Jerry Shenk: Higher Education: From silliness to … sedition?

Young college undergraduates and post-graduate students have a well-documented history of “dissenting” from mainstream American values.

There have been examples of lawless behavior in the past, but, in the early part of this century, at least, most on-campus higher-ed mischief tended to be just … well … silly.

For example, in 2015, the University of California system declared war on “microaggressions.” Other campuses signed on enthusiastically.

“Microaggression” is a pseudo-word contrived by hypersensitive, progressive “activists” to declare ordinary, commonly occurring expressions and behaviors as somehow offensive.

UCal actually published a guide to “Recognizing Microaggressions and the Messages They Send” which defined “microaggressions” as “the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, …intentional or  unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership…” and provided an awareness itinerary: “The first step in addressing microaggressions is to recognize when a microaggression has occurred and what message it may be sending.”

Apparently, “Anyone can succeed if they work hard” is a particularly egregious example.

In other words, the campus grievance industry — groups of uptight, hair-trigger, aggressive malcontents – carried its campaign against normalcy to an illogical conclusion – and beclowned itself.

Then, in 2016, the campus silliness stakes were raised by how earnestly, authoritatively and hysterically (in every sense of the word) emotionally adolescent undergraduates addressed trivialities by attempting to suppress or ban things most adults think of as “harmless fun” or “tasty food.”

Activists made “cultural appropriation” a “transgression.” In protesting “cultural appropriation,” some campus activists didn’t want white people practicing yoga or drinking tequila and wearing sombreros on Cinco de Mayo. Others thought Hindu chanting should be reserved for Hindus — a wonderful irony, because 1960-70s student protesters who eventually infiltrated higher education and today comprise significant numbers of active and emeritus faculty, enthusiastically “appropriated” the Kamasutra, Nehru jackets, hookahs and sitars.

But, this century, campus activism did spill into public places.

America’s Bill of Rights expresses no right of occupation, no right to seize private property and no right to disregard federal, state or local laws, yet, for more than two months in 2011, the rabble at the various Occupy Wall Street (OWS) street-theater events commandeered and occupied property and disregarded the law with near impunity.

OWS demonstrators included the usual misfits, however, many had conventional backgrounds — students and, especially, graduates with expensive academic credentials, but no jobs.

OWS lawlessness went nationwide, but, in the Manhattan original alone, the charges included rapes, sexual assaults, disorderly conduct, rioting, public lewdness, drugs, felonious assault and obstructing governmental administration, weapons possession, resisting arrest, assaults on police officers, obstructing public building access, multiple episodes of criminal mischief, blocking access to police precincts and blocking vehicular traffic.

The behavior of the occupiers was so flagrantly lawless that even the progressive administrations governing the jurisdictions in which the motley demonstrators usually assembled were forced to act to contain, and, in some cases, disband them.

But on-campus violence reappeared nationwide in 2024, with Columbia University, an Ivy League institution in New York City, at its epicenter. There, anti-Semitic protesters expressed support for the bloody October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians. Not only did protesters support Hamas, a terrorist organization, but they also blamed Israel for the unprovoked attack and condemned measures its military has taken to protect Israelis and release hostages, including Americans, taken by Hamas.

Calls for violence at Columbia continued into 2025. Pro-Hamas protesters, including aliens on student visas, have occupied campus buildings, disrupted campus life, and targeted Jewish students with physical intimidation, and occasionally violence. The movement is also supported by some faculty who canceled classes in solidarity, and, for the most part, the university’s administration has tolerated anti-Semitic activities.

Today, the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether individuals involved in the pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University violated federal anti-terrorism laws or committed sedition.

According to Merriam-Webster, “Sedition is the crime of creating a revolt, disturbance, or violence against lawful civil authority with the intent to cause its overthrow or destruction.” And the Law Dictionary says, “Sedition is the offense of publishing or speaking against the sovereign, the government, or the constitution, or of inciting violence or disorder.”

If merely inciting violence or disorder is seditious, then actually committing either certainly must be. According to reports, there is no doubt that both have occurred at Columbia and on other American campuses.

Contact columnist Jerry Shenk at jshenk2010@gmail.com