RICHMOND, Virginia: Sam Law, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, was one of roughly 80 people arrested and charged with criminal trespassing for protesting the war in Gaza on his campus at the end of April. Someone had apparently read a dispersal order over a loudspeaker at that April 29 protest, Law said, citing his arrest affidavit, but he doesn’t remember hearing one. “I was on my own campus exercising my right to speak,” he said.
US universities have been rocked by waves of anti-war protests, with police and protesters clashing at times and questions raised over forceful methods used to disperse the rallies and encampments. On Law’s campus, officers clad in riot gear and mounted on horseback swept away demonstrations in late April, arresting dozens of people days before the graduate student was himself arrested. Now many students fear they will be penalized academically or even professionally as they prepare to enter the workforce or return to classes in coming months.
Law and those arrested with him had their criminal trespass charges dropped but now they face the prospect of disciplinary action from the university itself. In recent weeks, they have received messages from college authorities asking them why they didn’t disperse, if they agreed their conduct on the day was disruptive, and what they would tell a fellow student “who had their lives or education negatively impacted by your conduct,” according to emailed questions seen by th.