards of human rights?
5) The increasing polarization of campus discourse is damaging. A combination of factors (external press, events on other campuses, incitement from counter-protests, the prominence of the loudest and often most radical voices on “both” sides, etc) has contributed to a heightening of the temperature of discourse on MIT’s campus. This includes greater polarization, increased policing of speech/vocabulary from all sides, and the embrace of more radical tactics. Such escalation reinforces false binaries of discrete camps of good vs. evil, impeding the ability to move forward from this moment toward a just, lasting resolution. It also precludes us from finding common ground to mutually acknowledge our legitimate grief and fear. Our actions here feed news sources worldwide, as well as influencing voters nearby, and they do matter.
6) I am appalled by the treatment of my friends at the hands of the police during the arrests made on May 9th; the violence and force used against them was unwarranted. I also hope that the administration has or will take action against the driver of the car that bumped into them as it tried to exit the parking garage. These are my colleagues, friends, and fellow students. It made me feel physically ill to see them shoved, manhandled, and pinned to the ground.
7) I am distressed by the suspensions without due process, especially of those for whom suspension entails loss of housing or visa complications.
There are also things that I am thankful for, and I think they are also important to acknowledge in the spirit of accurately representing my experience of the campus climate:
1) I have felt incredibly personally supported by peers, faculty, and staff on all sides of the political spectrum.
2) I am grateful to the professors who run 3rd Space, a uniquely supportive venue for open, respectful discussion from various viewpoints, even/especially if those conversations are sometimes challenging to have. The conversations within this group have been keeping me sane.
3) Personal conversations that I have had with other MIT community members whose identities are implicated in this conflict have also been largely generative, informative, and respectful. (It has, ironically, been hardest to have conversations within my own Jewish community.)
This is all to say that I have invested a great deal of time (including writing and sending this email!) in trying to have these challenging conversations in order to deescalate events on campus that do, in fact, have reverberations beyond campus as well. (My cousins in Israel have contacted me to ask whether I am okay given everything happening on campus, and I have to tell them that the scariest thing to me here are the cops hurting my friends.) It is challenging to be Jewish now at MIT not because I feel personally unsafe, but because my identity is being invoked to make arguments and policy that I often do not agree with. Making a choice not to respond would be to abdicate my responsibility as a community member able to mend misrepresentations that the current administrative policy perpetuates, and in amending them to try to build bridges across widening divides. In practical terms I can attest that my graduate work, including the time and attention that I can give to my dissertation research and writing, has undeniably suffered as a result.
I thought I would share my experience with some of the difficulties I faced while being a member of MIT SAGE.
• Overall, while I do not regret how involved I was, it was an extremely exhausting time. Every night I was worried that I and/or my friends would be brutally arrested by police like university students across the country. Seeing videos of Columbia, UT Austin, UCLA, Emerson, and countless more led to a psychological toll as I wondered when SAGE would be attacked and when we would be brutalized.
• Zionist counter protestors, including students, postdocs, staff, and faculty behaved heinously and harassed us from the start, including slandering the encampment as antisemitic and questioning my and other Jewish protestors’ identities (calling J4C a fake organization, calling its members token Jews, calling us “lost souls.”) This has exacerbated personal struggles I feel with identity and belonging as a queer Jew, and this frankly antisemitic behavior has hurt me deeply and made me more hesitant to connect to Jewish community outside of J4C. Moreover, the disingenuous way in which the Zionist counter protestors weaponized their Jewish identity to justify their harassment was chilling. At the same time that the counter protestors were claiming the encampment to be “dangerous,” they were also invading the encampment themselves and hounding protestors. This happened numerous times, and not a single counter protestor faced consequences.
• The egregious suspensions and evictions issued by the administration, in addition to the unjustified and deplorable behavior by the counter protestors only compounded the stress I was feeling. On Wednesday, May 8, after the suspensions were issued and after Professors [REDACTED], [REDACTED], and other members of the MIT Israel Alliance once again invaded the encampment, attempted to intimidate student protestors, and celebrated the notion of students losing their livelihoods, I had a severe panic attack at the encampment. Since this panic attack, I have needed to take more frequent breaks from engaging in the encampment and the movement for my own health. The behavior of the MIT IA was a significant escalation and required police intervention, yet no counter protestors or IA faculty have faced consequences. Their harassment and the administration’s intimidation will not turn me from this cause because I know that what we are fighting for is moral and just.
• Finally, the way the administration has dealt with SAGE protestors has been wholly unjust and harmful. Threatening and following through on these suspensions that strip students and workers of their housing, food, and livelihood is not an action that would be taken by an administration that truly cares for its community and students. I have not been suspended, so I will focus instead on President Kornbluth’s communications and the messaging of the administration, which have directly harmed me. The administration has, again and again, made the dangerous conflation between Judaism and Zionism and Jewish and Israeli students. In most of President Kornbluth’s messages, Jewish and Israeli are written together, as if interchangeable. With this messaging, the administration has effectively erased the anti-Zionist Jewish community at MIT, putting us further at risk of harm from attacks by Zionist agitators, who have more institutional support. This framing of the MIT Jewish community as a monolith is blatantly antisemitic and does active harm to the Jewish people it erases, including me and my friends at J4C.
The current campus climate is one of fear. I do not enjoy the presence of police officers. I have interacted with cops only in ways that have brought pain onto me or my family. It’s one thing to have them monitoring outside in their car, but they are regularly in the buildings and outside of one of my community’s lounges in the Student Center. I have had to intentionally avoid using certain spaces to get around officers when going to class.
The current feeling within my community is one of concern. I have seen videos of a freshman who joined my community this year dragged across the asphalt, pinned down, and arrested. The only thing I feel when I see this video is fear for her safety and a need to support her after this traumatic event. I have been pinned down by MIT police officers when responding to a mental health emergency. Your officers are not well trained in de-escalation and intentionally made decisions that did not show any concern for my safety. I filed a complaint with MITPD and had a conversation with an officer about better tactics they could use to not escalate situations and put your students’ safety at risk. It is clearly shown to me that my words and experience meant nothing, even when expressed through the appropriate channels
This has affected me and my wellbeing in numerous ways. In the past week and a half, I haven’t been able to sleep or eat well. I regularly find myself unable to sleep at night thinking about the ways my campus is becoming more and more of a place I do not want to be in. I have connected with my group therapy, personal therapist, and Student Support Services trying to manage my current mental state. Despite these numerous conversations I still don’t feel safe on campus. I chose not to go to many of my classes for the last two weeks because of my concerns. This has impacted me academically, socially, and professionally.
I view the current situation on campus and my current mental state as the direct fault of MIT administration. I have seen many videos, read many FAQs and talked to many of my friends and those in positions of authority. The administration has acted time and time again in either acts of escalation or complete ignorance of its student population and their safety and well-being. I urge you to not continue down this path. You are acting against the wishes of most of your student population. You only hear the most vocal of both sides, but please look at it this way: I am only concerned with the violence. I do not disagree that your rules have been broken, but you responded with violence. That is not the message you want to send to your students. That if you break the rules, we will hurt you. Not only will we hurt you physically, but then we’ll take away your home, food, and community. We’ll then drag you into a meeting full of people you do not know, who will talk to you very sternly, and take away your entire academic experience. I have been in a COD meeting. They are traumatic even if you only walk away with a sealed letter.
A deeply concerned student,
A few weeks ago, when I read about a wave of colleges calling in riot police and state troopers to clear out their encampments, I began to worry. But I held out hope that things could be different at MIT. After all, MIT prides itself on being a little different, and from what I had seen of the encampment, it had been nothing but peaceful. In fact, though I never really went into the encampment, it seemed like a welcoming space. One of my friends went to an art workshop that was hosted in the encampment, I smiled every time I saw the flowers grown in water bottles that were tied to the fence, and there always seemed to be people sharing a meal at the picnic benches in the middle. Though Coalition for Palestine did hold rallies with the aim of disruption (as is the point of protests), the encampment itself never disrupted my daily life.
Then, on Monday, May 6, Admin announced they were clearing the encampment. I wasn’t shocked, but I was disappointed. I spent the day documenting the scene as a student photographer. The scene was so tense and stressful, and after the barriers came down and protestors reclaimed their encampment, I couldn’t focus for the rest of the day, fearing what Admin’s next move might be. At least they hadn’t arrested any protestors, but the thought that students might be kicked out of their housing with minimal notice just for protesting was upsetting. Threatening students with academic suspension is one thing, but making someone homeless for breaking some rules but not actually harming anyone felt extreme.
I was there taking photos on Thursday, May 9, when arrests were made. I was confused when I saw students being handcuffed and dragged away, because I hadn’t seen any signs of violence that might have provoked the police. I was also concerned for my well-being as a spectator, as the police began to advance towards the crowd of people watching with no warning. I was worried that I would get in trouble for my attempts to document what was happening. Later that day, I saw videos on Instagram of the police making the first arrests, and the protestors were shoved around and pushed to the ground by police, despite not making any threatening moves. I couldn’t believe that it was happening at MIT, and I still struggle to wrap my head around it.
Then, Friday morning, at 4 am, I heard that the encampment is being raided. I went to the scene, because I knew I had to document it. The scene was like something out of a nightmare. Bright stadium lights were brought in to shine into the encampment, like it was a crime scene. Lines of police stood blocking off the stud and Amherst Alley. A squadron of riot police marched into the encampment. Three prison buses stood waiting for victims, and more cop cars lined Mass Ave. And a handful of students stood on the steps of the stud and near the sidewalk, still chanting for Gaza. I have never been more afraid of getting arrested, even though I was just taking photographs, because I was not sure how far the police were instructed to go. The whole time, I kept cycling through disbelief, grief, and anger. This felt like a betrayal by Admin. They raided the camp at 4am because they didn’t want anyone to intervene, didn’t want anyone to see what they were doing. They knew their actions were incredibly unpopular among the student body, so they tried to hide it. As I watched facilities workers shove tents and signs into a garbage truck, I just wanted to cry.
In summary, the encampment never made me feel unsafe, but Admin sure has. I can accept the argument of “safety concerns” for wanting to get rid of the encampment, but I cannot believe that there was no other path. Surely there was some way Admin could have struck a compromise with the protestors, or even given in to some of their demands (which the majority of undergraduate and graduate voters in the latest referenda supported, by the way). Or they could’ve waited until after finals, when encampment activity would’ve naturally died down. But instead, Admin chose the path of action that they did, and doomed our campus to weeks of unrest. Because now, it’s not just an issue of Israel and Palestine. Now, MIT has arrested, suspended, and made homeless our friends, classmates, co-workers. Now, many people who have up until now not been involved have a very good reason to protest against Admin. I may very well be one of them, because after what I saw Friday morning, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to trust Admin again.
An undergraduate student
I am a [REDACTED] year [REDACTED] student in [REDACTED], and I am one of the many students who calls on MIT to cut ties with the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
Re: MIT’s use of police violence
It was traumatizing watching my friends get brutalized by police in the name of student safety last Thursday. I feel terrified every time I pass MIT police officers around campus after seeing how they violently grabbed my friends, tackled and slammed them to the ground, and shoved their faces into the pavement. Many of my friends have been unfairly profiled for wearing Keffiyehs – stopped by cops and asked to present MIT IDs for no apparent reason, and it makes me scared to wear one on campus for fear that I’ll anger the police. I am autistic and I worry that if I am approached and questioned aggressively by MIT police as I have witnessed with my peers, I may not be able to communicate well and I could potentially upset them and trigger them to react violently. During a grad student union rally last Friday, there were cops watching us with massive amounts of zip-tie handcuffs hanging from their belts, showing us that we were all just one misunderstanding away from mass arrests. I feel like I live in a dystopian police state with how often state troopers are called into our school for peaceful protests. Learning that MIT would rather see its own students physically beaten and brutalized than cut ties with the Israeli Ministry of Defense has been a painful and humiliating realization.
Re: Student suspensions, campus bans, and evictions
I feel incredibly lonely now that so many of my friends have been banned from campus. I feel disconnected from the community that has been my main support system for processing my emotions about the violence we’ve seen against the people of Gaza and the violence we personally are experiencing from police and pro-Israel protestors. I’m terrified that my friends will not be allowed to come back, that they are losing their housing, their access to food through dining, their income from their research jobs, and their academic futures. Trying to support them through all of this while preparing for my [REDACTED] and while they are not even allowed to step foot on campus anymore has been extraordinarily stressful and time-consuming. It hurts seeing MIT treat them as violent criminals who are a danger to the community despite never hurting anyone.
Re: MIT’s communications
The communications we have received from MIT admin about campus events has been endlessly frustrating in a way I have difficulty putting into words. I feel like I’m being gaslit and manipulated by the administration, as so much of their rhetoric ignores our experiences and our feelings. MIT has put out many statements addressing the feelings of pro-Israel students and how they feel upset by pro-Palestinian protests, but the feelings of pro-Palestinian students are only ever mentioned in passing and in vague terms describing how both sides are struggling. The pro-Palestinian protests are framed as the main problem with MIT’s campus atmosphere right now, which is downright offensive. MIT doesn’t acknowledge how Palestinian students feel unsafe and traumatized by their coworkers doing research for a military which is actively killing thousands of civilians in Palestine. Pro-Israel protestors on MIT’s campus have explicitly threatened me and my friends with kidnapping, rape, and murder. Some of these threats occurred at a protest held by the Israeli Consulate – a foreign government organization threatening MIT students on our own campus. A sign was held at that rally that said “Exchange each hostage for 100 Pro-Hamas US students. Good for Israel, good for USA, good for Hamas, EDUCATIONAL FOR STUDENTS“. But instead of meaningfully acknowledging these explicit threats to our safety and our pain, MIT admin seemed to blame pro-Palestinian students for creating a “magnet” for counter-protests. MIT did not explicitly acknowledge or in any way condemn these threats made against our student body. This victim-blaming was deeply hurtful and made me feel like MIT doesn’t care about my safety or my feelings – as if any violence I face is justifiable because of my beliefs. MIT admin also showed their bias when they announced to the community that the encampment “defaced Israeli flags,” but neglected to mention that those Israeli flags had been placed intentionally covering a memorial display of tally marks each representing a child in Gaza killed by Israel since Oct 7th. The violence of defacing a memorial for dead children by covering it with the flag of the military who murdered them is worth mentioning – and is nothing short of shameless propaganda to omit. It is clear that this administration isn’t willing to protect pro-Palestinian students from violence and isn’t willing to address how MIT’s complicity and active participation in Israeli oppression of Palestinians affects our community.
All of this to say, MIT’s unjust actions against pro-Palestinian students have deeply harmed my sense of belonging and safety at MIT. Thank you for listening, and please feel free to follow up with any questions.
I came in to MIT on May 2nd. I have to take an exam, my last exam, an OX exam, on Friday.
For the little time I had it the encampment was my home on campus. My base. It was safe to just leave things there. There was food, friends, and care.
It was an interfaith space where I felt like I could be my full self. We had Jews, Muslims, Christians, pagans, atheists, you name it. I’m a Catholic, of a privileged religion, and yet I’ve never been able to be so open about my faith as I was here. In this space where the core values were liberation and acceptance, I was seen and understood, while I saw and understood others. I could learn without feeling stupid. I could teach (what I knew) and know I did good for others. I could be honest about my shortcomings. I was home.
I went to the encampment to park myself and study. Yet each time people came to fight against the encampment, we all had to stop learning. We came here to learn and research right? Well at the *scientists* against genocide encampment we were doing just that. Studying. Researching. Learning. Teaching. Exposing others to the horrors of what is happening in Gaza right now. Forty thousand people dead.
I came into campus on Monday May 6th energized and ready to study. I left campus with no voice, exhausted, and even more worried to be away from the encampment. Blink and it would be gone. May 6th was the start of my nightmares about getting arrested.
That monday night I dreamt of the whole encampment community being carted to jail. After Monday my nightmares about arrests and police brutality started. On Tuesday May 7 I woke up at home (a friend’s house) thinking I was getting arrested. Each time I passed police officers, even in Somerville, I felt unsafe. Each time I hear helicopters I look up, knowing I’m under surveillance.
When protesters came to yell at the camp all I could do was put my head down and pray. As I stood in front of my peers, protected those my community, and I inserted ear plugs and prayed to God for safety and understanding.
I have watched people, organizers, break down and cry at the injustice. We can get yelled at, called terrorists, and harassed, but our Marshalls trained in de-escalation and we keep each other steady. We have one job. We shall not be moved. And yet… in the face of constant harassment the caa and c4p are persecuted. We are surrounded by police to be intimidated. In the face of hard work to keep the encampment and the campus safe letters are constantly sent saying that we are dangerous. That the police are the only reason all hell didn’t break loose. We have hours long meetings on how to stay safe. Keep people safe. We are constantly reminding each other not to respond. We are picking up the pieces after people are traumatized by police brutality. The messages sent out by Sally Kornbluth have been flat out disrespectful. And clearly written in bad faith.
I didn’t get arrested. I didn’t get suspended. But the efforts we put in to keep each other safe take a toll. I lack sleep. I lack energy. I don’t have a home on campus. Getting to food is harder. I have nightmares about police and suspension and failure. I was doing *great* when we were able to study and advocate at the encampment.
But now in the light of admin actions we have to make endless IDHR reports. We have to support those unjustly and unlawfully evicted. We have to fight unfair and unjust charges on multiple fronts. We have to speak even more to keep others from maliciously misreporting our story. Once MIT cast out and abandoned our community members we had to pick up the pieces. What student can fly out on a dime? Who has money to lose their access to housing, food, and payment? Nobody! Some people were suspended for charges they couldn’t have possibly done!
The administration has chosen to face civil disobedience and dissent with force and collective punishment. Instead of negotiating with organizers, they expel them. Thing to cut off the head of our community. Well, we are a hydra. We all grow and lead. We all grow and support each other. Each one of us is trying our best to graduate. To study. We have finals. But now we have to deal with things no students should have to deal with. Charges due to unlawful persecution. Training to keep safe. Organization to make sure everyone is fed. Housed. Safe. Counseling in the face of multiple types of harassment by police. Organizing mental health resources. This is not our job. This is YOUR job. This is the University’s job.
Instead of studying, I have to write this email just so admins don’t pat their backs, sure they did a good job. I have to tell you that police brutally suppressed students. That they didn’t give a mass dispersal order that night on Thursday May 10th. That they have antagonized members of the encampment. That nineteen students have records for complying with the values MIT holds dear. One of our members has an AWARD from MIT for studying civil disobedience. Now they’re suspended. Make it make sense.
Thank you for your patience in reading this email I had to drop everything and write at midnight. Please excuse the hasty writing.
My immediate thought upon hearing of my suspension was my immigration status. Though being intent in being in the movement as much as I could I was always conscious of the amount of risk I could brace. Risking my visa status was one of the biggest things at stake not only for my education and career, but in many ways my safety and continued ability to remain in the movement. That is why my immediate reaction upon receiving a suspension was disbelief given my caution and panic due to the implications on my immigration status. I tried to reach out to ISO to get more clarity and after multiple calls and many emails, I was finally able to get a hold of someone. Despite this I received very few answers. All I could be told was that I had 21 days before I went out of status. I received no answers concerning my ability to register for classes to maintain status long term, funding despite being told I could longer work to maintain my status, and the implications for those graduating this spring. There were very few answers and it was made obvious that not only were these suspensions already damaging, they were done recklessly with no foresight given to how to coordinate with various offices and protect the rights of the students involved.
My second thought upon recieving my suspension was the question of how I would tell my advisor. They have already expressed that they do not share my political views and have explicitly said they wanted all student protesters to be suspended – back in November. This suspension already set me back on my research, causing me to have to push back travel dates to meet collaborators. This and my advisors knowledge of my political involvement has inevitably fractured our professional relationship. I have already started having conversations around the process for changing labs. And this is all before administration informed me that due to lack of proof on their part to justify my continued suspension they’ve decided to rescind it.
These suspensions are not examples of due process. These suspensions feel like preemptive punishment for our beliefs. We are told we deserve interim suspensions because we pose a danger to campus safety but the school has done nothing to protect us from racists and xenophobic attacks on our campus. I have been followed by a student on campus and verbally harassed for taking down one of the “kidnapped” posters. This came right after the Israeli president said he had no interest in bringing back hostages. I have been told I would be raped by Hamas and told to go back to my country. The later instance I filed an idhr report for 6 months ago with no response. I witnessed Israeli students dancing to Charbu Darbu a song calling for the genocide of Palestinians, calling them “mice” and stating that no Palestinian is innocent. This all the while the police, encouraged by the administration, has treated us, rose who believe in Palestinian liberation and the end of this genocide, like the aggressors. They’ve insulted students, pushed students, and thrown students to the ground. They’ve also followed us and intimidated us, and policed our everyday existence on this campus. We have been racially profiled, with the police, admin, and counter protestors confusing us for each other. I do not doubt that the error made in my suspension was both politically AND racially motivated.
In the last two weeks MIT has suspended, evicted, arrested, and completely traumatised it’s student body to protect its financial and political interests. What this has shown me is that our lives on this campus are not valued. This feeling, coupled with the isolation I already feel as a triple minority on this campus, has made me feel disposable by the institute that I’ve decided to commit 5-6 years of my life to. The messaging I have received is that I, along with what I believe and who I am, do not belong here. I’ve seen MIT break the promises it’s made to it’s students in regards to safety and care in real time as it has chosen who’s safety it cares for and who’s lives it finds worthy. Shame
It’s frustrating and demoralizing. It seems punishment is reserved only for pro-Palestine protesters.
Specifically for the point made on FAQ: Campus Events in Challenging Times : “some students received suspensions for remaining in the encampment, re-establishing it or engaging in other escalating activities.”
The inconsistency lies in the last point. From the day the encampment was erected, pro-Israel students have come to the encampment to harass, yell, provoke and escalate.
On May 6 in particular, pro-Israel protesters stood just a few feet away from the encampment, stealing encampment supplies, yelling and harassing students, inviting outsiders and escalating.
Beyond May 6, pro-Israel protesters continued to yell at and harass students in the encampment.
The distinction was made especially clear on May 8. Before the suspensions were sent out, Pro-Israel protesters yelled at and taunted students, telling them they were going to be suspended for remaining in the camp, while they themselves were inside the encampment? And yet, Palestinian students who were not even in the encampment after the deadline received suspensions?
The language used by admin is also incredibly biased. Admin has never referred to the encampment by its name: the Scientists Against Genocide Encampment and has crafted a narrative as if the students in the encampment are anti-Israel or anti-Israeli, suggesting that they are protesting against students on campus and not against a genocide.
-Undergraduate
In my orientation as a graduate student at MIT, an officer from the MIT Police gave a presentation about their role. He made us take out our phones and he dictated the number we should save to call, instead of 911, if we ever felt unsafe at MIT.
I kept the number on my phone for years, thinking MIT Police was a source of safety. Last week, I deleted that number from my contacts list.
The videos of MIT Police brutalizing my classmate, especially as a professor tried to drive into him, made me sick. It never was about student safety, and I am angry at myself for having believed the officer at orientation, for ever having called that number. I feel I was naive.
I think of MIT Police hurting my classmate everyday now when I walk on Vassar, and I probably will for the rest of my MIT journey.
Although my suspension has been lifted, I am compelled to write to you about the profound and enduring impact that the recent administrative decision has had on both my wellbeing and my safety. I am still grappling with the consequences. I ask that you give extra attention to the long-term repercussions of this suspension mentioned at the end of this email. I am a Palestinian student who grew up in the West Bank. [REDACTED]. For starters, I must assert that my engagement with student activities has been deliberately limited, as I understood the potential risks to both my student and immigration status. I am not an organizer, and I am usually a bystander rather than a participant in big protests happening on campus. I will be happy to talk more about my involvement, especially in relation to Monday activities.
Racially Motivated Suspension
I am compelled to believe that my inclusion in these suspensions is a direct result of racial profiling, based solely on my ethnicity and the fact that I am a Palestinian [REDACTED] who grew up in the region. This accusation is part of a disturbing pattern of discrimination that systematically targets individuals of similar backgrounds across the United States. Despite my deliberate and consistent effort to avoid involvement in student activities, even those organized to advocate for the rights of my own people and the safety of my family and friends in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, I found myself caught in baseless allegations. This action against me is blatantly discriminatory and appears to be racially motivated, lacking any real evidence or credible proof of my supposed involvement.
Every day, I find myself glued to the news, anxiously monitoring the safety of my loved ones. The emotional toll of resisting the urge to participate in student activity, in order to comply with MIT’s regulations, is also significant. Despite these challenges, I have adhered to these rules. However, MIT’s recent decision to place me under academic suspension, just two days before my MEng thesis is due, has significantly increased my distress. This action appears to demonstrate a stark disregard for the emotional well-being of students like me, who are deeply and directly affected by the ongoing genocide. The timing of this suspension has imposed an additional, unnecessary burden during an already difficult period in my life. This insensitivity to the unique challenges faced by Palestinian students is profoundly disappointing and calls into question the institution’s commitment to supporting its diverse student body.
Short and Long Term Consequences
I am still struggling to recover both mentally and emotionally from the recent ordeal. The suspension and the ensuing stress significantly disrupted my academic progress, and I am now trying to catch up in order to graduate on time. It was incredibly disheartening to feel disregarded by MIT, especially given the ongoing crisis affecting my family in Palestine. The lack of consideration for my wellbeing during such a critical time was shocking from a place I called home for the past 5 years.
To whom it may concern:
I am a [REDACTED] year graduate student at MIT.
Even as someone who was not involved in the encampment or protests that led to suspensions/arrests, the extreme level of disciplinary action against peaceful protestors which MIT has taken has made me very stressed in my own life.
First, I have to worry about how this affects the safety, housing security, and future prospects of friends of mine who were suspended, evicted and arrested. My living group has had to worry about if we will have any way to protect our own community members who have faced arrests or were at risk of losing housing. This worrying about my friends and peers has taken a huge mental toll on me in the past few days.
Further, knowing that this is how MIT treats its own students who are just peacefully protesting is chilling. The students were neither in danger no endangering anyone until MIT arrested them, or suspending and evicted them, leaving them (and in some cases their families with small children) homeless. I personally feel much less safe going to an institute which I know is liable to do this to its own students. Especially since they were only peacefully protesting, it sets a terrible precedent for what MIT could decide they don’t like, make sudden rules against, and then harshly punish students for who were just trying to peacefully stand up for themselves and what is right.
Finally, as a union steward, this has taken up hours and hours of my time during an otherwise already packed and busy part of semester. I have a responsibility to make sure my coworkers are safe and their basic worker’s rights are met. When the administration took this away, I have needed to spend hours organizing for grad students and reaching out to people, just in an effort to try to get my peers and coworkers the legal and contractual protections they deserved which MIT has tried to deprive them of.
This has been a deeply stressful and terrifying week at MIT. None of it was the protestors’ faults. Everything was fine until MIT started suspending, arresting, and evicting my peers.
This semester has been so difficult. Other students have gone out of their way to inflict upon me for fighting for indigenous rights. I often don’t feel safe on campus just existing as a queer indigenous person. There have been classmates who have physically stepped on us, intimidated peaceful protestors and genuinely made me fear for my safety. I don’t want to live in an apartment where my address might become leaked again. I wonder where I can live without wondering which classmates will choose to harass, intimidate, and videotape my face. This semester I haven’t used the communal kitchen to cook because of the people in my own house which have intimidated me and my friends. Since I am also not on a meal plan, my food insecurity has dramatically increased. I want independence and stability that I can have in an apartment alone. This has been a hard semester and my classmates and professors actions have made me question why I even exist on this campus if they want me to erase every part of my indigenous identity that means I must live in reciprocity with others, I must speak up against our erasure as indigenous people and I don’t? deserve to be physically and verbally harassed for the things I have endured.
Thank you for reading.
As a [REDACTED] graduate student, my views of the ongoing war in Gaza are not represented by the slogans on either of the student groups at the center of campus events. Still, their protests and counterprotests haven’t been a source of distress for me.
My distress stems from the MIT Administration’s failure to treat all students equally throughout the academic year. They have failed to answer the following questions:
• Why did MIT Police brutalize and arrest pro peace students outside of the Stata garage, but not the MIT professor that drove his [REDACTED] car into the student crowd?
• Why did MIT only suspend Anti-Apartheid and Jews for Ceasefire students, but not the pro war students who harassed them physical and verbally throughout the academic year, even ransacking their personal belongings on May 6?
• Why was Professor [REDACTED] never sanctioned for collaborating with a foreign government to bring outside agitators to a student protest site on MIT campus? Why did MIT Police insult and threaten to arrest pro peace Professor [REDACTED], while pro war professor [REDACTED] has been allowed to promote the doxxing of MIT students and staff on social media?
• Why did MIT sanction students, but not the MIT Media Lab Program Lead that constantly photographed young women protesters? Why did it ignore the IDHR reports filed regarding his sustained harassment of young women in the context of campus protests?
• Why did MIT suspend the Coalition Against Apartheid as a student group, but never disciplined the MIT Israel Alliance for disrupting the campus climate, blocking MIT entrances and traffic on Mass Ave? Why are all other student protests banned, but they get to host a pro war rave with MIT support?
• Why did MIT Police arrest a Muslim Wellesley student, but protected the pro war Jewish Harvard Divinity Student that harassed MIT students on May 3?
• Why does MIT administration highlight the role of the MIT Police in de-escalation, but not the role of its Investigative Unit agents that took close up surveillance footage of students while in plain clothes?
It distresses me and many others to confirm that it never was about student safety, nor about equal treatment. I have no elements to believe that MIT approached the student negotiations in good faith, nor that its disciplinary committees will be any less arbitrary than the admin decisions that brought us here.
Forwarding my unanswered/ignored requests for meetings with MIT’s OSCCS.
Below I reference how the interim suspension impacts various facets of my life, from childcare to healthcare to mental health. Financially, my enrollment status impacts my VA benefits as well, which currently pays out a housing stipend that assists with cost-of-living expenses. Also, it appears our childcare benefits thru MIT have been halted as well.
It’s also quite disappointing that OSCCS has chosen to not respond to my emails.
EMAIL To: Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards osccs@mit.edu
Cc: [REDACTED]
Hello,
I have been waiting for the additional information promised in my suspension letter to better understand these accusations and ongoing disciplinary consequences, but I have received nothing for the past 5 days.
The threat of eviction levied by MIT has placed significant stress on me, my wife, and my five year old daughter, as has the unilateral ban from campus and dining facilities. In addition, I manage a rare medical condition that requires highly specialized treatment, so the outcome of this situation has great consequence to my healthcare regiment. I must also coordinate with the VA on housing and healthcare. The VA moves notoriously slow, so time is of the essence.
I have been speaking with faculty to try to understand the impacts of and process around the interim suspension, but ultimately lack clarity. Given the precarity of my position, I would like to set up a meeting with representatives of the MIT administration as soon as possible so that I can better understand what is happening.
With Great Anticipation,
– TL;DR: I do not trust MIT leadership. I do not believe they ever had student well being in mind, not material, emotional nor psychological.
– I have reached out to MIT admin on multiple levels for the past 7 months consistently and my concerns about MENA/Muslim and Pro-Palestine student safety and well being were consistently ignored and minimized. For example, I let members of my [REDACTED] house team know that students have been struggling with the scale of death and destruction happening in Gaza and don’t know who to turn to as many of their professors and peers do not have any sympathy for Gazans. This was in October. I brought this up numerous times. Later, I was told by another faculty member that when this HOH was asked if any concerns were brought up, they said “no”.
– President Sally has repeatedly used “our student safety” when referring to a subset of Jewish and Israeli students who are Zionist, and very distant language when referring to the Pro-Palestine students on campus. This us vs. them phrasing has other-ed students and makes us even more vulnerable to attack.
“We are now aware of an additional situation later today involving a rally, registered with the city to occur at 77 Mass. Ave., in support of *our Israeli and Jewish students*, and an opposing protest nearby, both with organization by groups from outside MIT. We are making every appropriate preparation for these rallies, with strong support from local police.””
– Also note that in the above message, Sally says they are outside organizers when she wishes to minimize the potential harm that may come from a Zionist rally (days after the violent attack by Zionist counter-protesters at UCLA), and in a later message, says that MIT organizers called in high school students when it can shift the blame on MIT students that are pro-Palestine:
“Some chose to invite to the encampment area large numbers of individuals from outside MIT, including dozens of high school students” [from the FAQ]
– I found faculty and admin laughing as students were shoved head-first to the ground during demonstration in front of Stata. They victim-blamed the students for the violence they were receiving at the hand of police. No admin stopped it. They also lied and said students were throwing themselves under vehicles. There is concrete footage that shows the police were throwing students, shoving students, and holding students by the back of the neck – often into cars and traffic. The lies and manipulation of facts is not just emotionally distressing, it’s dangerous.
– The admin’s one-sided, biased messaging has escalated the amount of hateful, violent messaging Pro-Palestine students have had to face. I’ve been told to “Go to Gaza, Enjoy your rape” and “Get sodomized”. I saw signs calling for MIT students to become hostages in exchange for Israeli hostages as it would be a good “learning experience”.
– I was in the area when the police were called in for the raid as it coincided with the Fajr (sunrise) prayer. It was so scary. President Sally called for that many armed officers to do whatever it would take to end a peaceful protest. They had giant batons, some kind of battering ram, and were in full riot gear. To be criminalized for wanting to stop genocide is truly horrific.
– Admin have repeatedly abdicated their responsibility for student safety. In their email just before the Zionist rally, Sally says this:
“When I met with student leaders from the encampment earlier this week, I stressed repeatedly that my chief concern is the physical safety of everyone at MIT, and I urged them to work with us in finding a thoughtful way to end this situation.
I ask that members of the community join us in doing everything possible to keep the peace.”
In light of the police brutality at Stata and armed police in riot gear that attacked the encampment in which students were sleeping, it is very clear that President Sally does not care about physical safety.
– I asked multiple admin if they could provide mental health services to students in the Fall and Spring that was focused on the collective trauma of witnessing a genocide in real time, with trained professionals. MIT did not do so, and made many excuses and dragged their feet.
– As a visible Muslim woman, I have been profiled by police repeatedly since President Sally increased the police presence and labeled the pro-Palestine students as the source of unrest on campus.
– MIT was never equipped to help students feel safe on campus, and no matter how many times I tried to tell them that we needed professions who were culturally aware and trained to deal with this level of trauma, they chose to ignore me and instead used force to silence their already hurting students.
– I have not been able to work at MIT peacefully ever since MIT showed its true colors wrt how it feels about its Muslim, MENA, Palestinian, POC students. The double standards were laid bare. The genocidal signs across W11, to not reacting at all when Zionist students played Harbu Darbu on Kresge, to only suspending pro Palestine students when the escalations were led by Zionist faculty,…I could keep going but I even if I spent hours compiling everything, I would not be able to create an exhaustive list, and MIT still would not care.
– I have heard people comfortably say, without impunity, that they would prefer if everyone in Gaza died. This is the campus that MIT has created, where people feel emboldened to say things like this to students.
– The fact that MIT cannot protect its students from faculty members that will dox students, incite violence against students, encourage hate speech and islamophobic tropes against students, is painful. It does not instill any confidence in MIT leadership. If the excuse is “tenure”, then that’s a poor excuse because MIT has investigated and reacted to the actions of tenured faculty before.
– The choice to unhouse students and prevent them from food, water, shelter is so objectively awful, and without due process. The majority of these students were students of color. They also didn’t permit religious accommodations to students facing disciplinary hearings during the month of Ramadan.
Just wanted to share how recent events and decisions by admin have affected me personally. I am an undergraduate student.
– Increased police presence makes me very uncomfortable and I feel more unsafe than if they weren’t there. They have consistently displayed intimidation practices such as keeping their hands on their gun holsters, the SERT team showing up with bundles of zip-tie handcuffs. Not to mention the many, many officers in full on riot gear including helmets, batons, pepper spray, tasers, etc. deployed in the middle of the night on a group of only 10 students WHILE THEY WERE SLEEPING. I bothers me that Sally/Admin has this kind of power, not to send police to enforce LAWS but to merely to enforce institutional policy/rules.
– So much unnecessary, violent force has been used against my classmates excercizing their first amendment right to peacefully picket on Vassar St. There is video evidence making the rounds on social media. I was horrified to see my classmates indiscriminately shoved, THROWN, pushed to the ground, restrained, and KNELT ON BY MULTIPLE OFFICERS (3-4 officer on one small 110 pound girl). These images were obviously very upsetting to me, seeing this kind of police brutality on my own campus makes me feel highly highly unsafe. My friend who is a FRESHMAN undergrad was violently dragged by her hair and hauled away in a police van without ever being told what charges she was being booked on.
– MIT’s consist denial of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students’ need for support and right to express their views, while simultaneously heavily pushing Jewish and Israeli student support, talks about antisemitism, and their right to protest is hateful, discriminatory and dehumanizing. My literally neighbor on the same floor of my dorm is from Palestine with family there. Sally’s referral to the two opposing groups as “a protest supporting our Jewish and Israeli students” contrasted with merely “the encampment” is particularly hurtful and tone-deaf. Never once has she acknowledged that Palestinian students have the right to protest the genocide of their own people, or that they deserve our direct support. In fact, a simple educational talk about Palestine that was organized and pre-approved had police officers show up and BLOCK AND PREVENT ENTRY.
– Media coverage including circling helicopters and many reporters and cameras have significantly contributed to a sense of uneasiness on campus recently. I am from a very small town, and this is the first time I have ever seen media helicopters. I am glad the movement is getting coverage, but the media presence has definitely contributed to students feeling vulnerable and exposed on the campus which they live.
– Due to recent events and Admin’s response in particular, I am no longer proud to go to this school. I am ashamed. I will never give a cent more to this school, and many alumni have pledged to do the same.
– Many students, including people I personally know, were served with suspension and eviction notices, simply for being present at the encampment on a particular (randomly chosen) day. These were primarily students of color, first generation/low income, and other marginalized minorities, including international students whose visas are now in jeopardy. Taking away a student’s housing, access to food, employment and income in response to peaceful protest is not only unethical and devastating to their lives, button the case of unionized grad workers, is a direct violation of federal law. Picketing is a protected union activity that is not allowed to result in loss of employment, yet it has.
In summary, I am fearful on my own campus, not by the community rallying around and supporting our Palestinian students, but by the over policing and brutality I have witnessed and Admin’s consistently horrific actions and decisions.
As a transgender scientist living in a society hostile to my existence, I’ve long felt that academia could serve as a safe refuge, where becoming a professor meant I could pursue science free from the open animosity that plagues so many institutions. But the last month has shattered that dream for me. In the span of a few weeks, I’ve watched horrified as an institution I deeply love has betrayed the moral principles that I once believed would protect me.
Like many academics, I used to think there was something special about universities. I believed they were driven by a mission to make the world a better place, where faculty could steer the institution free from the corrupting influences of money and power. The Jeffery Epstein scandal pushed my belief in that vision to its limits, but I really did believe that MIT had learned a lesson. It is now abundantly clear to me that MIT never intended to learn. The 2020 Suri report drafted in the wake of that scandal, which explicitly forbids association with entities engaged in violations of the laws of war, is somehow not enough to prevent MIT from associating with a military that the international community has repeatedly and credibly condemned for committing war crimes. Did MIT ever intend to follow those guidelines, or has it become yet another corporate institution willing to sacrifice moral principles for personal gain?
At this point, I can no longer afford to believe MIT can follow the basic ethical principles it claims to be guided by. When an institution evicts and arrests its own students rather than making any effort to publicly grapple with the moral implications of its research, that institution is morally bankrupt. I can no longer pour my heart and soul into an academic system that will not protect me if my personal wellbeing is at odds with MIT’s money or reputation. There is so much hand-wringing in academia over the leaky pipeline–why do so many underrepresented minorities give up on their faculty dreams? I can no longer call academia my home. Can you hear the leak dripping?
This is all I can think of or have the capacity to write at the moment:
- I have witnessed the most heinous and racist acts fall on my Muslim and Arab community at MIT not just in the past month but since October 7. The encampment was one of the safest, most loving places I’ve belonged to on this campus since I’ve been a graduate student here. I have personally been called terrorist,
- The Issue of Rape: I was told I should be raped by multiple counter protestors If I love it so much (being that I support Palestinian Liberation). An Israeli Alumni captured a snippet of a conversation I had with them without my knowledge and posted it in online claiming I was a rape supporter. Just yesterday May 15th an Israeli counter protesters told a 16 year old that had gone on the mic that she should be raped in Gaza. These are merely snippets and as a woman, as a Muslim Arab woman and as someone that has worked with Domestic Violence victims – this has been the most sexual harassment I’ve experienced and sexual – these acts and these calls of rape towards women or female identifying individuals at the encampment have been persistent. They have not been condemned by the Israeli Faculty or our peers. They have accepted that these claims can exist and are the norm.
- I have been jail support for arrested students since the beginning of the encampment. I’ve had to document my peers and friends’ bruises, scrapes and take their testimonies and watch countless videos of the MIT PD beating and brutalizing them to ensure their lawyers have the evidence they need to prove they were in fact peaceful protestors. I’ve woken up from my sleep thinking about their pain.
- I was denied access to my workspace that I’ve always had access to up until the action when the fence came down – I was wearing my kuffiyeh and was told by the director of the program that runs the space now that I can’t access my personal belongings because she thinks they’re dangerous and that a police officer would have to go through my things. She denied my access to my belongings and implied I had dangerous things – there is no doubt it was linked to the ongoing campus protests and my being Arab. This was a dehumanizing and degrading experience by someone who should be a leader in the school.
- I am exhausted and behind on my work. My thesis advisor who i need to meet with is a genocide denier and implores I think about the other side and that there is antisemitism in my arguments I’ve made about why Palestinian need liberation especially as they face this Israeli Genocide. I try not to meet with him so I don’t feel as exposed.
- I have been racially profiled by the police and they have been more emboldened in their racist antics since the administration gave them a green light to attack us.
- I have been shoved and harassed by Zionist students that have come to the encampment – the same students that claim we are dangerous.
- MIT has caused harm and long lasting trauma on so many students. I will never forgive them for the way they’ve made peaceful pro palestinian protests the “dangerous” ones.
I have found the bias in administrative communications to the student body to be particularly disheartening and demoralizing. Despite the implication of “both sides” bearing responsibility for any conflict, I found the community at the encampment to be the diverse and welcoming environment that I never experienced through official MIT channels, and I was able to befriend a wide range of people with whom I would have never interacted otherwise. By contrast, I have never felt more unwelcome and unsafe than when Zionist counter-protesters, most of whom are not MIT-affiliated, came to the encampment or to pro-Palestine protests to attempt to agitate and provoke us. As an Indian man, I find the accusations of “supporting terrorism” to be particularly offensive and threatening, considering the increase in hate-motivated violence against Muslims, Arabs, and people of South Asian descent in America in the aftermath of 9/11, and I am deeply disappointed by the failure of our administration to condemn these comments.
The increase in police presence is equally disturbing and seems in direct contradiction with the administration’s promise of protecting “academic freedom,” as police have repeatedly threatened and attacked pro-Palestine students. Even when outright threats of violence are not present, the police frequently make racially charged comments: for example, one officer glanced at a shirt I was wearing, which depicted a young Gazan boy bleeding and crying in the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike, and commented that the boy looked like me. While I was surrounded by allies and friends at the time and felt safe as a result, it is not difficult to imagine how this could be construed as a threat. The administration claims to support a welcoming and safe environment for all students, but the introduction of militaristic police seems to protect the interests of the few Zionist MIT affiliates while actively jeopardizing the safety of students of color on campus. The feeling of danger experienced by people of color is not a mere thought experiment. Students at the Stata parking garage protest were shoved, thrown to the ground, and pinned down by police. Students at the encampment faced hundreds of heavily armed police officers when the encampment was raided. Cambridge PD officer [REDACTED], who shot and killed student Sayed Faisal last year in an act of racist violence, was still allowed to continue as a CPD officer and was reported to be present at some of the pro-Palestine actions. Unlike the outrageous claims made by Zionists regarding the encampment, the claim of police presence posing a threat to students of color is credible, but our administration has continued to ignore these concerns. This administration has shown clear bias against pro-Palestine students, most of whom are people of color, in its messaging and action, leading many of us to feel alienated and unwelcome.
I am an undergraduate student at MIT, deeply concerned about the genocide in Gaza that has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom were women and children.
For me, the past few months have resulted in a vicious cycle of physical health relapses and remissions. I have now attended more medical appointments in the past 5 months than I had in the preceding 5 years, and I was far from healthy during my high school years.
It feels hackneyed to say that my heart is the part of me that has been the most deeply hurt, but that is the physical, material truth. My heart has faced the brunt of my pain.
In January, before the formal end of winter break and barely two weeks after my grandmother’s passing, I was served a disciplinary notice for a peaceful protest that I had attended in November. The allegations contained within the letter were nothing short of defamation. The process that followed was a butchery and a disgrace that deserves no further description.
I lost a semester to that administrative attack. I put 6 of my research projects, some of which had been multi-year efforts, on hold, and I could only devote half of my attention to my coursework for the entire semester. By my own standards, I underachieved academically.
My heart also began to hurt, worse than it had in years. I had understood to some extent that stress is deadly. I reached a new level of this understanding when my heart skipped 4 beats in a row and my chest hurt so badly that I could not sleep. I felt like I was trapped in some cursed metaphor about heartbreak, made literal.
My doctors all told me that there was nothing to be done. I was simply too stressed and anxious, and my heart was just responding to the piece of my mind that knows that I cannot be safe at an Institute willing to brutalize its own students to preserve its complicit profits.
I did gain moments of relative peace, but they were always interrupted. The latest attack came on Friday, May 10, when the university that claims me as its student decided that militarized force is indeed the appropriate response to peaceful student protests against genocide.
The administration, through their police proxies, raided our encampment at 4:00 am, likely choosing the hour because they were terrified of the truths that sunlight and the people it brings would expose. Artificial lights were wheeled in, and militarized police encircled the camp and accused us–students who MIT supposedly values– of trespassing as we awakened our friends in the tents. I began to shake uncontrollably, and my heart felt like it was collapsing on itself.
No matter how many years pass, I will not forget the image of the faces of my 10 friends who remained in the camp. In them, I saw a poetic and tragic last stand: 10 students facing 200 militarized police without even the eyes of daylight to protect them. My decision to leave the camp–in accordance with the commitment that I had made days before–was one of the hardest I had ever made. I felt that I was abandoning my friends in the face of deathly danger. I still fear that I did.
I attended the ensuing rally until sunrise, when we dispersed and headed to a nearby building to recuperate. We did not get a chance to rest. We were followed by police, and we felt so unsafe that we followed the protocol, taught in every American public K-12 school, for an active shooter. I personally sat in front of the unlockable door of our hiding space to barricade it.
Once we finally stopped police from trailing us, we began to poster. I entered the administrative office corridor (the second-finite, to undergrads) with 2 friends, and we hung up 6 posters. Four police officers formally detained us, treating us like criminals for hanging up posters on a campus that allegedly welcomes us.
I attempted to calm down. After two hours passed without any improvements in my physical state, I walked to urgent care. My heart rate was 103 beats per minute, over 80% above normal, and my EKG was abnormal.
I spent over 20 hours of the next day in my room with the lights off.
Nearly a week later, with just a few more days until my birthday, I still do not feel “normal.” I had pushed off a full and complete return to “normalcy” for the entire semester, and now I realize that I was always cataclysmically far away.
My heart is broken. There is no normalcy during a genocide.
Sincerely,
A concerned student
Here are some notes on the impact administrative decisions in the last few weeks on myself, an undergraduate student:
– In light of the brutal student arrests by campus police, which was ordered and later justified by the administration, I feel very afraid and unsafe whenever I see and interact with the increased police presence on campus.
– I saw that while students were peacefully exercising their right to civil disobedience, and being confronted with police violence and counterprotestor threats, school administrators were on site and observing these militant acts of violence against protesting students without doing anything to protect or defend student safety. Later, in various school-wide emails, these same school administrators sought in bad faith to paint the protesting students as violent, unreasonable, etc. to justify their disciplinary decisions. The actions of the administrators make it plain to me that student safety and wellbeing is not a priority at all, because they would rather inflict police violence on these students and defame these students to benefit themselves, their job positions, and their finances.
– The actions of the administrators these past few weeks make me feel unsafe to continue my studies as an undergraduate student. I can’t sleep or focus while my peers are brutalized, evicted, and suspended by school administration, and harassed by counterprotestors which the administration does nothing about, for peacefully protesting. The administration’s actions have shown to me how little I and the undergraduate student body are valued.
Dear MIT Admin.
I write to you after what has been an extremely difficult time.
The news of the genocide in Gaza been a constant.
Nurseries being bombed.
White phosphorus being deployed in Lebanon and Rafah
The land invasion of Rafah ( which had been declared as a safe zone).
These and other numerous disturbing events that constitute self-evident proof of the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli Government.
Moreover, I have bore witness the widespread use of extreme and militarized police force around the country and the world against students protesting the ongoing genocide.
I saw the police brutalizing students at Columbia. And I believed that at MIT things would be different.
I saw the militarized police being deployed at UT Austin. And believed that at MIT things would be different.
I saw Ohio State inviting police with live weapons to point them at students. And believed that at MIT things would be different.
But, on Monday May 6th, MIT invited the tactical unit from Cambridge PD, using an unmarked white van (license 155EX1) where police with live rifles was stationed on campus, near Amherst Alley just by the encampment. The same unit was there on Friday morning.
But, on Thursday, May 16th, MIT police brutalized students on Vassar St.
But, on Friday morning, MIT invited an overwhelming militarized police force to arrest its students in the cowardly cover of darkness.
I came to MIT because I want to become a better researcher.
I came to MIT because I believe in its mission to “… work […] for the betterment of humankind”.
I did not come to MIT to see the Institute go after its students and community.
I did not come to MIT to see the Institute deprive its students of housing.
I did not come to MIT to see the Institute threaten its students with deportation.
I did not come to MIT to see the Institute brutalize its students.
And I certainly did not come to MIT to see the Institute be an active participant in an ongoing genocide, by engineering and researching the weapons for the “Defense” force that is carrying that crime out.
I joined the Scientists Against Apartheid Encampment as a moral obligation.
Therein I found a beautiful community.
A coalition of those who understand that liberation is collective, not individual.
A collective of those who embodied MIT’s motto “mens et manus”, educating the mind and practicing the fight for freedom.
A group of students that embraced each other, learned from each other, and worked for a cause greater than ourselves.
A passionate society that worked to improve our Institute and force it to reckon with its own complicity.
After the deliberate choice of the Administration, I must say, in no unclear terms:
I do not recognize in this administration the ability or competence to protect me or any student on this campus.
You gave the order.
You mistook peace for justice.
You mistook order for liberation.
You brought a disproportionate police force to our campus with live weapons.
When Columbia did the same, a gun went off inside Hinds Hall.
We were frighteningly close to a repeat of Kent State or Jackson State.
And still, with the benefit of all that hindsight, you decided to bring live weapons onto our campus.
As someone who saw, in the flesh, students at Emerson College being beaten by the police, where the blood of students from the Boston area (including MIT) had to be pressure-washed off the floor.
As someone who saw, in the flesh, students at Northeastern University standing off against police and being arrested unceremoniously and being refused medical attention, even after people fainted behind the police line.
As someone who has spent too many nights outside police precincts, looking for my friends and hoping they were safe.
As someone who has walked too many nights on the street, looking for signs we would be next.
As someone who has spent too many mornings in courthouses to support my comrades.
As someone who now has trouble falling asleep, as the images of the violence in Gaza and in Boston are etched onto my mind.
I ask of you. Be brave.
Stop this now.
Drop the charges.
Cut the ties.
I did not go to the camp after people were told to leave last Monday, but the arrests and suspensions have greatly emotionally impacted me as many people I know were arrested or suspended. Additionally, the statements about suspensions were vague and threatening, so I wondered every day if I would wake up to a suspension for participating in earlier protests. This gave me so much anxiety that I haven’t been able to complete my final projects well and am now, for instance, looking to scrape by with a C in a class I previously had an A in, and I’ve had to start a new medication as my anxiety in the past two weeks has become so severe. I’ve felt quite miserable but can’t seek support, as all student support is related to admin and I would fear retaliation. Again, I was not even there when or after people were told to leave, so I imagine people who are under more threat from admin would feel more stress. It quickly feels like any protest or expression of dissent has quickly become illegal on campus.
am an older graduate student at MIT. I came to the US as an undergraduate from the Arab world in the aftermath of September 11, when I was bombarded with horrifyingly racist statements made in the media and on the streets that linger with me to this day. For the past 7 months, these statements have become amplified and are being made with impunity. Having experienced the things I did, this wasn’t surprising. The shocking part was to encounter such messages being made in verbal and written form by counter-protestors who were MIT students and faculty on MIT’s campus and to then write to MIT administrators to complain about this only to have my emails completely ignored. Signs (by counterprotestors which encamped students did not remove in order to keep the peace) read that students at the encampment – in incredibly radicalized terms – were terrorists, rape supporters, the next Boston marathon bombers, etc. This was not only offensive but dangerous in the current political climate.
Many other things have since been disappointing, including: the administration’s continued false portrayal of the peaceful and inclusive encampment as violent, disruptive, and expressing hateful sentiments; the brutality exercised by the police called in by the administration against peaceful picketers, which involved shoving non-resisting students onto the asphalt and kneeing them in the back; the use of hundreds of armed police to sweep the encampment – as Sally Kornbluth reminded us in her email ‘on her order’ – as students slept in the middle of the night; and the draconian and arbitrary punishments being doled out by an administration that controls and is making use of the fact that it controls students’ housing, pay, access to food, visas, and so forth. And all of this of course against students non-violently and conscientiously dissenting to genocide and the university’s complicity in it.
But the insult that is being added on top of all this injury is that the administration, with Sally Kornbluth speaking on its behalf, is suggesting that this is being done for the safety of our community. I’m not sure who is feeling safe right now given what the administration has done and continues to do. I certainly don’t feel safe. As you can see from other testimonies, many besides me don’t feel safe as well. It seems it’s not our safety that really matters or that the institution really cares about. This couldn’t have been made clearer. And neither could the use of ‘law and order’ to suppress objection most disappointingly of all at an institute of higher learning which is meant to be where people think, question, and express themselves. I am disgusted by MIT and cannot wait to leave this place and never look back. I leave it with beautiful memories, however, of the wonderful, diverse, ethical, and caring community that was built on Kresge lawn over a few weeks before it was shut down by what was effectively an army!
It might be too late to send this, but I wanted to get this on record regardless.
When my girlfriend got arrested and the encampment was torn down, this shredded my emotional support systems. My partner and the food consistently available at the encampment were both really important as a sense of stability during these times before being ripped away from me. Suddenly I was tasked with supporting my partner (which of course I did without hesitation) but it’s just. So ridiculous how MIT can just inflict suffering like this. The world is already difficult enough to navigate on its own and MIT is just making it so much worse for its students who care. It already had been a hard semester, it being MIT and thinking about the ongoing genocide (too many twitter doom scrolls). There’s a lot of grief and anger and frustration to process on it’s own, and it’s only made far more difficult by how MIT is responding.
I’ve also found it incredibly difficult to focus on my final projects. How am I supposed to just focus on my finals when I can see the images that I’ve seen coming out from Gaza and know that MIT is part of the problem. That MIT is completely happy to be an institution that benefits from the bombing of children, the murder of children, the genocide of a people. There is a deep rage in me as a result of this fact. I can only hope that things will change. And they’re going to change from continued pressure, not because MIT suddenly gains a moral conscience that doing stuff with governments doing war crimes is bad (despite their statements with regards to Russian research ties).
When the encampment was torn down and I was talking to my girlfriend, we were deeply crying to one another. We lost a place that meant so much to us. Our faith in life had dwindled that day. We still keep going because of our principles but still.
There is also a grief of a lost “university experience” that we were socially promised. My principles dictate that this loss is nothing compared to what is happening in Gaza, but I do let myself feel a sadness at this fact.
Also, I can feel that my girlfriend is to some extent traumatized by the police arrest she undertook. She plays it into jokes whenever the police are around but I know that she has become incredibly aware of what police are willing to do to you, a human. What they have done to her. The police officer who booked her was the one who killed fellow college student Faisal in Cambridge. The absolute disgust and fear when she realized this, combined with the lack of agency to do anything. The fact that there are police officers who have publicly, loudly, killed a college student and that these are the people “keeping the peace” with college students? Terrifying. Can’t forget Kent State.
Hope these anecdotes were helpful.
MIT administration is ruining my life.
When I came to MIT, I saw it as a chance for a better future. One where I broke through the poverty line. One where I could escape my abusive household. One where I am free to be the person that I am. Instead of that bright future I was hoping for, MIT has forced me into a horrible reality.
MIT has forced me into homelessness. As part of the interim suspension (an action taken with at best dubious and at worst fraudulent evidence) MIT removed my dorm housing. Unlike most students at this school, I have nowhere to go. My family does not have the money to support me, and I can’t go back home because of all the trauma they’ve put me through growing up. When I came to one of the most renowned universities in the planet, I didn’t expect to have to be couch surfing to have a roof over my head.
Police are constantly watching and targeting me specifically. MITPD officers have been taking pictures of me whenever I’m just out walking on the street or talking to my friends. Every time I see an officer, they’re staring at me, looking for any excuse to pull their guns out. I don’t feel safe because I know I’m constantly being watched. When I go outside, I have to hide my identity to protect my life, fearing the brutality fellow protesters have endured from the police.
My mental health is shattered from the situation. My psychiatrist is requesting constant meetings, even over the weekends, out of concern for my safety. He even suggested the option of hospitalization to ensure that I don’t take any actions to harm myself. And I do not blame him. Having my housing, career, and future stripped away from the very institution that I thought would be my saving grace, I don’t feel like I have many options anymore. The thoughts of wanting to escape this unbearable reality MIT is forcing me through have been consuming me.
What horrible action did I take to deserve this? I just thought that my school shouldn’t be researching weapons that kill innocent people. I am advocating for the right for Palestinians to exist, and my punishment is having my life torn apart in my face. I see no justice in this institution. Drop the charges, cut the ties.
I am an Indigenous woman [REDACTED] student in [REDACTED].
I do not even know where to start, I started the PhD program last fall and very quickly I noticed things in MIT that were not sitting well with me. Starting with the disproportionate police presence on campus. Is incredibly distressing for me to see armed police inside buildings, to see police cars every time I come to school and every time I leave. I did my master’s at [REDACTED], and not even there did I see those kinds of things.
Just these months, I have seen my friends thrown to the ground by the police. Members of the Israel Alliance harass my Jewish friends by forcibly asking them if they support terrorism. As an Indigenous person this is incredibly distressing for me. The Israel Alliance members also made signs saying they are Indigenous too. While I support everyone to claim their Indigeneity, this didn’t feel honest, and they were obviously trying to provoke the Indigenous students in the encampment. Indigenous identities should not be weaponized. I had to go through very difficult conversations and processes to be able to call myself Indigenous with pride and I find deeply distressing and disrespectful that this individuals are just making fun of such sacred term: Indigenous.
I have also presence threats, specifically by [REDACTED], who yelled at a woman who was just taking a video of a protest. He yelled “you won’t get a job.” I have also experienced harassment. Outside the student center, an old man affiliated with the Israel Alliance who saw me covering my face came to me and said, “oh baby I got your face already you won’t get a job,” I felt unsafe by his patronizing and patriarchal claims. I walked away and he wanted to follow me, but some nice old lady stopped him.
MIT does not have vibrant community spaces, neither does it have spaces where students from different cultures come together to share and learn. The encampment was a highlight of my experience here, because there I felt safe and in community. MIT has much to learn from the encampment. There we laughed, the danced, we learn about Judaism, Islam, Indigeneity. There was always food for everyone. People brought their pets, their children. It was also a point of connection with the people in the Cambridge community. MIT as an institution has none of those qualities. It is isolated from the community, it is policed, it is not welcoming, food is nor affordable, there is no public space that is not policed, and green spaces don’t have shade. Two days ago my Indigenous friend got kicked out from the lawn outside the student center.
The institution must reflect on how they are treating their students of color. MIT claims to embrace diversity, but when we want to speak up, they don’t like it anymore.
Finally, I want to say that the students that have been suspended, particularly [REDACTED], are one of the most caring, intelligent, and respectful people I know. The administration portrays them as ‘troublemakers’ but they are the soul and core of our community, they represent us and they contribute immensely to our learning journeys. It is deeply unfair that our side, having not engaged in any confrontation is being punished while the Israel Alliance members having insulted, threatened, and intimidated us, don’t get any consequences. It seems to me that MIT cares more about their lawn than their people.
Dear Administration,
I am a [REDACTED] student here at MIT and given the recent student repression, I am choosing to remain anonymous. I am writing to ask that the administration stop to consider the toll they are having on the entire student body with the decisions they have been making.
The last couple of weeks have been extremely hard for me. It’s hard enough to wake up to constant news of mass graves, civilian massacres, and an ongoing slaughter. I had to celebrate mothers day knowing that every hour, two mothers in Gaza are murdered. I see terrifying news of drones in Gaza and know that none of it would be possible without research done right here on campus. But on top of this all, I walk into work every day knowing that I have to choose between speaking out for the people of Gaza or protecting myself and my education from the administration’s repression. I am watching with horror every day as some of the bravest people I know are facing suspension, evictions, and arrests at the hands of the institute for simply using their right to free speech and protest.
This has had a serious toll on my mental health. I’ve had difficulty sleeping or eating the amount I should, and I can’t focus on my work at all. I live in a constant state of fear, anxiety, horror, and anger. I’m scared to even go to MIT mental health about this since I don’t feel I can trust any part of the institute to respect my rights anymore.
I’ve been at MIT a long time; I started as an undergraduate here. I’ve never felt so betrayed by the school I have chosen time and again to make my home. I am urging you to please consider the consequences of your actions. Ignoring these student’s rights is harming the entire campus and you are choosing to look away.
Please, drop the unjust student suspensions and start protecting your students and their rights.
Sincerely,
Your Terrified Student
- The material and emotional toll of the administration’s unilateral actions has been heavy on me. My academic career is derailed.
- I do not know how I will pay rent this summer. I do not know if my instructors will fail me for the courses I’ve worked diligently in the whole semester. I don’t know if I will be permanently banned from campus for staying in the encampment past 2:30pm when hundreds of my colleagues eventually did the same.
- My academic advisor has abandoned me because he has ambitions to become an administrator himself.
- Never has it been clearer to me that the institutions around me have manifestly failed, that they’re more committed to state violence than moral principles, that they prefer order over justice, profit over people, Bill Ackman over me, elitism over democracy. This is deeply radicalizing source of despair and ennui.
- I’ve watched my colleagues and I get banned from campus, arrested, evicted, and our funding frozen without much due process or faculty input. This is a source of great disillusionment.
- I thought MIT was a place that encourages critical thinking, working toward the ‘betterment of humankind’, that welcomes challenges and creative thinking and talks about ‘standing against hate’ and ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’
- Where was DEI when they sent the police to pummel us on the asphalt? What is more emancipatory than challenging a genocide and speaking truth to power? How can I think critically and not see the university as a nexus of power that supports and launders the reputation of an Israeli apartheid state? How can they say we think creatively and not offer any creative way to come an understanding and reduce Israeli military funding?
- It’s clear there are ideological and financial interests at MIT invested in the status quo, and I’ve come to believe this will only change through a vigorous, disruptive anti-war movement that uses classic tactics of civil disobedience and protest. Disruptive student activism is part of the American political tradition. MIT should welcome it and respond gracefully to it.
- How can they say we stand against hate but not against genocide? How can they say they’re following rules and then act above the law to evict people without court orders? Since when is it okay for MIT to think of itself as a dictatorship and company town that makes its own rules?
- Day after day at the encampment, we faced down an increasingly aggressive counter-protestor movement; people have screamed spittle and verbal abuse in my face for hours, called me all sorts of heinous things (‘rape apologist’, ‘terrorist’, Jew-hating bigots), told me they hoped I would get anally raped in Gaza, blasted their ‘genocide pop’ songs at us that glorify the Israeli assault on Gaza, and defaced our own property and art.
- We tried our best to de-escalate, avoid confrontation, be respectful, calm, and disciplined in our demands on the admin. Some of those agitators are MIT students, but I guarantee you they will not be suspended or face any administrative penalties, even though they manifestly broke Chancellor Nobles’ ultimatum and MIT rules, too. Instead, the President paints us as the instigators; she cherry-picks anecdotes and mistranslates slogans that suit her narrative of what happened. The administrators entombed us behind fences and checkpoints in a bizarrely reminiscent display of the West Bank settler landscape I myself witnessed.
- In fact, despite all the moral panic that American campuses have been ideologically captured by the very people MIT administrators just fought a war against, it’s never been clearer who is really in charge. The actions of the past few weeks have confirmed to me that donors, trustees and, increasingly, politicians are willing to flout all the principles of faculty governance and due process in order to transform MIT into a corporation hellbent on the accumulation of capital and prestige, where the professors are precarious contractors and students are customers.
- I am afraid someone will commit suicide out of sheer hopelessness. It is a dark, dark place to be right now for any MIT student who believes in democracy and who takes a stand against Israeli fascism and apartheid. The self-censorship, fear, and despair I’ve encountered among my MIT colleagues is pervasive. My Christian faith sustains me personally, but I cannot speak for my MIT friends who are more isolated, unresponsive, and disillusioned.
- It’s also clear to me administrators are (1) targeting students of color based on dubious reporting and misidentification, and (2) illegally evicting people without court orders and conditioning their right to housing on the abandonment of constitutionally protected civil liberties. This is shocking to me and has the potential to leave lasting impact, despite the supposedly ‘interim’ nature of the suspensions.
- It’s more depressing that they’re getting away with it. The Insitute would rather use violence against us than comply with its obligations to human rights law.
- Apparently our collective bargaining agreement, our civil liberties, our due process provisions, Massachusetts tenant law mean nothing.
- They already disbanded the encampment; what more do they want? To make an example out of us poor f*cks so the next people don’t get any ideas?
- I have always seen the faculty as the soul of the university; no administrative initiative gets off the ground without them. They’re the ones that make MIT an attractive place to go, who care about their own students, who do the teaching, direct the research, inspire and motivate us intellectually, and provide a safeguard to administrative excess.
- Will you then stand up for us now? The world is watching. I am watching. And maybe someday I will be your colleague.
- You will have to face God or history for what you choose now to do, and what you do not. May you take the initiative now with what the Palestinians call samoud. What I call stamina or fire in the belly. The world is watching.
I am writing to express my deep concern about recent administrative decisions and their impact on the well-being of MIT students, including myself. While the administration claims to be protecting students, the reality is far from it.
The recent evictions and suspensions have created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty on campus. Instead of feeling protected, many students, myself included, feel vulnerable and marginalized. The actions taken by the administration have left us questioning our safety and security within our own academic community. The evictions of students from the encampment have disrupted not only their living arrangements but also their sense of belonging and support on campus. These students, who were advocating for important social justice issues, have been met with harsh punitive measures instead of understanding and dialogue. Similarly, the suspensions handed out to students involved in protests have had severe repercussions. Rather than feeling protected, these students feel targeted and silenced. The administration’s actions have created a chilling effect, discouraging students from exercising their rights to free speech and peaceful protest.
Academically, the suspensions have been incredibly disruptive. Many of my friends who were involved in the protests are now struggling to keep up with their coursework. The uncertainty and stress of potential disciplinary actions have made it nearly impossible for them to focus. Deadlines are being missed, thesis projects are in jeopardy, and the fear of not graduating on time is very real. As a senior, the prospect of delayed graduation is terrifying, especially after investing so much effort over the past few years.
Financially, the impact has been equally severe. The cost of legal fees and the potential loss of funding and housing are significant concerns. For my international friends, the stakes are even higher as their visa statuses are at risk. This added financial strain is overwhelming, especially considering many of us already juggle tight budgets.
Emotionally, the climate on campus has become suffocating. The increased police presence and the fear of potential arrests have created a pervasive sense of anxiety. I find myself constantly on edge, unable to concentrate on my studies, and feeling unsafe in a place that used to be my sanctuary. Seeing my friends forcefully arrested and treated harshly has been emotionally devastating. It’s heartbreaking to watch them go through this, knowing how much it affects their mental health and sense of security.
The lack of support from the administration has only amplified these feelings of isolation and distress. It feels like the institution we trusted has turned its back on us, prioritizing punishment over understanding. The emotional and psychological toll of these experiences is profound and enduring.
I urge the administration to reconsider its approach and prioritize the well-being and rights of all students. It is crucial that MIT uphold its values of inclusivity, respect, and support for social justice activism.
as much as i joke about my own situation, it’s clear that the institutes treatment of my friends and i and constant harassment from counter protestors has taken a psychological toll on me. i’m constantly anxious and panicked; i couldn’t sleep for two days straight last week because my heart kept racing. whatever sleep i do get is plagued with nightmares about being attacked by counterprotestors and being arrested again. i feel like throwing up every time every time i walk past the cops around the stata garage. i have little energy and often feel hopeless.
i fell behind in my academics and had to OX some classes. my friends and i have been harassed for weeks by drunk undergrads at three in the morning and random professors shouting obscenities and covering our paintings of flowers and hopeful messages with defamations of our encampment. i’ve received messages from counterprotestors insulting my appearance and telling me that i deserve to be raped for supporting palestinian liberation. i cried when a counterprotestor covered the 34,000 tally marks that we painted — each one represented a Palestinian that was massacred — with an israeli flag and then laughed/celebrated and recorded us; a police officer told us that we needed to “be the bigger person”.
i mourn the destruction of our encampment; to be honest, is the strongest and most vibrant community i’ve encountered throughout my time at MIT, and the first time i’ve felt truly empowered to take action over my own fate and care for the world and it’s people, and it’s so incredibly disheartening to know that mit thinks of this community as a blight. i was devastated that so many of our things — our artwork, books, gardens, and food — was dumped into the trash and recycling, including one very precious sentimental item that i left in my tent. it hurts that at this difficult time, i no longer have a space to turn to that always has consistently-available meals (particularly important to me as a food-insecure undergrad) and friendly faces to talk to.
i loathe how mit did what it did to “ensure student safety” — by slamming my friends and i into the concrete, by suspended my peers and leaving their academic fates uncertain, by evicting the people i love (and me, though just for a weekend) from their housing. at first, i worried that whatever happened to me was “my fault”, but after reflecting, i don’t regret what i did in any way whatsoever — mit’s unwillingness to negotiate left me with no other choices.
there’s a genocide going on. israel starting invading rafah on may 6th, after so many people had been evacuated there after their own hometowns were gone. people are being forced into concentration camps. so long as mit makes the bombs that kill children, i don’t care if the institute thinks of my comrades and i as “a problem”, and i cannot force myself to care about doing physics problems.
it is so, so incredibly clear which side mit is on — to be honest, i think mit may have one of the most pro-israel responses of the universities i’ve seen thus far.
but i hope mit knows that so long as the technologies being created here are being used to slaughter the men, women, and children of Gaza, my friends and i will keep fighting. we will not be shut up!!
i call on mit to stick by its stated values; let’s build a better world, not bombs. i know this is unlikely, but i know that the only way out of this situation is to retain irrational hope and to remain steadfast.
Statement from suspended student on administration decisions:
The administrative decisions to suspend and arrest students has deeply disrupted my life, my family’s life, and caused me emotional and financial distress. I am supposed to be graduating in two weeks and this interim suspension puts my graduation, my income, and my ability to begin my job after graduating at risk. My family is now also struggling to make ends meet because we depend on my fellowship and research funding, both of which have been cut off.
The uncertainty around my graduation and completing my degree, as well as the financial precarity that this has placed on us, have led to significant stress not only for me, but also for my partner and my family who are traveling to see me graduate. This interim suspension has put me in a very precarious position and I am honestly shocked that MIT would treat its own students so coldly and go against its own precedents and policies in pursuing this action.
The suspension suggests that it is reasonable to deny due process and suspend us at the end of the semester without a disciplinary process because we pose a threat to the ‘safety and well-being’ of our classmates and the MIT community. I find this incredibly troubling. I and many other students involved in these protests have given significant time and energy to the institute and our various departments, in order to make MIT a more inclusive, welcoming, and just place. These administrative decisions and the way that due process has been denied and perverted have left me disappointed in the institute and I am no longer proud to be a student and future alumnus here.
While I and many others have fought to make changes at MIT, I can accept that the institute is not perfect, but the vindictive, heavy-handed, and discriminatory way that this process has been handled has truly surprised me. MIT does not stand for the values I thought that it did, and the administration has shown that they are willing to dole out selective and authoritarian punishments, rather than truly engage in a process of self-examination and possible transformation.
In addition, the nature of these suspensions has made it so I will likely not be able to complete one of my degrees at MIT, and I honestly am not sure that I want to anymore. Even if this suspension is lifted, I don’t know that I want to continue being a student here. I am truly truly disappointed in this institution, and you have made me for the first time question if I made a mistake by choosing this school. I have talked with hundreds of applicants to the two programs that I’ve been involved in at MIT and have always maintained that it is a great learning environment even while there are challenges. I can no longer in good faith serve as an ambassador for this institute. Your actions have crushed the spirit of optimism, innovation, and principled leadership that I used to approach my work with.
Here are some bullet points on how the administration’s actions over the last few months have affected me:
* The constant police surveillance and police presence has made me feel unsafe
* The police being used to forcefully remove and push students to the ground has also made me feel unsafe. Students who were engaging in peaceful protest had the police violently shove them dozens of times. Then, they arrested the students
* Counter protestors have shown up to our protests countless times with the aim of provoking us, and we have remained calm and peaceful, yet we are the ones getting brutalized, arrested, suspended, and evicted
* I was set to graduate this semester, and after 4 years of hard work I do not know if I will get the degree I worked for, just because I am calling for an end to a genocide and an end to MIT’s complicity in it
* Due to MIT’s eviction, I needed to plan to move out 2 weeks before originally planned, leaving me in limbo for at least 2 weeks, but almost certainly more given that I now don’t know how, when, or if I’ll be able to finish my degree
* I am not a grad student, but both housing AND pay for grad students has been taken away from them, making them house less and without a source of income to pay for necessities like food.
* I was not on a meal plan, but taking away undergrad meal plans is also heinous because the meal plan isn’t cheap and was already paid for, and now they will not have a source of food
* Overall, the actions of the administration have made it clear to me that they would rather brutalize us, arrest us, suspend us, and evict us
hi! I’m really tired and haven’t got the energy to write something detailed, but I wanted to give my two cents on the general campus climate in the past few weeks. my friends have been getting suspended and arrested for protesting a cause that we all believe in, and while we’re all united in this, it’s really disheartening to talk to people outside my immediate circle and realize that not everyone believes this strongly for advocating for people outside of our own lives. and my friends who are selfless enough to advocate for the people of palestine are getting disciplined for it, and even with community support it’s still really difficult for them, especially for people who are getting evicted and have to immediately uproot their lives and rely on friends to get back on their feet.
when the encampment was still up, it was this great community space that was open to everyone, and always had food and care and company. and everyone there stood for the same humanitarian cause. but in the last week of its existence, being at the encampment was this tense and horrible thing, where I always felt like I was going to be suspended by admin, a group that is supposed to help us. I walked everywhere with my face covered and I was always tense, and this was all because I wanted to show support for the palestinians currently facing immense tragedy. and then admin decided to crack down on its demands, with police brutality, instead of just talking to us.
I don’t know how much of this is helpful but I want to thank you for advocating for us. I hope it does something. my friends are a lot more stressed than I am and they’ve been fighting for a lot longer than I have, to no avail. I respect them so much but they shouldn’t have to be doing this.
Hello,
I am writing to express concerns over how recent actions by the MIT administration in relation to student protests have harmed the wellbeing of my peers and myself.
Police on MIT campus have violently harassed, inappropriately touched, and racially profiled peaceful pro-Palestine protesters at multiple points, including an instance where an office reached for their gun against a peaceful community member. This is unacceptable and has made me feel significantly less safe on campus, especially in the broader context of police misconduct in Boston and Cambridge.
While I’m more concerned with police violence than civilian actions, I believe it is also worth mentioning that pro-Israel agitators have doxed, inappropriately touched, and made threatening/racist/antisemitic comments towards my peers over the past few months. I believe that how admin has treated pro-Palestine students, and the associated double standards, may be emboldening such actions.
In responding to peaceful protestors who have attempted negotiation with the administration, MIT has used eviction and cutting funding/food access as a punishment for its community members. These punishments have been incredibly destructive to the MIT community and my sense of belonging within it, are completely disproportionate to the accused policy violations, and as I understand it, are a violation of MITs core principles and union contracts.
While responding to campus tensions, MIT has repeatedly made misleading and even false statements about protest situations. This is a repeated issue, so I will point to the publications of the SAGE organization, factuality letters, and student dormspams as places to see examples of it. I have found this trend deeply distressing, as a commitment to truth and knowledge is one of the most important values of MIT.
Speaking personally, MIT’s actions have made me feel unsafe on campus, unwelcome in the community, and greatly distracted from my work. These stresses and fears weigh on me every day. The administrations choice to continuously accept partnerships with a government that leading human rights groups have condemned for war crimes and apartheid practices is shameful. MIT’s actions have made it clear to me that student wellbeing is not a priority for the administration. This is a problem which must be fixed, and I urge MIT in the strongest terms to reevaluate its choices and negotiate in actual good faith with students.
Best regards,
Ceasefire Now
Hi acf, you asked for statements; here’s mine.
I am a PhD student who took part in the SAGE demonstration over the course of the past few weeks. I found the encampment to be an exceedingly welcoming and diverse space for any individual who approached it with good intentions, whether or not they were aligned with the demonstration politically. I heard and engaged in many challenging conversations about identity, politics, and place. SAGE was the only place at MIT that I have felt legitimately engaged with not only the overall MIT community outside my own department, but with our local community in general, on equal footing. I had the opportunity to engage meaningfully with a wide range of students, faculty, and community members– in many ways, I feel that SAGE represented not only what I was looking for in coming to MIT, but that it represented what MIT claims to strive to be: a space for true ‘dialogue across differences’, collective problem solving and creativity, a space to learn about other fields of study and walks of life. I’m saddened that MIT was unable to see this (or really, that MIT’s claims to striving towards such an environment are simply cosmetic). I’m also saddened that MIT has repeatedly portrayed the community members– local musicians, parents, alumni, a few very friendly zen Buddhists– that engaged with the encampment as somehow a ‘threat’ or as ‘agitators’. MIT cannot claim to be an ‘open campus’ or a space that is open to engaging with the community and then turn around to criticize genuine, warm, positive community engagement as ‘agitation’. SAGE was also a space that many students who have been struggling to manage the knowledge of the ongoing genocide in Palestine and the horrible stories and images we have all been exposed to were finally able to come support each other and find solace in community. I saw, in particular, that the space was incredibly meaningful to Palestinian students who have largely been denied such a space at MIT.
At the same time, MIT’s treatment of the encampment and those of us who engaged with it has caused me and others a great deal of stress, discomfort, fear, and in many cases personal, physical harm. The administration has repeatedly used language that suggested that we were aggressive, violent, or malicious, despite the fact that the engagement was peaceful even in the face of harassment. We were repeatedly harassed by ‘counterprotestors’– zionist students and faculty who came to try to start arguments or provoke some kind of unrest, who brandished insulting signs at us, who attempted to physically intimidate us by surrounding individuals or shoving phones in our faces. Those same individuals repeatedly questioned the identity of Jewish students who were present at the encampment, called them ‘self-hating’, and made other antisemitic remarks that they have not and I suspect will not face any kind of consequences for. In addition, the administration has repeatedly erased the existence of those same Jewish students in their emails. I’ve observed the psychological toll this has taken on my Jewish friends who were involved in SAGE and question why the administration is so concerned about Jewish safety and comfort only when the Jewish students in question hold a certain political position. In addition, I question why the administration is so deeply concerned about the perceived safety and comfort of a particular politically aligned group of students– IA– while they ignore the safety and comfort of Palestinian and Arab students and those of us who stand with them. No reasonable person would question that Palestinian students in particular are going through an incredibly difficult time right now– some of them are receiving news of their families, friends and neighbors being killed horribly, experiencing starvation, or are operating with the knowledge that they may not have a home to return to. Why don’t they deserve support? Why is the administration not going out of their way to provide them comfort? Why is it that when we finally created a space that did provide them support and community, after the administration had denied them such a space for months, we were treated as a threat? Why does the administration repeatedly use racially tinged rhetoric suggesting that we, peaceful demonstrators, are aggressive or violent? It seems obvious to me that the administration’s stance so far has been explicitly racist towards Palestinian and Arab students.
I repeatedly observed the same group of students, employees, and faculty coming to the encampment draped in flags to personally harass students who were simply studying and playing music, to say terrible things to and about us. They accused us of supporting rape. At one point one of the counterprotestors brandished a sign at me and another visibly queer student suggesting that our anti-genocide stance was somehow inherently homophobic. Those same “counterprotestors”, after coming to harass us, would then go on to talk about how ‘unsafe’ our presence made them feel, and the administration seems to have taken them at their word. Although we, the students at SAGE, did not engage with these acts of aggression, they took a psychological toll on many of us– one that the administration clearly does not care about.
In the past two weeks, the stress and fear that many of us have experienced has only intensified. Most of us have struggled to get enough sleep, have felt under constant threat from both the zionist group on campus and from police. The police surveillance, including individuals in plain clothes taking photos and videos of us, caused me and many others significant anxiety and an intense feeling of discomfort. The massive police presence we have seen on campus in recent weeks is, honestly, terrifying. Why is MIT calling in hundreds of police in riot gear, the equivalent of a small army, to confront unarmed peaceful protestors? Why does MIT equate students pulling down a fence– which, from my perspective, was necessary to make what was going on inside the encampment visible to the public, to protect students inside from both “counterprotestors” and police with a history of violent action against peaceful protestors– to violence? And why is brutally arresting peacefully demonstrating students, shoving them to the ground, physically picking them up, almost ripping off their clothes, putting knees on their backs– not violence?
I could say much more about this, but my ultimate takeaway is that the administration’s actions have repeatedly caused students who were simply engaged in a peaceful demonstration significant stress, fear, and material harm, making it difficult or impossible for us to care for ourselves or attend to our work. Trying to prepare for my exams has become nearly impossible, not because I am taking time away from studying, but because it is cognitively impossible to study effectively while my friends are being evicted and brutalized by police. The administration has blatantly allowed members of IA and their allies in the faculty and staff to engage in hateful speech. They have not disciplined them for many of the same things that they disciplined students involved in SAGE for, including being inside the encampment last Monday after 2:30. In my view the administration has been both racist (in particular towards Palestinian and Arab students) and antisemitic (toward antizionist Jewish students) in their recent actions, and has created an incredibly hostile climate on campus for anyone who does not hold the political views that the administration clearly favors.
Hello!
I am an undergraduate who would like to remain anonymous but report an impact statement from the actions of administration. I no longer feel safe on campus and have spent the last couple of weeks in a state of stress being unsure and most recently scared of what they might do next. This is hurt my sleep and my resting heart rate is up 10bpm. It’s been almost impossible to focus on my work and it has suffered as a result. I was considering applying to grad school here but am reconsidering my plans because I don’t trust administration.
Hello,
I am writing to explain the impact administration’s action has had on me with their response to student protests. I will say that the response of admin to student protest is horrifying. It shows a terrible lack of care for the institute, its students, its workers, its alumni and all other affiliates. The use of police to suppress student protest has made me personally feel unsafe. The changing of MIT rules to suppress student protests (the new protest guidelines) has made me lose the shining eyed view I had of the institute. I feel that the inability of MIT to resolve in good faith has destroyed my perception of administration, I no longer believe they are working for the best of the students. The use of interim suspensions as a punitive tool demonstrates that MIT does not care for the safety of any of its affiliates. The lack of due process for those affected by the interim punishments is deplorable and shows how quickly MIT resorts to threats to keep affiliates in line. Expecting affiliates to find new housing within a weeks notice is not realistic and administration knows this. They just do not care. For a more personal view, I have seen friends be shoved, harassed, tracked down, thrown and more by police. There are videos circulating of police response to protest near Stata Garage that show protestors being manhandled for protesting. There are images circulating of police with their hand on their holsters. I have OX’d classes because I cannot work in this environment. I have sat for hours considering this whole situation because I can’t stop thinking about it. I know my friends aren’t safe when they protest. I know I am not safe when I protest. No one is safe in an environment where the police are used as a tool of control, where interim punishments can be issued without COD oversight. I hope administration reconsiders its use of interim punishments as tools, because in truth, all that establishes is that the institute cares more about control than its affiliates.
Sincerely,
A disappointed undergraduate student
To whom it should concern,
The present administration’s actions, since October but especially in this past month, have left me seriously questioning its ability to lead the Institute in the right direction. It has characterized itself as more concerned with its political standing than the explicit voice of its student population. Its comfort with violence, along with the shameless othering language used time and again has left me and many others I know feeling disappointed and alienated. I am fortunate to have my family close at hand, but now more than ever I do not view the MIT administration as part of the community I hold here. Rather, I have witnessed it threaten said community without rhyme or reason, deceitfully, in bad faith, and ultimately unsuccessfully. Its policies have crystallized the hierarchy within MIT; of whose safety is prioritized, whose concerns are heeded, whose comfort matters. Campus has become a police state, saturated in surveillance which distracts from the academics it purports to protect. If I had known this is what the administration stood for, I would not have chosen to come here. I intend to finish what I started, but unless there is divestment from genocide, I cannot in good conscience publicly represent the Institute as “my university”. I can only hope this will not be the case for long.
Hello,
I’m writing to share some of my thoughts on the MIT community climate in May 2024, in light of the recent events taking place on campus.
While I’ve been grateful to have such supportive classmates and friends, I can’t help but feel disheartened and uncomfortable by the MIT administration’s actions to peaceful protest on campus, and the resulting deterioration of my feelings of safety on campus.
As a person with brown skin and south Asian heritage growing up in the United States, I remember hearing my parents tell me about what it was like navigating life in the political climate of the immediate aftermath of the horrifying events of 9/11. They used to tell me about a plethora of racist incidents against them suddenly, ferociously escalating, and I used to wonder what it would feel like to experience that in a country I call home. I no longer have to wonder – disconcertingly long glares from police (campus and city) on and around campus, especially in the wake of well-documented aggression and threats towards primarily black and brown students on campus, make my skin crawl. I lowered my gaze whenever walking to and from classes and research or homework engagements around campus if counter protestors to the Palestinian supporters were around, fearing that my presence would be taken as a threat. I tried not to be seen publicly offering comfort, care, or support to classmates who donned keffiyehs, fearing that doing so would put me at risk of being doxed, threatened, or harassed, as so many of my classmates who look like me have experienced recently. I feel completely unable to come to any of the supportive avenues MIT administration has outlined, fearing that my concerns for my work and safety in light of the intimidating environment created by police violence towards students and escalation by members of the MIT-Israel alliance when trying to have conversations will be taken as antisemitism – despite having a firm commitment to not partaking in any form of identity discrimination, including the abhorrent act that is antisemitism, despite dedicating my life and work towards engaging in uncomfortable conversations to create deeper understanding between community members, and despite having Jewish family members who I care for deeply.
The only time I have felt safe is when students who have been threatened, harassed, or arrested for partaking in peaceful protest somehow find within themselves the strength and compassion to tell me it will be ok, and that community will always look out for each other. I’ve seen such strength, such maturity, and such leadership from the coalition of Muslim, Jewish, and humanist students who have continued a tradition of peaceful protest for humanitarian reasons, and the complete lack thereof in the administration’s response, which continues to rightfully condemn the horrifying actions of October 7 against innocent Israeli people and wrongfully somehow equate peaceful protest with support of those actions.
I maintain that criticizing a governments action is not criticizing a people, and I completely abhor any behavior that even construes itself as antisemitic. I have deep love, respect, and admiration for my Jewish brothers and sisters, and am so grateful to continually learn about the richness of culture and history, along with the legacy of deep care, they carry with them every day at an earlier point in my life. I am so grateful to have been privileged to take part in both my first Jewish and Muslim prayer led by peaceful protestors, and witness students on Kresge lawn helping each other with homework, sharing books and essays about the historical context of our current situation, and supporting each other unconditionally every time I passed by to go to the gym or visit the student center.
I am so disappointed, but not at all surprised, that a wealthy scientific institution continues to dismiss, overlook, and sideline the health, safety, and requests of its black and brown students, who are disproportionately targeted by police and surveillance efforts, and whose actions are never given the benefit of the doubt. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to be away from the campus environment for a couple of weeks, and dreading returning to more sneers from armed police for walking around campus while having the color of skin that I do.
I’d also like to add one more thing if its not too late that I was weighing sharing earlier – counterprotestors to the Scientists Against Genocide, the supporters of Palestine, and the graduate student union frequently hold signs and/or chant slogans suggesting these groups either endorse sexual assault or should be subject to it. As someone who has experienced sexual harassment and assault and is still receiving counseling to try and recover, this is absolutely horrifying to me and leaves me incredibly distressed and fearful, to an extent that I have difficulty going about my day.
I’m [REDACTED]. I was arrested and put on full interim suspension for protesting MITs ties to the IDF. My stipend was eliminated indefinitely and i’ve had to solicit aid for basic necessities like groceries, rent and medical care. I’ve also been barred from doing research, ruining experiments planned months in advance. The time wasted dealing with these consequences is exacerbated by navigating MIT’s Kafkaesque disciplinary process. This is an absurd punishment for peaceful protest, which MIT should rescind immediately.
To whom it may concern,
Campus climate has become quite hostile due to Administration’s actions since November 8th. The flooding of campus with armed police since November 8th has made the campus inherently unsafe and hostile towards black and other minority campus members. This move is in complete opposition to the recommendations of the working group formed in 2020 so there is no excuse that administration wouldn’t have been aware of the detrimental effects such a move would cause MIT’s minority community members. Additionally, it is especially hurtful since Sally Kornbluth, a president hired to increase black enrollment at the university, would enact these changes; emphasizing that the physical safety and mental wellbeing of MIT’s black students will always take second to the wishes of white community members.
My mental health has significantly declined due to the administration’s actions, making class harder and the recent suspensions of predominantly black and brown students has only added to that.
A Black Graduate Student
A few bullets regarding how I, and people around me feel in light of recent decisions by admin:
• unsafe and uncared for. it is genuinely scary how trigger-happy admin has been with depriving students of basic needs like housing and food security. evicting students and banning students from campus (with the threat of a criminal record for trespassing) is a completely disproportionate response and a truly gross exercise of power over students who are just trying to fight for their beliefs peacefully. aside from how morally unjustifiable this already is as a response to protesters against genocide, this also has a lot of very concerning implications about the way that admin will respond to any future protests that challenges institute practices.
• antagonized and under surveillance. the stationing of police everywhere makes us deeply uncomfortable. this is especially in light of students being brutally pushed to the ground over peaceful picketing as well as students witnessing officers pulling out their guns unprovoked. in general it is hard not to feel on edge, with police not just stationed around major traffic areas but also within student-spaces that should feel safe, private, and comfortable. i have personally been aggressively questioned by patrolling police while simply doing work within my course lounge. the increased police presence on campus does not make us feel safe. it does not feel like they are here to protect students, rather they are only here to serve the interests of the admin, which as highlighted above, do not have student safety at the forefront of their priorities, and have a history of mobilizing against us.
• unable to speak freely. people around me do not feel able to voice their opinions for fear of being subjugated punishment by admin. many of us cannot afford these consequences. many of us are on visas or have nowhere else to live, and/or depend on MIT financially. the general sense of being under threat that admin has created on campus is actively a detriment to freedom of speech and expression, which is supposedly a core value of the institute.
thanks
A few days ago, I vomited after a routine procedure at a medical appointment. I felt gross and embarrassed and I wasn’t totally sure why it had happened until I processed it with my therapist. He suggested that after the past week and a half, I had no more reserves of resiliency to draw on anymore. That rang true for me. I’m not the only person who’s been pushed far enough to have a physical reaction – one of my friends had a panic attack last Wednesday after the wave of suspensions came out.
From this experience, and other ways I’ve responded emotionally, my partner has observed that I’m probably under more duress than I can handle for very long. I’m exhausted from constantly being on high alert and trying to process the disingenuous information put out by admin. I am not one of the people who’s been suspended or arrested. I’d consider myself adjacent to these people – many are friends, and as a union steward I have a role in supporting them – and the administration’s actions over the past week and a half have still put me under an enormous amount of stress. Out of concern for my friends, fear what will happen next, worry that I’ll be targeted for participating in peaceful protests, I’ve barely been able to make progress on my research. Last week I watched a livestream of one of the Stata Garage protests on Instagram and I saw my peers thrown to the ground by police and saw my friends arrested. How am I supposed to go back to my work after seeing that?
I’ll finish with this – since October 7th, and especially since November 9th, I’ve been embarrassed and ashamed to be a graduate student at MIT. I’m not surprised that this institution values its military ties and reputation more than its morals, ethics, or students, but I am disappointed. I regret giving my time, energy, or brainpower to this war machine.
I’m a [REDACTED] student in engineering, and since I came to MIT, I searched for a space that fit my cultural upbringing outside of [REDACTED]. Still, I find MIT to be cold and unwelcoming to black students, but for a little while, MIT had SAGE. There, at SAGE, I found a community-oriented space, removed from the mechanical, individualistic environment of the rest of MIT.
I’m disappointed and disturbed by admins’ response to SAGE. It seems that while admin seemed perfectly happy keeping posters from the encampment for archival purposes, they never surveyed what the encampment did for marginalized students like me. Colleagues, myself included, who were ailed by food insecurity found a solution in SAGE. Others doubled or tripled their social circle at MIT whereas some people discovered there was more to MIT than the path they took from home to their office. SAGE provided a multicultural sense of community that MIT aspires to — promises but never delivers. So, I’m disappointed that admin could not fathom why students so readily defended the encampment, if not for political reasons, but for the general good it provided to the MIT community.
I’m disturbed by admins’ oppressive approach to suppress SAGE and other organizers. History has shown that many a “bad guy” have used arguments for safety to segregate and oppress groups of people (i.e. Japanese internment). In the same vein, checkpoints and surveillance have also been used to the oppressive end (i.e. Korean demilitarized zone; U.S.-Mexico border). In turn, establishing a checkpoint at SAGE only to use that checkpoint to threaten students is highly unsettling and has made me lose trust in admin. In my undergrad, I befriended a lot of staff, including those in charge of ensuring student safety behind the scenes (i.e. dealing with bomb threats, etc). I feel that I have an empathy and respect for all that it takes to run a highly visible academic institution that most students can’t appreciate. However, admin serve as the source of power in an institution, and with that power comes a greater responsibility to wield that power wisely and justly. It also means that when admin resorts to actions that mimic oppressive structures they are called to rigorously justify said action. Vaguely gesturing towards safety and a lack of resources falls extremely short of justifying deploying high-tech surveillance technology against your own students and evicting them.
Frankly, I am disgusted and have been advising marginalized friends of mine not to apply to MIT for grad school because I do not wish my suffering here upon them. I wish not only to exist peacefully as a black student, but also to thrive. Admin seems to desire to prove themselves as incapable of leading the institution to provide that to black students. It feels my community and our sister communities exist despite MIT’s environment/structure/culture. And unfortunately, I cannot describe these communities as thriving. As I begin to participate more and more and see more of who gets protected and defended, I feel as though there is a stronger interest in protecting oppression than pursuing a healing, restorative justice. And, that sense comes from the fact that I have rarely stepped foot in Lobby 7 since it was regularly staffed by a police officer. That sense comes from the fact that I went to a GSU meeting to discuss putting a ceasefire resolution to a vote only to hear an Israeli student interrupt the proceeding to vilify DEI as anti-semetic. Never in my life as a black person who’s lived in community with Jewish people ever heard such a statement and felt so targeted by a demographic I’ve long felt in solidarity with, just as I’ve felt in solidarity with Palestinian people. At no point had DEI been brought up during the GSU meeting and considering attacks on black organizations by pro-Israel students, combined with right-wing rhetoric twisting DEI and anti-semetism in one breath, I can’t help but foresee a future of MIT where admin has decided that the only valid minority, the only minority worth protecting, are Israeli/pro-Israel Jewish students.
To connect my different points, it feels admin is only curious about the experience and hurt felt by the pro-Israel community at MIT while ignoring swaths of other communities and not asking the question, “Why are these unaffiliated groups so passionate? What pain do they feel? How are we serving them?” Admin also in its disproportinate protection and curiosity towards the pro-Israel community also never seems to be curious about whether the hurt and anger of that community gets misplaced or turned into malevolence towards other minority groups.
It pains me that I had to comfort a black undergrad who was repeatedly mocked by a pro-Israeli student that made monkey gestures and sounds at her. And, when she tried to report harassment — her plea, her cry for help from admin — she was ignored. Such actions from admin turn all the pain and burden back towards our communities and it is felt in our bodies and in our minds. It teaches us that we do not belong on this campus, no matter what space we occupy, no matter what brief moments of community we make — this campus will never sustain and pour into black life on campus. That is what I learned from admins recent actions. I hope admin changes its philosophy towards justice, ends its quickness to exact harm, and increases its curiosity and respect for marginalized students so that we can exist with dignity.
A disheartened graduate student
I have found the events that have transpired very disturbing, but not due to actions of student protesters: the disciplinary actions taken against students have left me shaken and without any faith left in MIT’s administration.
I am an undergraduate student in my second year at MIT. I have participated in Pro-Palestine protests at MIT in the past, but not within the past few months. Despite my lack of direct involvement, I am friends with many active student protesters, some of whom were assaulted, arrested, suspended and evicted by police and the MIT administration.
On Thursday, May 9, during and after the protest blocking Stata garage, I was consumed by concern for the situation. I could not focus, and I went to my 2:30pm class in a daze, unable to pull myself away from the gravity of the situation. Rather than pay attention to the lecture being delivered, I was drawn to monitor different social medias for updates from my friends, relevant student organizations, and the administration. I felt a sense of dread that I could not shake. I was terrified for students who were risking arrest and suspension to make themselves heard. I watched a video in which a police officer grabbed a peaceful protester seemingly unprovoked and threw them to the ground. I couldn’t shake that image or the disgust and fear it instilled in me. The events of the past several months have led me to the conclusion that MIT’s administration values protecting the financial interests of the corporation (from legal disputes, donor disapproval, etc) over the wellbeing of the students it is meant to serve.
Some of my friends have been suspended, and by extension, evicted. They were immediately cut off from the community that’s meant to be their support network: at first, they were not allowed on campus at all, and I worried that they would face consequences for being in the dorm that we call home. I worry about where they will go and how they will manage, because in truth, many of the sanctioned protesters are first-generation low-income and rely on MIT for their basic needs. I’ve watched one of my friends in particular struggle even before these sanctions to make ends meet, unable to afford to replace their toothpaste if it went missing and terrified to seek healthcare because of what it might cost. Now this same friend has been packing up their belongings and wondering how on earth they’ll avoid losing everything. I’m scared about what will happen to them.
Is stifling disruptive protests truly worth destroying the lives of students? MIT is our lifeline: it is housing, it is food, it is our employer, it is healthcare, it is community. These suspensions deprive students of at least the first three, wildly endangering them to housing, food and financial security. I am appalled. How does the punishment fit the stated crime? How do you justify putting students in that position for blocking traffic and disrupting a few classes? I am ashamed of this administration.
I recognize that the situation is nuanced. I know that the administration faces barriers to meeting student demands to divest from the IDF. I still cannot believe that it would treat its students this way. To reiterate, I am left disturbed and heartbroken by the actions taken against students in the past few weeks, and I feel that ripple throughout everything I do. Even as a bystander to student protests, I am left with the impression that my voice and my livelihood are not valued by the administration. My mental health, my academics, and my sense of safety at MIT are all suffering because of the campus climate. I am consumed by anxiety for my friends and anyone else facing police brutality, suspension and eviction.
Thank you for accepting and considering this statement.
Sincerely,
A concerned undergraduate
As a student passionate about ending the genocide in Gaza, one of the main emotions I’ve felt over the past month is afraid. I’ve been afraid of cops with their hands on their guns when facing peaceful college students. I’ve been afraid of being screamed at by students wearing Israeli flags, telling me “Go to Gaza! They’ll rape you! They’ll prostrate you!” (happened to me yesterday at the May 15 rally. It wasn’t the first time). The thing I’ve been most afraid of though is MIT administration putting basically no effort at all toward fighting discrimination targeted toward us. There have been so many IDHR reports sent in for months regarding dozens of recorded documented instances of pro-israeli students physically harassing and attempting to dox pro-palestinian students (this was especially egregious surrounding the protests last November), and as far as I know none of those reports resulted in any disciplinary action taken against the instigating students. I have a friend who last semester was harassed by a student who posted a video of her on her public Instagram telling her audience to find her and “give her what she deserves”, scaring my friend into completely changing her appearance and not attending classes for a week in fear of being physically attacked. That IDHR case has still not be resolved, admin doesn’t care. Take this compared to now where dozens of students have been suspended and evicted, some of which weren’t even at the encampment?!?!? Why are pro-palestinian students suspended without evidence when pro-israeli students can physically harass us, scream at our faces, tell queer students to their faces they’ll be murdered and raped by Hamas (there is video evidence of all of this) and those students face no consequences at all? MIT admin has absolutely chosen a side. I’m afraid for my own physical, mental, and academic safety when admin has been adamant at doing everything it can to protect the pro-israeli students and to punish the pro-palestinian students.
So often pro-israeli students say that they “feel unsafe”. Even if this is true, pro-israeli students have not been academically suspended. Pro-israeli students have not received the awful specifically targeted threats we have received. Pro-israeli students did not have hundreds of police officers with guns and batons at the ready surrounding them. Pro-israeli students did not have police violently slam them to the ground, putting one student in the hospital. All of these awful things have happened to pro-palestinian students in the past month. Just one of them is enough to scare students into avoiding campus entirely, but having to deal with all of them at once? I may be biased, but it seems no question which of the two groups of students has been more afraid on this campus.
These past few weeks on campus have been very distressing for me seeing the response of the administration to the peaceful protests for Gaza. I have spent my time at MIT believing that the administration and the MIT PD existed to protect my safety, even though I have a general distrust of institutions and particularly the police as a queer person of color. However, the events of the past two weeks have proven otherwise.
Watching my peers and friends at the encampment face constant harassment and intimidation from members of our own community was heartbreaking in itself, as the encampment existed to demand a greater degree of humanity from our institution. Seeing the response of administration, to pretend that both “sides of the conflict” were given equal weight, filled me with anger, as the institute most certainly was favoring the pro-Israel groups.
The language biases in emails sent by upper administration soon became actions unfolding before my eyes as my community members were given notices of imminent suspension and eviction – again, for simply demanding humanity of our community. I watched as my classmates were told to leave their homes, food security, and hard work in academics. Many of them had nowhere to go, and were simply told to reach out to S³ for support, as if the institute had not created this difficult and demeaning situation. On Thursday, walking to class, I witnessed my friends being led away by police in zipties. I was horrified by the videos I saw of the MITPD – our students protectors – slamming students into the ground, pressing their knees into students backs, forcefully arresting them on the ground in front of moving cars. And Friday morning, at 4am, I was woken up by the sounds of nearly 200 police, many armed in riot gear, surrounding the encampment. I could do nothing but watch from my dorm window as my friends and peers, simply sleeping in a community space as an act of protest, were met with the largest police force I have ever seen in real life.
I have felt increasingly anxious, unsafe, and uneasy on this campus as these events have unfolded. Since October, I have seen some of my own peers and faculty reveal that they do not value the lives of Brown people as much as white people. I mourn every life lost, but it is made even more unbearable to see that not everyone in my community agrees that the violence in Palestine is unjust. And our campus has simply become a microcosm of this environment, where the discomfort and hurt of white folks is used to justify the brutalization and demonization of my pro-Palestine peers. I am beyond disappointed in the administration, and I do not say this lightly – I have spent 3.5 years in student government and have worked directly with many, many administrators. Whoever made the decision to suspend, evict, and arrest my friends has made the decision to make this campus unsafe for minorities.
Despite the administration’s reasoning invoking safety, the clearing of the encampment and arrests/suspensions of students has left me feeling far more unsafe on this campus. For such a peaceful demonstration to be met with this intense of a response is incredibly surprising, even if similar things were happening at our peer institutions; I thought we were better than that! I struggle to understand why this could have not been resolved with more dialogue; Kresge Lawn is hardly the most necessary spot on our campus to hold events. It’s also a public open space on our proudly open campus. Sure, relocating events is somewhat inconvenient, but we have other lawns. Plus, the very point of protest is to interrupt the status quo to draw attention to a particular topic. MIT students have a long history of being politically active, and I’m glad to see that this spirit is still alive. Unfortunately, the disciplinary action and violence at the hands of police my close friends have faced have made me much more afraid to speak out for what I believe in on this campus. I hope that the administration can come to realize that their actions this month have been extremely harmful to both individual students and the campus climate as a whole. It is possible for us to move forward as a community, but there must be accountability.
I would like to submit this testimony as an anonymous undergraduate student having faced a large emotional and psychological toll due to the past decision by admin. The heavy-handed responses to peaceful protests have created an atmosphere of fear and anxiety in which I feel afraid to support my friends and voice my opinion due to administrative backlash, especially with the excessive policing, and bearing of batons while waking up students peacefully sleeping at the encampment. Having seen videos of police yelling at, groping, pushing, and even kneeling on students who were simply chanting and not instigating any cause of violence, I feel even more unsafe and unwelcome in my campus and feel and undermined sense of community. Furthermore, with college administrations so clearly suppressing protests and ignoring the issues being raised without any proof of good faith discussion, I have felt extra frustrated and stressed in a campus with a lot of pressure already existing, and this sense of being unheard and disregarded has practically completely eroded my trust in the institution. The uncertainty and conflict surrounding one’s ability to peacefully protest on this campus has caused me significant stress, as I am constantly faced with conflicting my own academic standing, future prospects, and personal safety with my moral values and inner beliefs. Watching my friends be arrested, subject to police violence, and suspended for actions of no ill-will has further exacerbated this. College is often seen as a place for open dialogue and intellectual growth, and the administration decisions since the events after October 7th have disillusioned me to this belief and greatly impacted my overall outlook on civic engagement and democratic participation in a negative way. As a member of a marginalized community which the administration has openly not supported, the psychological toll from the administrative decisions has a been immense, and the sense of alienation I feel at MIT has grown tremendously. I’ve even personally experienced a greater disengagement from campus life, decreased academic performance due to excessive stress, and a withdrawal from social networks due to a fear of association. The suspensions handed out have simply made the tensions and psychological and emotional toll much worse for me, as they are excessively heavy-handed and greatly conflict with the idea of free expression I once believed MIT offered. It is crucial for the administration to balance maintaining order with respecting and facilitating free expression to foster a healthy, supportive, and dynamic academic environment, and from the effects these past few months have had on me and many others around me, I fear the MIT administration has greatly failed to do that.
Signed,
An Undergraduate Student
I was a frequenter of the encampment and truly found a home there, especially after spending the past 7 months around people who seemed like they couldn’t care less about the genocide happening. It felt freeing to mourn, grieve and share with others how much I was troubled by the things I was seeing coming out of Gaza and have others accept that and understand. To see admin desperately try to shut us down was disheartening and especially the words that were used to describe us. I felt criminalized and dehumanized by administration every time they described the our peaceful community as a security risk. This is extremely hurtful when the counter protesters were the ones who were disruptive, dangerous and escalatory in their action, and yet none of them have faced consequences for their harassment of us.
The escalation to heavy policing both around the encampment and on campus has made me feel extremely unsafe and worried that a situation might arise where a police officer could seriously harm the students. The violence that occurred last Thursday which involved police brutality was extremely troubling and I had a hard time finishing my lab work that day due to the significant stress. Then, when I saw my fellow classmates and friends being dragged off campus by riot police, surrounded by 200 heavily armed police officers, I was terrified. In fact, I was shaking for many hours later, was unable to sleep or eat.
There have been many instances of police harassment, where they see us and point toward us to identify us, or immediately start taking pictures of us as we stand with friends. It’s kept me extremely on edge and I have been looking for ways to avoid the cops while on campus simply because they make me extremely uncomfortable and unsafe. I was even singled out with another student of color on Sunday morning while trying to enter campus; we were the only ones asked to prove that we were MIT students, while the rest of the day, my friends were able to enter and go freely. There have been many other instances of racial profiling by police in the past few weeks.
In conclusion, as I have written to President Kornbluth, the admin’s actions (along with the actions which they supports and allow) are putting the students in danger, and many of us no longer feel safe nor welcome on this campus.
Hello! Maybe some things you can take from this. Thanks for your help!
My research, teaching, and professional service is recognized internationally.
Students have called me the “best teacher they’ve had at MIT.”
For the first time in all of my years as an international student, this campus had a soul.
Then MIT crushed it with riot police.
For a moment, it was a real university. With protest, and critical thought.
Cops, cameras, choppers, and counter-protestors chanting “U-S-A” surround us day after day.
Banners about MIT’s Values and commitments to Belonging hang in lobby 7.
You belong!… In Cuffs!
“Curiosity,” reads one of MIT’s Values: except don’t be curious about politics, or the humanities, or history, or…
“William Barton Rogers” engraved at the building’s entrance. Owner of the enslaved.
Another email delivers; it’s letting everyone know that we’re a danger to the community.
We are now suspended and we are tremendously unsafe.
Our visas are in jeopardy, and our housing and food security, compromised.
MIT has endangered us, for feeding the community, for placing flowers on fences.
Every arm of power from police to administration to DHS to the whole U.S., judges our every move.
Mental and physical health in decline. We’re all traumatized.
Genocide is normalized. Truth and evidence, criminalized.
At MIT, when we point out a problem, we become the problem.
We have academic freedom, except when our scholarly practice involves direct action.
Freedom to make weapons.
This is science and technology without democracy.
I have some points:
- I appreciated that the admin was initially tolerant of the encampment set up on Kresge. For nearly all protestors, it was the first time they had experienced anything close to a community like that at MIT. We were able to mourn together the loss of life in Gaza and affirm our convictions that Palestinian liberation is a vital cause, a conviction that is systematically censored and repressed in the US public sphere.
- I was then very disheartened by the admin’s response to the demands put forth by the negotiation team. Their refusal to give anything close to a material offer — even a guarantee to implement, in good faith, the existing MIT protocol to review outside engagements — betrayed a deep disrespect for the team of students who were working tirelessly to achieve this change, for the student body which had ratified the divestment, and most of all for the enormous suffering in Gaza.
- We were offended by the way the admin misrepresented the protest as a conflict between two opposing groups (pro-Israel vs. pro-Palestine groups), rather than a struggle between pro-Palestine protestors and the MIT admin over MIT’s involvement with foreign militaries and the ethical implications.
- For members of the encampment (many of whom are Palestinian), the admin’s willingness to silence criticism of the Israeli military’s active war crimes, in deference to agitators who simply don’t like that the criticism is occurring, represented a nullification of Palestine’s right to exist.
- There were instances when some of the pro-Israel faculty agitators said some really upsetting things. I don’t know if I should say what. I’m not sure if an IDHR complaint has been filed yet and it did not happen directly to me. After the harassment on May 8, I was in tears for the whole rest of the day.
- Also, the way counter-protestors were allowed, with impunity, to hang flags over our artwork — including the death count in Gaza that took 10 people 3 days to make — was deeply troubling. The same is true for the disturbing and defamatory signs they hung all over the fence that surrounded our encampment for a time.
- I wasn’t a victim of the police brutality at the demonstration outside Stata but I know it was traumatizing for those involved.
- You’re probably hearing a lot about the suspensions and how that has affected the students that were suspended so I will mostly skip that, but it’s been pretty bad for some people. One especially frustrating part is the arbitrariness with which suspended students were chosen.
Thank you,
Anonymous grad student
- suspension actions threatens the livelihood of students without any motion for due process, causing severe distress for those issues suspensions and creating anxiety even for those who have not
- police presence on campus terrifying and also anxiety inducing, particularly for black students on campus
and my full ramblings:
Admin’s choice of disciplinary action against the Science Against Genocide Encampment (SAGE) has been psychologically distressing to students — even beyond the very material actions of eviction & suspension from campus activities that our community members have already faced.
Some students were issued suspensions despite not being present at SAGE on May 6, and despite a lack of evidence linking them to being at SAGE. These students have, however, participated in prior acts of protest which then raises the question — are students targeted for being vocally pro-Palestine, with SAGE as an easy cover? Perhaps admin’s goal is to dampen the student movement against the genocide in Palestine, and anyone perceived as supporting it is at the mercy of admin’s disciplinary discretion.
This creates a looming anxiety, especially as an undergraduate senior where my graduation and post-grad plans are at stake. I can be forbidden from completing my classes, have to carry an extra semester and the consequential financial burden, and lose access to housing. These consequences can still affect me even if I am ultimately found “not guilty” (in the case of interim suspensions). The lack of due process and sudden potentially life-altering threat to student wellbeing have fostered an environment for psychological distress and severe anxiety.
The increase in police presence on campus has made me feel unsafe, particularly as a black person. I have never felt more unsafe at this school throughout my four years here. Seeing officers brutalize and yell at our community, high five and smile after arresting our community, and being personally harassed by police have created a fear for my physical well-being and a detriment to my emotional and mental well-being. I feel constantly surveilled and watched by cops as a black person moving throughout campus. The ease at which MIT admin called upon local and state police, brought tens of police in riot gear carrying assault weapons, bringing correction buses cannot be understated. It comes as a slap in the face when black students have discussed how policing on campus and overpolicing at black events make us feel unsafe and there was no effort to remedy our concerns. How am I supposed to feel at ease in a place that stalls to address my concerns yet is swift to violate my safety and well-being, per those concerns?
MIT admin’s use of policing and disciplinary action to do not protect and preserve the safety of the student community, despite what they may think.
Admins created a climate of fear with their dealing of suspensions. There was no consistent reasoning with them. I was paranoid the week after and would change clothes, hairstyles, masks, etc. multiple times per day when I would visit SAGE. I finally understood the utility of the COVID-era mass-installation of tap systems & cameras: protecting the institute, not the students.
Materially, the suspensions affected more than just those suspended. I stopped doing research the past two weeks to spend time supporting the suspended students: flyering, organizing rallies, outreach with colleagues, offering housing in my own apartment. I’m far from the only one to step up in this way.
I don’t think I have much to say that hasn’t already been said by others regarding communications from the administration to the broad community. They were highly biased, usually erased any mention of SAGE, and plainly felt unreal to read. We were minimized and painted as some vague dangerous protest, pitted against peaceful, student-supporting counter-protestors, when really our issues were with the institution. The emails masterfully tried to deflect MIT’s role unto the issue being between two groups, of which MIT was not a party. Heartbreaking.
Being harassed by “counter-protestors” near-daily was exhausting. My appearance was insulted. I had to listen to people wish I would be raped. While simultaneously I was claimed to be some aggressor. Admins communications only emboldened these actions. The police were always chummy with any counter-protestors as well.
On all fronts, my experience the past several weeks has been heartbreaking. My already-dwindled respect for the administration, after watching them slowly butcher every part of student life I’ve enjoyed in undergrad and grad school. Seeing them call in 200 police to remove some tents, putting their students physical safety in the hands of a violent group, I have no words for my disappointment.
Sad Beaver
How the past few weeks have impacted me:
Police Presence:
- Increased police presence makes it almost impossible to get around campus without passing by officers.
- Every time I pass by a cop I remember the murder of Faisal and am forced to think about how they could easily end my life with no repercussions.
- Videos circulating of police officers assaulting students and threatening them with firearms has only made this worse.
- Seeing police parked in every corner of campus is a constant threat of force.
- Police presence makes me feel unsafe.
Threats from Administration:
- Threatening suspensions and eviction over protesting is uniquely a threat that targets first generation students and those from low income backgrounds.
- Suspensions increase the chance a student will need to take additional semesters, a cost that is disproportionately felt by poorer students
- Eviction is quite frankly evil. Forcing a student into homelessness is terrifying and I feel genuinely scared for my peers who are facing this issue.
- The communications from administration make me feel alone and ignored.
Loss of Encampment:
- The encampment temporarily solved food insecurity on campus. Something administration has been struggling/refusing to do.
- As someone who lives off campus yet often finds themself stranded on campus late at night, the encampment was a safe haven of food security.
Affects on schoolwork:
- I have been forced to OX (incomplete, to finish later) one of my classes due to stress caused by the threats to my and my peers academic and physical safety.
- I have been routinely late to one of my classes this semester because I do everything in my power to avoid going through Lobby 7. The cop stationed there makes me feel unsafe walking through the lobby.
- The shutdown of the Student Center caused me to lose an entire day’s worth of work, as my primary study space is in the Student Center, and my laptop was locked in the building with police refusing to let me retrieve it.
Signed,
An undergraduate
– My POTS has been flaring up for three weeks straight. I can’t stop being dizzy. I am scared every day of the cops, as they have already shoved me to the ground as I tried to get water for myself. I should have just fainted instead of trying to get help.
– The cops know me by face. They have found me in the stud and tried to talk to me. They remind me to study. I feel so small and powerless. They’re patronizing.
– I’m on such high alert walking around campus. I don’t know what the cops will accuse me of as they’ve already pulled aside and accosted everyone I know about things.
– I’m watching my friends be brutalized and thrown to the ground ten minutes before a capstone presentation. I stumbled and stuttered my way through that presentation. I am so far from okay right now.
– Our campus is being locked up tighter and tighter and I am already disabled so my routes have gotten longer and longer and more and more unpredictable. Walking through Stata is a challenge.
– MIT Undergraduate
The increase in police presence on MIT’s campus over the past several months has made me feel extremely frustrated, upset, and unsafe. I was an undergraduate at Georgia Tech in [REDACTED] when a Georgia Tech campus police officer shot and killed a student, who also happened to be the president of our Pride Alliance club, on campus. Local Cambridge police also killed a student, Sayed Arif Faisal, last year. Both of these cases were related to the person experiencing severe mental health crises. After living through these events as well as the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, I have quickly learned that police are not trained to properly de-escalate situations, they do not at all know how to handle mental health crises, and they can and will kill people, including students, for no justifiable reason. The police have been murdering innocent people for decades. The fact that we currently have many armed police officers stationed all around campus has made many of us feel unsafe. Police do not make campus safer, they make us considerably less safe.
For me, the encampment was a beautiful, liberatory space that was the first time I really started to feel like I actually belonged at MIT. After experiencing biphobia and transphobia at MIT, at SAGE I finally found queer community, made so many friends, learned about so many cultures, and felt truly safe to be myself. I slept at the encampment safely, I ate at the encampment, I danced, and I felt very safe in the hands of my peers. Police presence at the encampment was completely unnecessary, students were able to train each other on how to de-escalate situations when counter protestors came to agitate, and we were adamant about sticking to our principles of keeping things peaceful and not engaging. Counterprotestors, including students and faculty from MITIA, claimed the encampment made them feel “unsafe” yet they came by many days in a row to hang out at the camp and eat our food. We did not engage with them despite their holding agitational posters. We stick to our principles in spite of the violence that counterprotestors brought to the peaceful sit-in protest that was held on November 9th, where protestors peacefully sat and did their homework in Lobby 7 until counter protestors came and started physically shoving people, pushing them to the ground, chasing people with their phones, throwing graphic images in our faces, and sexually harassing us with statements like “you should be sent to Gaza so you can be raped” and antisemitic statements like “you’re not a real Jew” to Jewish students protesting. During this protest, the police did absolutely nothing to de-escalate, it was entirely up to the students to stand their ground, not engage in with the counter protestors, respond peacefully, and continue the original protest. I can confirm this as an eyewitness to this event.
It was traumatic to watch my friends be brutally attacked by police officers on May 9th for simply standing in front of a parking garage. I watched as an officer threw a student to the ground in front of a car that they were actively motioning to move forward. We saw police officers putting their hands on their gun holsters. I feared that I would see someone in my community dead at the hands of police once again. That night, at 3AM, hundreds of police in riot gear were sent to clear the encampment and arrest students who were peacefully sleeping. The fact that MIT can decide to call in hundreds of state police carrying weapons including guns and batons makes me feel extremely unsafe to be on campus.
Additionally, I was appalled when officers were sent to detain and interrogate students for postering pictures of the arrests and links to petitions around campus. I do not understand why, last year, when a student put homophobic slurs up all over campus, the police was not sent to them, nor are they ever sent to the various student groups or students who create memes that are clear violations of postering policies, yet as soon as there are posters informing people about the students being arrested and evicted, students are threatened with being accused of “tagging.”
The vague threats of suspensions, detentions, and arrests for peaceful protestors has been extremely stressful and has negatively impacted my work. Supposedly anyone involved in the encampment may be suspended, but hundreds of students have been involved, and it is unclear how MIT is identifying people, in some cases it seems to be racial profiling. Having detective Brian Delaney show up to protests and creepily take pictures of students has been very uncomfortable and stressful because we don’t know what actions may be taken against us on any given day. These disciplinary actions can have very real negative impacts on vulnerable students such as international students who could lose their visas, financially unstable students who can barely afford rent, and students with children who are about to be evicted. It has been very difficult for me to focus on my research, I am having trouble sleeping and eating because I don’t know what is coming next, and I fear for my friends who have already been affected by injuries from arrests, are about to be evicted along with their children, or who could literally be killed by police at any time on campus.
Students protesting for Palestine have worked to make students feel more safe on campus by providing each other with a community of support, and creating many different trainings for people to do first aid, to de-escalate, to take care of our mental and physical health, among other programs. MIT has decided to make the campus less safe by responding with police violence. Do better.
Sincerely,
An MIT Graduate Student
On May 6th, I left the encampment at 2:25pm in compliance with the administration’s warning about disciplinary action. Upon leaving the encampment, the MIT police present at the entry/exit pushed around students including myself. When I told the police officer who had shoved me that I was trying to leave, he yelled at me to leave on the other side of the table. I saw a student who was near me have their face pushed with full force by the hand of a police officer. This was an incredibly jarring experience that left me very shaken up for the remainder of the day as well as in the time since. The continued presence of police, and their aggression toward students who they see as being part of the encampment has been incredibly distressing, and only exacerbated over the course of the week of May 6-10. Both police and administrators seem to view protestors as inherently aggressive, despite the peaceful and de-escalatory stance that the protestors have taken in the face of provocations, aggressive language and aggressive physical posturing of counterprotestors.
My experience spending time with people engaged with and supportive of the encampment, as well as the encampment space, was only one of community-building and shared care for each other. People were diligent in communicating clearly about maintaining peace and civility in the encampment and when faced with counterprotestors. The encampment space itself was a caring and kind space of community. The administrative disciplinary steps and discursive representations of the encampment and protestors, and the police response and violent dispersal of the encampment space and arrests, have left me feeling alienated and in a persistent and heightened state of vigilance and stress. This is compounded by the fracturing of the community created within the encampment, and concern for the well-being of my colleagues and friends who have directly experienced arrest and suspension. Throughout the last two weeks, I have been unable to focus on my research and work as the administration’s actions created crisis after crisis for the community of protestors. My sleep has suffered, I have been generally more on edge and am perpetually on the verge of tears based on both the escalations of police and administrative action on our campus and the ongoing escalations in Gaza as the IDF expands its killing into Gaza
Hello there,
I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to express my concerns about the current climate of our community, particularly in light of recent events on campus surrounding the SAGE. There were several aspects of the situation that deeply troubled me with regards to the administration that I feel need to be addressed. Most notably, I feel the the unfairness and double standard has been painfully evident: the administration has been making a huge effort to discipline protesting students for their protest efforts, but they are not making the same effort to discipline students who are harassing and blatantly discriminating against the protesting students. For example, we have video evidence that Zionists played genocidal music right outside our tents in the encampment, and the administration has done nothing about it; An MIT student was brutally beaten by a cop at a protest off MIT campus, he suffered a concussion and was choked by cops, and the admin has made no mention or acknowledgment of it. No less, this person was the president of [REDACTED ORG], recent recipient of a [REDACTED] award [REDACTED], and everyone who knows can attest to his excellent character and integrity. If these sorts of things are happening to students who are standing with Israel, I can only imagine what kind of response we would have seen from the administration.
I also wanted to share some personal experiences that I have had on campus that have made me feel unsafe and unwelcome. Most recently, a cop profiled me saying that I needed to move my bag away from the steps outside Building 7, saying that someone might think it’s a bomb. Of course I moved it 10 ft away off the MIT property to comply with his order, but I just felt like this was a very racist thing to say to me and had no justification. I have also felt unsafe and discriminated against as a brown student on campus, and I believe that the administration needs to take steps to address these issues and create a more inclusive and welcoming environment for all students, and especially with their complete disregard for cutting ties to a military that has been cited as plausibly committing a genocide by the International Court of Justice!
Furthermore, the encampment as it has been handled by the university has in many ways felt like a microcosm of the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. MIT set up a wall around our encampment for the sake of so-called “safety”, only to eventually set up a security checkpoint and instill fear in students who were trying to enter the encampment and stand in solidarity with us. Then we were criminalized for breaking down the wall when the university unfairly threatened students who had the courage to stay behind the wall with suspension and eviction with only 30 minutes notice. Such intimidation and repression and control tactics are the same ones that the Israeli military uses to control the Palestinian people, and it is so unfair that we are being subjected to the same treatment here at MIT. Not only that, but also what is all this for? For us setting up some tents on a lawn? What evidence is there that we were a legitimate threat to public safety? Why do Zionists make claims that we intend to bomb the campus? Such claims the Zionists make regarding these questions are blown out of proportion, and yet the administration has done nothing to address them and discipline them for their blatant lies and harassment.
I believe that the administration needs to take immediate action to address these issues, drop the charges on students, and open up their mind to cutting direct research ties with the IDF. We are the only university in the US that has direct ties to the IDF, and it is unacceptable that our tuition and research funding is being used to support a military that has been cited as plausibly committing a genocide. I urge you to take these concerns seriously and work towards creating a more inclusive and welcoming environment for all students on campus, because I do not feel safe as an MIT student right now; I do not feel like I can be myself and stand up for what I believe in without fear of retaliation or discrimination, and I believe that this needs to change.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
To Whom It May Concern:
I’d like to share some thoughts on the climate of the student community over the last few months.
First of all, President Kornbluth’s main focus when she entered office was on free speech, going so far as to permit hate speech with no consequences. However, over the last few months, it shows that the only speech that is free is that which does not interfere with the maximum profits of the MIT corporation. I have heard a number of students and faculty say that administration seems to be making decisions based primarily on what the shareholders want, or “chasing the money,” and I completely agree. As the referendum from the last election shows, the supermajority of students agree that the measures MIT has taken inhibit free speech and are severely biased based on the content of the speech.
Speaking of the referendum, the student population is now aware that not only does Student Government have very little power, but the entire student body has absolutely no say in how MIT acts as an institution. It is clear that MIT does not care what its students think and stops valuing their opinions (unless they are making money for MIT) the second they are enrolled. Administration has released statements that seem to equate both sides of this issue, but it is clear that one side is primarily made of people outside of MIT, as the referendum was upheld by the single largest voting population in MIT’s history. To equate shareholders and students is to devalue education and uphold unbridled capitalism.
The primary effect of police presence on campus is fear. Being watched at all times I walk across campus by an armed militia known for violence is unsettling, and there is video proof of officers threatening students with guns with no non-police violence present.
Although the statements released by administration may have fooled people off campus, nearly all students I have talked to are well aware of the untruths, fallacies, and bias present in every one of them. We know the rules Admin keeps saying are standard were made up on the spot within the last year. We know it is unreasonable to expect a protest to never be disruptive (that’s literally the entire point of a protest). And we know MIT is lying to the broader community to suppress its students.
When I entered MIT in [REDACTED YEAR], I viewed it as an institution dedicated to furthering education and progress more than any other in the world. I saw the unique culture and long history of innovation and thought that MIT must be a nexus of creativity, expression, and free speech for something like that to happen.
I know now this is simply not true. Our unique culture exists despite the attempts of the administration to squash it and turn the student body into money-printing robots, not because of administration. MIT has innovated and had such profound effects in history mostly because students rebelled against administration, with MIT claiming it actually supported the causes all along a few decades later. I know in twenty years or so, when we look back at the horrors of the most recent US-led genocide, the MIT administration will be celebrating the student body that pushed for their rights and ignoring the extreme lengths admin went to to prevent it (sidenote: how dare Dr. Kornbluth quote Dr. King Jr and even host an event in celebration of him while actively fighting against everything he stood for? It’s disgusting).
In short, the MIT student community no longer has any trust in administration, nor the institution. We are tired of MIT putting money over students time and time again.
Sincerely,
I am a current PhD student at MIT and I have personally experienced how the administration’s handling of pro-Palestinian protestors at the Scientists Against Genocide Encampment has caused our community immense distress.
For one, it is ambiguous to us as students who support Palestine and are concerned about MIT’s complicity in research collaborations with the IDF how suspensions are identified or when our actions have become acceptable. Even with emails from Melissa Nobles, it was not clear that “The encampment must end soon” translated within a few days into “You will be suspended for supporting the encampment.” What was the logic or criteria used to identify which students to suspend? Without a transparent process, it makes it incredibly anxiety-inducing and tense to support the pro-Palestinian movement and understand what is and is not acceptable from a disciplinary perspective.
Secondly, admin’s messaging about the events, which come out as emails send to the entire community that often obscure and misrepresent our experiences as students, alienate our community. Who wrote these messages? Who gave feedback on them? Narrative holds power, and messaging that directly delegitimizes our actions and intent is immensely harmful to us as students.
Thirdly, language that biases towards “Our Israeli and Jewish students” without showing equal compassion for our Palestinian and Muslim students, is incredibly harmful (as in Sally’s emails). There have been direct incidents at the encampment of counterprotestors saying harmful, hurtful, and racist things – implying that we would or should get raped in Gaza, or that Jewish students supporting Palestine are not “real Jews”. The communications from admin do not convey the rage, sadness, or concern for these events that us students feel deeply. How can we feel that admin are protecting us and seeing us when these incidents are allowed to happen without repercussions or even acknowledgement from them?
I spend hours refreshing my email, checking for a suspension notice. We were told “dozens of interim suspensions and referrals to the Committee on Discipline are now in process” and saw about two dozen of our friends suspended. Then, we were told more were coming, 70 more, hundreds more, the target keeps moving. It feels like the administration sends these leaks through alumni and faculty to threaten us: shut up or else.
We’ve seen unknown figures standing on the student center steps with professional telephoto lenses zooming into our faces. We’ve heard rumors that students and faculty at odds with our encampment are working with administration and police to come up with a list. At MIT, we work on autonomous drone swarms to target and kill those abroad, and we work on facial recognition algorithms that target and take out students on our own campus.
What will I be suspended for? Will it be for eating a meal with my community? Before the encampment, many times I ate some collection of snacks instead of a meal, or nothing at all. The stress kills my appetite, the anguish zaps my energy to make something, and the same struggles mean there is no one to eat with. My family calls me every day to ask if I have eaten. At the Scientists Against Genocide Encampment, we often didn’t know when food was coming or where it was coming from, but it always came, and we ate it together, joyfully. AT MIT, it’s rare to have a space to gather, to be in each other’s company as our whole selves. MIT has its fliers about food insecurity with QR codes to flow charts and death by bureaucracy. It is us who has had to show up for each other time and time again. I am sorry that we can no longer eat together there, and I am sorry for everyone who did not get a chance to experience its warmth.
What will I be suspended for? Will it be for singing a song in Arabic? It is a language none of the senior administration speaks. Instead, they rely on botched translations and pre-formed assumptions about what we are saying. It is “the language of ISIS” I am reminded. Claims of fear are weaponized and the only way we can be non-threatening is by sitting silently in our rooms. Speaking our languages are threatening; wearing clothing from our heritage is threatening; sleeping in a tent on Kresge is threatening. In my years here, I’ve never felt more tokenized.
What will I be suspended for? Will it be for asking the police who they protect when they violently throw my friends to the ground? Police come in bullet proof vests with hands on holsters and are afraid of unarmed teenagers half their size. I cannot believe they are afraid of our bodies and can only conclude they are afraid of our minds and the truth we are drawing attention to.
What will I be suspended for? Will it be for helping to engineer a system to keep the rain out? Does that count as a leadership activity? Will it be for deciding to toss a blanket in the washing machine? Or for bringing watermelon— a symbol of resistance. Or for making new friends and helping them feel welcome. There are those that are braver than others and those that are more public-facing than others, but no one is simply following. I saw friends take initiative to decorate the fence with flowers; to come up with a power plan in the event that administration cut us off; to plant a garden; to organize our supplies; to squeegee tirelessly and keep our camp dry. No one told them to do those things. It takes courage to do them, but nothing compared to the courage the people of Gaza have shown.
What will I be suspended for? Will it be for peacefully forming a human chain to block an agitator on a bike from harassing others?
What will I be suspended for? Will it be for putting up a poster?
What will I be suspended for? Will it be for letting the sun’s rays hit my unmasked, identifiable face?
What will I be suspended for?
The encampment was one of the most beautiful memories I had in my life. Despite what the media and administration messaging could have told you, what you could find if you just stopped by would have been people playing soccer, listening to music, making art, dancing, and teaching each other and studying together. For the first time ever, I felt like I truly, fully, belonged in a space.
MIT took a dark turn after they tried to shut us down by attempting to silence us with suspensions. Since that day, I have never felt more surveilled in my life. I feel eyes of people that linger on me more than they should. I feel watched and stalked, digitally, and physically, by this administration, but especially their collaborator Zionist faculty, who spend their free time and lunches publicly doxxing students and circulating defamatory videos of them for lunch.
I spend most of my day every day worrying about my friends who were suspended or arrested, particularly my Palestinian friends, to the degree that I feel guilty for doing my own work and focusing on classes. It really feels that at a certain level, this institution deliberately punished us in a way that deprived us of the things that give us dignified lives: depriving those of us who are parents of a home for our children, depriving those of us who are food insecure from food, depriving those of us who are low income by taking away our graduate appointments and education.
Between uprooting us from our homes and breaking our bones and arresting us, you have signaled that your outrage at the form of a protest is a more egregious crime for you than the material conditions that call for those protests to take place. You have signaled that there are people on this campus, including many former military personnel, who are professors that their unfettered harassment, agitation, and discrimination is welcome and encouraged.
The fact of the matter is, I am less safe in the presence of Zionist faculty at MIT, who have caused me and other students immense harm.
While the administrations decision to force our arm to decamp was unsurprising. given their escalation and encroachment on our encampment through isolating us with fences and then installing a checkpoint akin to Israeli military checkpoints, it was still shocking.
The use of force to arrest sleeping students in the dead of night by deploying hundreds of police, armed to the teeth and ready to use all the might they have against us was terrifying. It reminded me of my experiences growing up in Palestine. From the cowardly use of force at night, down to the tear gas and batons in the holsters of the riot police, they were identical to the oppression we face in Palestine.
What was more disappointing was seeing Chancellor Melissa Nobles arrive that morning, not showing her face to her students, but instead supervising the forcible clearing of the encampment from afar and then driving back home as if nothing happened.
“That was underwhelming” said one cop to another after the arrests of 10 students while high-fiving them. President Kornbluth and the MIT administration willingly and knowingly invited an armed battalion, which was ready and willing to use force on their students.
Are we really supposed to believe that the administration had no other option than to arrest us with the force the size of a militia? Would does this desperation say about the state of mind this administration issued the suspensions with?
This administration and much of the faculty has eroded the trust that students have in you and your institution for years to come. We will never forget these events. They are etched in the back of our minds forever. When we become academics and replace you in the seats you are now sitting on, your legacy will be one of bitter contempt.
President Kornbluth, I remember excitedly watching your inaugural address. Making science for the betterment of society was why I came to this institution. When history vindicates us and the MIT museum will proudly display the signs and art we made at our encampment, remember which side you stood on. When you pride yourself on the strides made to include minority students in this university, but suspend us when we speak up and use our voices, remember which side you stood on.