SEATTLE — On Wednesday, 21 students were suspended from the University of Washington for taking over a campus building during a protest this week.
The students, along with non-student protesters, are banned from all UW campuses. There is no timeline on when they’ll be allowed to return.
“I think that I probably agree with their message, but I think using violence and tactics is not really the best way to do it. I think they could’ve gotten a lot more done if they just occupied the building instead of starting fires,” said Odessa, a UW student.
Odessa and her classmate, Willa, say they support the right to protest, but without the destruction.
“Violence is not ideal, but also there have been a lot of peaceful protests so I understand why, like, that emotion kind of escalated. But definitely not an ideal outcome for anyone,” Willa said.
Dumpster fires, shattered windows, and smashed equipment from Monday night’s protest totaled $1 million in damages.
The federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is now reviewing federal grants and contracts with the university. The Task Force says it expects changes to prevent this from happening again, adding:
“The university must do more to deter future violence and guarantee that Jewish students have a safe and productive learning environment.”
The University of Washington says it’s made changes to improve campus climate for Jewish students by:
- Training on preventing shared ancestry discrimination
- Reviewing University policies and procedures
- Strengthening relationships with the Jewish community
- Improvement of bias incident reporting and response processes
- Consolidation of anti-discrimination compliance in a new Civil Rights Compliance Office
- Rejecting a proposal to divest from companies with ties to Israel
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