I have already written about my own university’s failure to enforce Virginia’s law banning masked demonstrations. That failure continues, despite a letter from the state attorney general reminding universities of their obligation to enforce the law, and despite an incident in which a student waving a pro-Israel Israel flag was attacked by masked demonstrators. My understanding is that other universities in Virginia are also refusing to enforce the law. I have an email from one university police department official explaining that the law was intended to be enforced only if another crime has been committed. This is nonsense. The law is meant to prevent intimidation by hateful mobs, and to help police identify suspects if laws are broken. I understand that one would not want to suddenly enforce the law and arrest masked students on felony charges, but I don’t see any problem with enforcing the law after providing due warnings.
Meanwhile, at Cornell anti-Israel groups have been disrupting indoor spaces with extremely loud chantingof “from the river to the sea” and so forth. When students and their parents complained to the school, the response they received from the dean’s office is that the university would not intervene unless the protests were “too” disruptive. When pressed, 20-30 minutes of disruption was deemed not “too” disruptive. But it gets worse. According to the Cornell Sun, a university official admitted that the administration has been cooperating with the disruptions, including the students’ “occupying” a campus building as he made the statement!