Northwestern University professors are encouraging students to skip classes to attend anti-Israel demonstrations on campus, and some are even moving their lessons to the site of the protest encampment, according to emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The faculty messages are in defiance of campus administrators and police, who warned they would arrest trespassers who set up an anti-Israel tent city on Northwestern's Deering Meadow lawn on Thursday. Campus police have yet to remove over 100 protesters who gathered there as of Friday afternoon, as professors encouraged their students to join in.
"In light of artist tradition, studies, activism, and movements, tomorrow discussion will be held in Deering Meadow," wrote Isaac Vazquez, a Northwestern art history lecturer, in an email to students on Thursday. "If you're already there, I'll see you."
Graduate student lecturer Maximiliano Cervantes emailed students that "class will be canceled tomorrow. I welcome everyone to join in front of Deering during class. This is relevant to Professor Feldman's lecture on art and action."
In another email, assistant law professor Jesse Yeh told his students to let him know if they "need to miss class or need extension on your assignment for any reason."
"This includes if you need to miss class for an extended period of time to exercise your right to protest," he added. "In Solidarity."
Faculty members have openly joined the encampment and on Thursday even fought with police who attempted to approach the protesters.
Northwestern journalism professor Steven Thrasher, who has written for the New York Times and been interviewed on NPR, was filmed scuffling with police trying to enter the encampment, according to video reviewed by the Free Beacon.
Thrasher encouraged other professors to form a human chain to prevent police from arresting the protesters.
"We locked arms and kept the police at bay. They retreated. 24 hours later the camp is still up," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. "We will continue to protect our students. We will put our bodies on the line to protect our students."
Even though the administration warned participants that they would be arrested, the encampments continued to grow through Friday, with activists announcing that they have no intention of backing down.
"We are officially entering our second day in the liberation zone and are committed to staying as long as it takes for [Northwestern] to accept our demands," the protest organizers wrote in a post on Telegram.
A Northwestern spokesman told the Free Beacon that the school is aware of these incidents and is taking action.
"We are aware of a small number of instances in which such emails were sent to students. We have conveyed with departments and programs that this is completely inappropriate," Northwestern spokesman Jon Yates told the Free Beacon.
The university is also investigating Thrasher's confrontation with police.
"We are investigating and if [Thrasher] used force on University personnel, he will be disciplined," said Yates.
Alumni and student parents have accused Northwestern president Michael Schill of failing to combat anti-Semitism on campus, where anti-Israel protesters have raised the Hamas flag at student demonstrations. The Department of Education is investigating alleged anti-Jewish incidents at the school.
Wendy Khabie, the mother of a Northwestern student and a member of a group called the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern, said she was concerned about Jewish students' safety on campus.
Images from the protests have shown activists promoting terrorism and anti-Semitic violence. One protester on Thursday was photographed wearing a shirt with a picture of Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida.
"The administration is not handling this the way it should be handled," Khabie told the Free Beacon on Friday. "They met for hours with members of the protesting encampment … that hasn't helped, that hasn't worked."
"Make good on your word," she said, referring to administrators. Trespassers "were warned that arrests would be made."
Witnesses said Northwestern police are also refusing to enforce basic laws at the encampment, for fear of provoking the crowd. A local man, John Brinkman, told the Free Beacon that a protester sneaked up behind him and stole American and Israeli flags that he was carrying near the encampment.
The American flag belonged to Brinkman's father, a Korean War veteran, and had been in the family for 80 years, Brinkman said.
Brinkman said he asked police to help him retrieve the flags—which the protester had stashed in a tent—but the officers were under orders to "stand down due to administrative directives."
"They were not allowed to intervene … they said it would be basically an act of provocation," Brinkman said. "Obviously I'll never get my hands back on [the flags]."