LANSING, Mich.—The repression of political protest on college campuses has only intensified under the Trump administration. Just this week, Michigan State University (MSU) filed disciplinary charges against Eli Folts, a prominent member of the university’s pro-Palestine and anti-war Hurriya coalition (which means freedom in Arabic). The alleged charges stem from a public confrontation between MSU’s president, Kevin Guskiewicz, and student protesters demanding he end the university’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The MSU police charges claim Folts “intimidated and harassed” Guskiewicz and “disrupted university functions.” Folts officially refused to accept these charges and elected for a board of students and faculty to hear his case. According to the University’s Office of Spartan Experiences, possible sanctions can range from an official warning to dismissal from the university. But students and their allies in the peace movement are fighting back and demanding that the right to free speech be protected.
The protest in question took place during Sparticipation, which is the annual student organization fair on campus. Members of the Hurriya coalition, which includes the Young Communist League, already planned to drop banners from a nearby parking garage, Folts said, when they learned that Guskiewicz would be speaking from one of the stages in the fair. After learning of this, Folts and a few dozen of the other protesters moved from the parking garage to the stage, where they began to chant, hold banners, and confront Guskiewicz directly.
During this, Guskiewicz got right in the face of Folts and said, “This is not the place for this. This is a celebration,” before leaving the stage. When he later returned to the stage, the chants began again for a few minutes before he left for good with a police escort, according to both Folts and the police report.
The police report, given to People’s World by Folts, claims that based on the proximity and “aggressiveness” of the students, Guskiewicz felt intimidated and feared for his safety. The report also points to Folts’ two previous arrests, which occurred at sit-ins, also in support of the Palestinian people, at the President’s office, to try and show a pattern of alleged harassment.
However, in a statement, the Hurriya Coalition says they have “never threatened anyone with violence or sought to harm anyone,” but rather this was “yet another peaceful demonstration calling for divestment in Israel.”
Furthermore, the coalition said that “selectively enforcing University discipline” is an escalation in the repression of free speech, and is “a deeply disturbing use of campus police authority in a time of escalating police harassment and abuse toward a wide range of students and community members.”
For those students who value their democratic rights and are demanding peace for Palestine, this attempt by MSU to target yet another pro-Palestine protester is part of a growing series of speech crackdowns on campuses both at MSU and across the country.
Only a year ago, MSU arrested 5 student protesters during a sit-in, and then early this year, arrested another 19 protesters following a similar demonstration. Outside of just the MSU campus, Columbia University expelled and suspended almost 80 protestors, and the University of Michigan filed similar complaints against 11 students.
“The focus should not be on me, but rather on the university’s authoritarian move to crack down on free speech, cower to the Trump administration, and fail to end their complicity in genocide,” Folts told People’s World.
Similarly, the Hurriya coalition is focusing on MSU’s growing pattern of authoritarianism and demanding that President Guskiewicz and MSU immediately drop the charges and divest from genocide.
The Gaza genocide, which is a continuation of the 76-year-long war on the Palestinian people, has drawn worldwide condemnation. The Gaza Health Ministry estimates over 65,000 Palestinians have been killed, with two-thirds of them women and children. Gaza is now threatened by famine.
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