The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has a student body that is one-third foreign nationals. They flock to MIT for the reputedly excellent math and engineering programs. However, an inexcusable clash started by pro-Palestinian (read: pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic) protesters, who physically prevented Jewish students from getting to class, turned more volatile with the arrival of counterprotesters. The administration feared that violence would erupt, and so it gave all the students a choice: Leave now or get suspended.

Many student did comply. Those who did not participated in “talks” with the admin and staff. After threats of suspension were made and the students didn’t obey, one would think that punishment would be carried out immediately.

Not so.

MIT President Sally Kornbluth later wrote an explanation: “Members of my team have been in dialogue with students all day. Because we later heard serious concerns about collateral consequences for the students, such as visa issues, we have decided, as an interim action, that the students who remained after the deadline will be suspended from non-academic campus activities. The students will remain enrolled at MIT and will be able to attend academic classes and labs.”

In other words, because these students would lose their visa and be deported, MIT lessened the punishment and allowed them to continue to go to classes with the Jewish students against whom they hold such animus.

This is what has been allowed to continue in MIT classrooms because these “protesters” weren’t punished. It’s been a week since the initial volatile protest, and they are using their privilege of still being allowed to attend classes to interrupt students trying to learn and teachers trying to teach. There are no real consequences because MIT is afraid the malcontents will be deported. The exasperated expressions on the students’ faces in the linked video says it all.

This is a math class this morning at @MIT. This is the state of learning and ‘free speech’ at our top universities. It would not be happening without a failure leadership at MIT.

Imagine being a student who borrowed $250k to attend MIT or a professor who is trying to do… pic.twitter.com/w8C6Y6i3SU

— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) November 10, 2023

It prompts the question: Just how many of these anti-Semitic protesters are foreign nationals? If one were to judge by Kornbluth’s decision, the answer must be many or most.

If that’s the case, then MIT really is failing its student population in extraordinary ways. Foreign nationals are not American citizens; they have to abide by the same rules as all the other students. If they cannot abide by those rules, they should not attend school in the U.S. MIT has let these dangerous and threatening students reign as the cry-bullies they are, and the tiny Jewish population (and those other students who are just there to learn) are subject to the tyranny and whims of these anti-Semites and the apathy of their administration. It is shameful.