Charles H.F. Davis III speaks with Inside Higher Ed about the increase in punishments for student protesters

Six months after the Israel-Hamas war set off a new wave of campus activism in the United States, students are still protesting in full force, reports Inside Higher Ed. At some institutions, administrators are responding to student demonstrators—especially supporters of Palestinians—with increasingly harsh discipline.

Within the long history of universities disciplining campus activists, CSHPE Assistant Professor Charles H.F. Davis III says there’s another subtext to the punishments student activists face.

“Who’s doing most of the protesting? Overwhelmingly it’s students of color—Black students in particular—and at this moment we see a lot of Arab and Palestinian students,” he told Inside Higher Ed. “You can’t have an institution that espouses a commitment to democratic representation and political engagement that doesn’t provide and hold space for political dissent.”