Letters to the Editor: Protesters who broke the rules are getting consequences, not reprisals

To the editor: Protesters complain that their participation in campus demonstrations last spring is now snarling their academic progress and burdening them with red tape and inconveniences.
But what about the effects their protests and encampments had on students, faculty and staff whose classes became remote, exams were delayed, and whose research was interrupted or halted? What of the staff left with the huge job of cleanup and restoration of trashed and vandalized buildings and spaces?
As the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre approaches and the new academic year moves forward, students resentful that the campus conduct codes apply to them might ask themselves what their encampments, takeovers, checkpoints, defacements, shutdowns and often humiliating intimidations accomplished.
Only 8% of young voters recently polled by NBC cited the Hamas-Israel war as a top concern. Hamas just executed six hostages — one an American citizen — and continues to reject all cease-fire proposals. And universities aren’t divesting from Israel.
Jo Perry, Studio City
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To the editor: As a graduate of both USC and UCLA, I am dismayed at the severity of the consequences USC is imposing on some of its students who protested the mass killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Students should be encouraged to speak out when they see gross injustice occurring. Their cause is a legitimate one, and it’s impossible to be proud of an institution that punishes their actions, as if students should just submit to the accepted “groupthink” on an issue.
UCLA also lost respect when it totally failed to protect peacefully protesting students when counterprotesters violently attacked them. Both universities can, and should, do much better.
Bill Hessell, Oak View