As I have mentioned in the past, I am a graduate of Emerson College. It brings me no joy to see the school suffer, especially when my memories of going there are so bright.
The anti-Israel protests of 2024 cast a long shadow over the Boston school and they still have not recovered. The people who engaged in those protests damaged the school’s image, yet they remain defiant and seem to think that if they can’t take over public spaces, their free speech rights are being infringed.
Boston.com reports:
‘The worst-case situation for the college’: After protests and layoffs, where does Emerson go from here?Ribbons of purple and gold snaked down Boylston Street in August as new students arrived at Emerson College for the fall semester. The sidewalk across from Boston Common buzzed with move-in carts and freshmen eager to experience what one parent called Emerson’s “driven while artsy” vibe.But among the crowd were a few disgruntled Emerson employees distributing leaflets that served as a stubborn reminder of issues the school is eager to forget: rolling financial cuts, the 2024 arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters, and a campus left fractured in the aftermath.“When the president lives in a $5 million suite in the Ritz-Carlton, and librarians are being walked off their jobs, it begs the question,” read the leaflet from the staff union, angered by summertime layoffs. “What are Emerson’s priorities?”The arts and communication college is facing the same financial challenges as small schools across the country. Slumping enrollment, mushrooming costs, and upheaval in federal higher education policy are driving more universities into the red. At Emerson, those problems are coming to a head alongside a fiery debate on campus about what the college stands for as higher education is under political attack.Last fall, enrollment at Emerson fell by 6 percent. Tuition and housing revenue from its 3,000-some students is down by around $16 million, administrators recently told faculty. Not only has the college eliminated staff positions, it’s offering early retirement and buyouts to some professors.In the year and a half since the 118 protest arrests cast a pall on campus, complaints abound that Emerson has strayed from its progressive values while under federal investigation for allowing antisemitism.
At the time of this writing, this is the top story at the student newspaper, The Berkeley Beacon:
13 protesters arrested, multiple officers injured at pro-Palestine protest in Downtown BostonThirteen pro-Palestine protesters were arrested, and multiple police officers were injured at a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) protest called “Two Years of Genocide,” the Boston Police Department confirmed with The Beacon on Tuesday night. The protesters, who remain unidentified, were arrested outside the Park Street T stop as they began marching across Tremont Street at around 6:50 p.m.Officers began arrests after protesters reached the T stop, where, according to BPD’s report, they turned on police, kicking a marked cruiser, assaulting officers, blocking traffic, and setting off flare devices emitting red smoke.Officers attempted to use bikes to block the crowd from crossing into the street, and many protesters fell or were thrown to the ground in clashes with police, where some were later held down and zip-tied. Several police officers were seen detaining individual protesters, and Beacon reporters on the scene saw one protester with an apparent leg injury.
It is this radical ‘Free Palestine’ ideology that is killing the school.
Emerson College would be wise to get back to the business of theater, journalism, filmmaking, acting, and public speaking.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY