Dozens of professors at Harvard University staged a "study-in" protest at the school's library Wednesday, in solidarity with students disciplined for taking part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration.
Thirty professors sat down inside Widener Library to take a stand against the university's decision to suspend 12 students from using the facility.
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"I can't imagine that a university would want to punish its teachers for reading in a library, but then again, I couldn't have imagined that it would have suspended our students for doing the same thing," law professor Andrew Crespo said. "If the university is going to be true to what it is all about, it can't start punishing students for reading quietly in the library just because those students have ideas that they want to share with other students and other members in the community."
Mahmoud Al-Thabata was one of the 12 students who entered the Widener Library in September, wearing keffiyehs with signs posted on their laptops in response to Israel attacking Lebanon.
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"It was silent, it was, frankly, zero disruptions at all, it was students just studying," he said.
Library security asked the group for identification. All 12 students received an email shortly after informing them that they were suspended from the library for a little over three weeks, and that "demonstrations and protests are not permitted in libraries."
The professors staged a similar scene Wednesday inside the same learning space.
"My colleagues and I went to the same reading room, and we wore black neck scarves, and we read books about academic freedom and dissent," Crespo said.
Before teaching at the university for nearly 10 years, Crespo graduated from the school.
"In all of my time here as student, and now as a faculty member, I cannot remember a time where the university has adopted so many rules and new enforcement practices that seem designed to try to curtail expression and the sharing of ideas on campus," he said.
Harvard said it is still gathering information about Wednesday's demonstration before deciding on next steps.
