A year after encampments swept Chicago-area universities, 3 pro-Palestinian protesters speak out

Chicago Tribune

5 hours ago

Six months have passed since fourth-year University of Chicago student Mamayan Jabateh last stepped foot on campus.
Jabateh was one of two students arrested after she participated in an October demonstration calling for an end to the university's investment in weapons manufacturers arming Israel.
The protest, which drew a crowd of more than 150 people, was initially peaceful, Jabateh said. Students and staff stood before the crowd giving speeches, later moving through the campus. When campus police intervened, that all changed.
Last spring, university students, including Jabateh at the U. of C. and others across the country erected 130 encampments on the lawns of their campuses, barricading themselves from law enforcement to stand in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where bombardments have destroyed nearly all higher education institutions.
Since the October 2023 Hamas attack, which left 1,200 Israelis dead and more than 250 hostages, the ensuing war has killed 55,000 Palestinians according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Several Chicago-area universities, including Northwestern, the University of Chicago and Loyola, made national and international news for their encampments.
Many students dove into the protests, understanding the consequences they'd face — possible suspension, expulsion, and, for some, their diplomas withheld. Yet, they continued, they said, passionate about the cause they were fighting for.
More than a year later, the repercussions continue as well, as the Trump administration aims to punish the students who participated, signaling a wider, more coordinated federal crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses. As universities continue to discipline student activists and attempt to quell on-campus demonstrations, the pro-Palestinian movement has become a flashpoint in the national debate over free speech.
Loyola law student Zak Cheikho helped coordinate several encampments across the city last year as a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, and said he witnessed institutions 'exercising the police against their students.'
'It took the courage and bravery of students and educators … to put their bodies between the students at the encampment and the police,' for the encampments to grow.
Cheikho knew the possible consequences but that did not dissuade him, he said.
'I think it's a very easy moral question,' Cheikho said. 'The burden seems like a lot until you put it into the context of the others, of the suffering that's being faced by people, then it's very little.'
When the bombardments on Gaza began in 2023, U. of C. grad student Mike Miccioli joined hundreds in protesting outside the Israeli Consulate in Chicago.
His involvement continued in the following months — tabling daily in the quad at U. of C. and fundraising for Palestinians.
The encampment at the Hyde Park school lasted eight days before being raided by campus police. Miccioli criticized the university's response to last year's encampments, also noting a 'violent' police raid at a protest on Oct. 11, 2024, that led to two student arrests and suspensions.
Miccioli said he understood the consequences for participating in the demonstration. But his disciplinary case for participating in the demonstrations was eventually dropped, and he resumed his studies.
As a precondition to negotiating, organizers insisted that the university implement a Gaza 'scholars at risk' program, where Palestinian scholars would study and teach at the U. of C. While some Palestinian scholars are now at U. of C., Miccioli said the university did not 'fully implement the program' and 'went back on their agreement.'
In a statement to the Tribune, U. of C. said university faculty nominated one scholar impacted by the conflict in Gaza, approved by the Scholars at Risk committee, and the scholar has been on campus and teaching since winter quarter. The university said it welcomes nominations for more eligible scholars.
But while the school portrays itself as the 'gold standard' of free speech and academic freedom, Miccioli said, it 'has shown that that only applies to certain types of speech.'
In a statement, U. of C. said it is 'fundamentally committed to upholding the rights of speakers and protesters to express a wide range of views.' However, at the same time, university policies state, 'protests and demonstrations cannot jeopardize public safety, disrupt the University's operations, or involve unlawful activity.'
Northwestern promised a similar program, agreeing to support two visiting Palestinian faculty members for two years and providing five Palestinian undergraduate students with the full cost of attendance.
The Daily Northwestern, however, reported that only one Palestinian faculty member is currently a visiting scholar. Northwestern did not respond to a Tribune request for comment on the program.
Several students told the Tribune that the U. of C. has been cracking down on alleged antisemitism on campus, following the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism's recent focus on investigating Chicago-area schools. The university launched an investigation in March into alleged antisemitic signs displayed in a faculty member's office.
The faculty member voluntarily removed the signs, however, this marked the second probe by into antisemitism on campus following a March 13 incident involving vandalism of an on-campus Israel installation.
Following the U. of C.'s implementation of revised protest policies that include the banning of encampments, overnight protests and demonstrations with 'amplified sound,' the advocacy group Palestine Legal filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of the campus group University of Chicago United for Palestine, demanding an investigation into the university's alleged 'nearly year-long, hostile environment of anti-Palestinian racism' on campus.
Universities' responses to last year's encampments were typical, according to Genevieve Lakier, a University of Chicago professor specializing in freedom of speech and American constitutional law. However, what's occurred since then in recent months, she said, is increasingly concerning.
'Initially, universities responded in ways consistent with a long-standing tradition of permitting student protest,' Lakier said. 'Institutions like the University of Chicago, Columbia, and Harvard have historically welcomed protest as part of their educational mission. It's expected — students are supposed to question the status quo.'
Lakier noted that the shift typically occurred after accusations the protests were antisemitic and schools began facing increased pressure from donors and their board of trustees to end them. It will be harder for dissenting voices to be heard on campus, she said.
'The university should not be governed by the desires of their rich alumni or boards of trustees, because that's inevitably, over time, going to mean that certain voices are going to be suppressed,' Lakier said.
Pressure to keep pro-Palestinian protests off college campuses increased under the Trump administration, as President Donald Trump encouraged universities to have a heavier hand with student protesters, threatening cuts to funding and investigations into universities if they did otherwise.
'Trump is clearly signaling that universities need to not only discipline students more, but they need to change their speech rules altogether to make it harder for students to protest,' Lakier said.
Until a couple of weeks ago, she said she believed the administration had succeeded in extinguishing the largest anti-war movement organized by students since the 1960s. But now, Lakier said, students are beginning to resist and push back. 'But the political environment is a very dangerous and scary one,' she said. 'Who knows what is going to happen next?'
While her recollection is hazy, Jabateh said officers at the October protest trampled students and began hitting fallen students with batons. They charged the crowd and pepper-sprayed students. At some point, she intervened, deflecting a baton from hitting a fellow student, and again, when the officer then attempted to beat her, she said.
Jabateh was accused of hitting a police officer during the protest and was later charged with aggravated battery of a peace officer, as well as resisting or obstructing a peace officer.
While Jabateh said the protest was initially peaceful and escalated by officers, a U. of C. spokesperson said protestors 'vandalized and damaged property, instigated confrontations with police by physically surrounding a police car, blocked the public road and struck police officers who responded.'
Though she walked away from the protest, she didn't leave unscathed. She remained in pain for a week after, she said, and it took hours for her to completely wash off the remnants of being pepper-sprayed.
Two months after the October protest during finals week in December, she was led off campus by officers in handcuffs and charged. Jabateh said spending 30 hours in jail after her arrest was 'very scary.'
Jabateh was evicted from her dorm and banned from campus immediately after her release. Nearly six months later, she has yet to return to the university as she was suspended from campus for two years.
Jabateh also pleaded guilty to the criminal charges filed against her to have them expunged from her record in one year.
'I do not feel safe at UChicago anymore,' Jabateh said. 'This is something that I'm going to take with me for a very long time.'
Manuel Rivera, the other U. of C. student arrested and suspended due to his participation in the protest, filed a civil rights complaint against the university in January.
Rivera also filed suit against Dean of Students Michael Hayes, and two unnamed university police officers. He alleges that the university's decision to evict and place him on an 'involuntary leave' from campus violated the First Amendment and Illinois and Chicago housing law.
This is the first lawsuit and second civil rights complaint against the university regarding pro-Palestinian protests on campus in the last year.
Despite what she's faced in recent months and the uncertainty of her future, Jabateh said she has no regrets. She is not deterred from voicing her support for Palestinians.
'If anything, this entire situation has enraged me,' Jabateh said. 'I'm sitting in a moment of rage. There's a lot of healing I need to do, but I don't think that's going to stop me. We've been committed to this movement, and … there's no going back.'