Anti-Israel campus protests were ‘encouraged’ by Iran, Syracuse University chancellor says
Anti-Israel protests on college campuses over the last two years were “encouraged” by Iran — and involved mostly outside agitators and not students, the chancellor of Syracuse University said.
Speaking at a panel in Washington, D.C. with fellow chancellors from Vanderbilt and Washington University in St. Louis this week, Syracuse’s Kent Syverud said the at-times violent campus demonstrations in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack may have been orchestrated by the Islamic regime.
“When things happened that I really believe were encouraged from Iran,” said Syverud, noting that the protests at Syracuse University were mostly made up of outside agitators, and “did not have the involvement of very many, if any, of our own students.”
He said meting out punishments to students or other individuals involved in violence or destruction of property was made more difficult by the widespread use of facial coverings to obscure their identities.
“People were using masks to avoid accountability for what they were saying and doing,” he said.
Though he didn’t name Iran specifically, Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said he believed the protests like those that took place at the Nashville campus followed a “playbook,” and were the result of “organized networks” that could have put out a call to action.
“[Students] were looking at [and] were using the playbook that they had seen at Columbia and other places, and it was the same messaging. It’s more than social contagion,” he said.
“I think there are organized networks as well. And for sure we saw that.”
Andrew Martin, chancellor of Washington University, agreed, and said he personally witnessed protests that were chiefly made up of people with no affiliation to the school.
“Many of the things that happened on our campus, including an attempted encampment, we didn’t allow it to take place and ultimately had folks arrested to shut it down on a Saturday evening,” Martin said.
“Three quarters of those individuals had nothing to do with the university.”
The same scenario played out at Barnard College — Columbia University’s sister school — in March when a violent mob of hundreds stormed the Morningside Heights campus’ Milstein Library. Cops arrested nine participants, none of whom were students of the elite women’s college.
In April, during a similar takeover at Columbia, NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said, “these once-peaceful protests are being exploited by professional outside agitators. The safety of all students, faculty, and staff are now a concern.”
The panel was convened by Alums for Campus Fairness, which organizes university alumni and works to fight antisemitism on campuses nationwide.