'Theatrics of danger'

New York City, United States – Fall semester was meant to be the final hurdle. Only four months of classes remained before Jonas could graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

But as Jonas — who asked to have his last name withheld — started his second week of class, he found himself confronting a new obstacle: an impending disciplinary hearing.

Jonas was one of thousands of university students across the United States who participated in on-campus activism to protest Israel’s war in Gaza during the last academic year.

Now, as those student protesters return for a new year of learning, they are facing a landscape transformed by updated restrictions, heightened security measures and increased scrutiny of pro-Palestine movements.

For Jonas, returning to school meant confronting the academic consequences of his activism.

Last year, as a co-founder of his campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, he protested Israel’s actions in Gaza and rallied others to join him.

The school had already alerted him that he would face discipline. But the hearing had never materialised — until this September, barely a few days into the start of the new academic year.

Jonas told Al Jazeera he received an email from the university accusing him of disrupting college activities and failing to register his group’s protests, among other charges.

Jonas explained that he was nervous about the hearing; he had already paid his tuition for the semester and is worried the school may prevent him from completing his course load.

“Now, if I’m suspended and I’m banned from campus, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” he said.

Colleges and universities were centres of the pro-Palestine protest movement in the US, sparking trends that spilled across international borders.

In April, for instance, students in New York started to build “Gaza solidarity” encampments, erecting tents on campus lawns. Soon, schools in Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom had established their own similar protest camps.

But the crackdown was swift. More than 3,000 US students have been arrested since the first encampment rose, and school administrators threatened some protest leaders with suspension and academic probation.

Donors, politicians and other groups also pressured universities to take strong action, accusing the protesters of anti-Semitism and fostering an unsafe learning environment.

Student protesters vehemently denied those allegations. Nevertheless, the criticism continued even after the spring semester ended in June, with many campuses emptying for the summer months.

“Nobody gets the right to harass their fellow students,” Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said in an interview last week. “Nobody gets a right to set up 10 encampments and turn their college campuses into garbage dumps.”

Over the summer, several high-profile campuses — including Columbia University and New York University — settled lawsuits from students alleging anti-Semitic harassment. But tensions remain high.

The Republican-led House of Representatives, for instance, continues to lead a probe into whether several top schools were too lax in cracking down on anti-Jewish hate.

In response, many universities began the new academic year with a slate of new rules and guidelines that critics say dampen free speech.

At New York University, for instance, a paragraph about the word “Zionism” was added to the school’s official “Guidance and Expectations on Student Conduct” on August 25.

“Using code words, like ‘Zionist,’ does not eliminate the possibility that your speech violates the [Non-discrimination and Anti-harassment] Policy,” the school wrote.

Meanwhile, at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, school administrators initially announced in early August that future protests would be limited to two hours, before backtracking later in the month.

The revised rules still limit “large demonstrations” to five hours and designated areas.

At Stony Brook University in Long Island, New York, Zubair — a student who likewise asked for his last name to be withheld, for fear of repercussions — told Al Jazeera he was surprised to discover new rules about posting flyers.

Zubair helps to lead his campus’s branch of Students for Justice in Palestine. On August 23, the Friday before his semester started, he and other students put flyers up around campus, only to find out that there were new rules preventing them from doing so.

Under the updated rules, posting flyers required authorisation from the university. Chalk messages on sidewalks were also banned.

“It was never enforced until it was political flyers, specifically pro-Palestine flyers that were being put around,” Zubair said. “Then all of a sudden, they needed to be approved or they can’t be taped to this wall, or you need building manager permission.”

Jonas at the Fashion Institute of Technology, meanwhile, noted that his campus had tightened restrictions in a way that appeared aimed at student protests.

“It says unauthorised overnight activities will be considered trespassing and addressed as such,” Jonas said, pointing to temporary guidelines issued in August. He feared the guidelines could result in law enforcement actions.

“It basically means, any encampment that you do, you’re getting arrested. Which is expected, but now they have it explicitly in writing.”

Veronica Salama, a staff lawyer with the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the changing policies reflect a larger trend that has been developing over the past year.

She observed that universities have taken a harsher approach when it comes to containing pro-Palestinian protests, compared with the anti-war protests of previous decades.

“We’ve seen several instances where universities are operating very, very differently with respect to students’ Palestine protests than they have with respect to and in response to students’ protests about issues in decades past,” she said.

But one professor at Columbia University, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of professional and personal repercussions, said he noticed his administration was taking action against protesters even more swiftly this semester.

“We’re starting the first day of class now with two arrests,” the professor said.

Maureen Milligan, a University at Buffalo staff member and divestment activist, credited the new rules to the continued public pressure administrators are facing. She referenced a conversation she had with colleagues at the University at Buffalo.

“One of the administrators even said it’s partially a reaction to the criticism they received because of the police brutality that occurred on the campus on May 1st when an encampment was attempted,” Milligan said.

At Columbia, private security officers from Apex Security now swarm the campus, with an employee posted at almost every door. Students, staff and faculty are required to swipe their university identification cards to enter the campus – a departure from when the school used to be open to the public.

New signs have appeared on the Columbia campus in recent weeks alerting students that it is prohibited to put up tents.

Columbia professor Amy Chazkel warned the evolving security measures have created a confused, tense environment for the university community.

“It seems absurd to even think about applying rules in a scenario where the rules are constantly changing,” Chazkel told Al Jazeera.

“And the security measures are being implemented in reaction to things that don’t exist or in reaction to political impulses about intentionally creating a feeling, a theatrics of danger on campus.”

For Palestinian American student activist Maryam Alwan, the experience of coming back to Columbia’s campus for a new semester has been overwhelming, even triggering.

“Returning to campus was unbearably re-traumatising — everywhere I go brings back repressed memories,” she wrote in a message to Al Jazeera.

Alwan explained she now has a class in the very same building where, in late April, police arrested student protesters barricaded inside.

“And of course, the lawns are simultaneously a nostalgic reminder of the most communal, happiest period of my life and where I got arrested.”

Still, Alwan said, the events unfolding in Gaza push her to continue her protests. The start of the semester coincided with the beginning of the war’s 12th month, and more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed.

“Days ago, my friend found out that her family’s house was turned into a military base, and then she just had to go to class,” Alwan explained.

“To Columbia, we are political problems, not people facing the most painful period of our lives. We’re on our own — but we have each other.”

As Jonas goes into his final months at the Fashion Institute of Technology, he too is focused on the ongoing war. He told Al Jazeera he is committed to continuing his fight.

Already, he helped organise a rally in front of his campus.

“All our institutions and our government is very actively complicit, if not an active participant, in this genocide,” Jonas says. “We know that they will retaliate harsher against us for standing up against it.”

He added that he is undeterred by the changing rules and potential consequences. “We kind of wear that as a badge of honour in a way, and we are definitely willing to face those consequences.”