The Metro: How should universities respond to student protests?

, , August 6, 2025
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Protesters pour water on their faces after University of Michigan police pepper sprayed them on May 21, 2024. Campus police were raiding and breaking up a pro-Palestine encampment.

Universities have been cracking down on pro-Palestine student protestors. In April, the University of Michigan fired a full-time employee, and suspended four people from campus jobs for participating in pro-Palestine protests last year.

In Detroit, a number of students are pushing back against university charges. In June, a group filed a lawsuit against Wayne State University,  claiming the school violated the group’s constitutional right to protest in 2024. 

How should universities treat student protestors? And, what are the principles they should be defending? Frederick Lawrence is the Secretary and CEO of the Phi Beta Society and a Distinguished Lecturer at Georgetown Law school. He’s also the former president of Brandeis University and regularly consults university presidents.

Lawrence spoke with The Metro’s Sam Corey to discuss how Universities should be handling current and future protests.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

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Authors

  • Sam Corey is a producer for 101.9 WDET, which includes finding and preparing interesting stories for the daily news, arts and culture program, The Metro. Sam joined WDET after a year and a half at The Union, a small newspaper in California, and stints at a variety of local Michigan outlets, including WUOM and the Metro Times. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.

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  • Robyn Vincent
    Robyn Vincent is the co-host of The Metro on WDET. She is an award-winning journalist, a lifelong listener of WDET, and a graduate of Wayne State University, where she studied journalism. Before returning home to Detroit, she was a reporter, producer, editor, and executive producer for NPR stations in the Mountain West, including her favorite Western station, KUNC. She received a national fellowship from Investigative Reporters and Editors for her investigative work that probed the unchecked power of sheriffs in Colorado. She was also the editor-in-chief of an alternative weekly newspaper in Wyoming, leading the paper to win its first national award for a series she directed tracing one reporter’s experience living and working with Syrian refugees.

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