Putting aside justification of the cause, and whether fears are justified depending on the particular protest they can disrupt learning due to the noise of people chanting, access to certain areas being made more difficult or blocked etc. Sometimes the code of conduct students agreed to when they accepted the invitation to attend the university are being violated. By not enforcing the code of conduct it is felt that protesters will become more emboldened to go further leading to a complete breakdown in order.
IMHO they never had control of the situation in the first place through fault of their own and factors they can’t control. They had nothing to do with the plethora of horrific images coming from Gaza on students devices. It very well may be that there was nothing anybody could have done to minimize it, and can do now to prevent the situation from getting a lot worse.
Off Topic
Some commencement ceremonies will be seriously disrupted if not canceled. It has been pointed out that the university class of 2024 was the high school class of 2020 when commencements were seriously disrupted by COVID lockdowns. To me the ceremony and the piece of paper known as a diploma are not important. What is important is the accomplishments they symbolize. I vaguely remember parts of my ceremonies and have no memory of walking up on stage and being handed my diploma. Knowing what I did not know at the time, that I am autistic the accomplishments mean more to me now then they did then. That said to many the graduation ceremonies are considered major life milestones. While fully acknowledging there are and were more important things going on to miss out what practically every other class got to experience falls under the category of it really sucks but s**t happens if it happens one, twice is really f****d up.
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman