Florida State Suspends Left Wing Student Activist Group for Disrupting Board Meeting With Pro-Palestinian Chants
“students and student organizations may not disrupt university business, student learning or the normal operations of the university”
Students for a Democratic Society is still a thing? Weren’t they sort of big in the 1960s?
Inside Higher Ed reports:
Florida State Suspends Student Group for Disrupting Board Meeting
Florida State University has suspended its campus chapter of Students for a Democratic Society after members chanting pro-Palestinian slogans disrupted a Board of Trustees meeting in November, The Tallahassee Democrat reported.
The decision means SDS loses its status as an official student organization and cannot participate in campus events. The suspension will last until May 15, 2025, at which point the group can reapply for recognition.
The precipitating incident occurred Nov. 10, when members of Florida State’s SDS chapter joined students from other campus groups in attending a trustee meeting with the intention to voice support for the Palestinian cause during public comments. But that portion of the meeting was moved up on the schedule, so they missed it.
Frustrated and upset, students then interrupted the meeting by waving Palestinian flags and placards and chanting, “Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” before police removed them, the Democrat reported.
“As an educational institution, Florida State University welcomes free inquiry, diverse thought, rigorous debate and peaceful assembly,” FSU spokeswoman Amy Farnum-Patronis told the newspaper. “However, students and student organizations may not disrupt university business, student learning or the normal operations of the university.”
The group, which has until the end of the week to file an appeal, said it “strongly condemns” the ruling and vowed to keep operating.
“SDS recognizes this as a part of a greater surge of political repression across U.S. colleges against organizations that stand with Palestine,” members wrote on Instagram Monday. “Our support for a free Palestine is unwavering and is not contingent on recognition by the University, nor the support of governing bodies. While these attacks may briefly divert our attention we will remain vigilant and steadfast in our mission.”
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Back in the day, in an informal discussion on the campus quad, an SDS honcho informed us that university curricula should be changed to include a heavy dose of Lenin. This was not done in the sense of “know your enemy,” but in the sense that Lenin was on the level of Shakespeare, Kant, or Plato. She was positively gushing while she spoke “Lenin.” She at least had the sense to not go the weatherman bombing route. She has spent several decades as a state legislator, always alert to be included in photos with more famous politicians.
I wonder if she remembers making that statement.
Are you talking about the one that played the part of Zelda Gilroy on the dobie gillis television show?
I just Googled that name. You have shattered a childhood crush.
I didn’t know the SDS was still operational. I was one of the few who recognized Bill Ayers name and questioned why he was such good friends with the unknown Obama. The Ayers family must be quite politically connected in corrupt Cook County to have kept Ayers out of jail and to have rehabilitated his image with his position as a professior at the Universityn of Illinois.
The Ayers family must be quite politically connected in corrupt Cook County to have kept Ayers out of jail.
Correct. Thomas Ayers merited his own Wiki page independent of his being Bill’s father. Thomas Ayers was a muckety-muck with Commonwealth Edison, the electrical utility for Chicago. (President, 1964-1980; CEO & Chairman, 1973-1980)
I didn’t know the SDS was still operational.
___________________________________
myself–danced on the west mall with the sds clowns ( almost exclusively betas with beards and women who couldn’t get laid on a troop train ) and also with the black panties gang as well–nothing lethal–just good fun
Why weren’t the individual students suspended as well?
There is the million dollar question. For anything to start to change the students need to be suspended. No second chances as they are adults and know what they are doing is wrong. If they don’t then it’s time for a hard lesson.
“However, students and student organizations may not disrupt university business, student learning or the normal operations of the university.”
What is this, the ’50s?
Good!
That was the last age where ADULT administrators realized that the business of the university was serious business, exhibited dignity, and demanded respect.
The 1950s also was a time when there were no styrofoam majors. People were there to learn something.
Yes, there were people who majored in things like philosophy, or in things like sociology and other sciences that can be questioned. But at least they were there to attend classes, do their homework, and actually earn real grades.
Dare I say, the only quote is that any of the colleges had for admission was to keep out Jews, blacks, and other” undesirables “.
Good riddance!
That final statement from them sounds kind of… insurrection-y.
Rules of decorum actually being enforced…..what a shocker
Somebody finally had the guts to tell students that they don’t run the University. It used to be that students went to school to learn. More recently, colleges seem to allow the students to run the place.
“The suspension will last until May 15, 2025”
Unless SDS and university administrators have changed radically since the 60’s the suspension will last a couple of weeks.