I don't like to talk about work, really, except for teaching and my students who I love, but here it is reading period of finals.

Spent the afternoon meeting with my students who wanted to come in to discuss the papers they were writing, or just to talk. I love and care for my students, and they know it, and they come to my office---different religions, ethnic, racial, sexual, gender and sexual identies. They trust me, and we have a very open relations. Was so happy being with them today. Then I walked outside to go home, and there was a helicopter hovering high above Columbia University and Barnard (well nearer Columbia. I got home and yes, there's another demonstration. This time CUAD (you can look it up) having entered and taken over the reading room in Butler Library, where students are studying for their final exams or working on their term papers. I didn't know until I got home, and I thought, oh no, not again.

I'm so tired of this. I think of the students who just want to learn, just want to take and work for the courses they are taking. Many of them are not rich or privileged. Many take out loans they will have to repay (if there are jobs to get). Many (in fact many students I know, and I teach both Barnard and Columbia undergrads) hold jobs, working while they are taking a full load of classes. I think about the $90K or so a year they or their parents have to come up with. Their grades matter to them. They want to learn---these are their years. And yes, I understand protesting against so much that is wrong in the world, including the horrors in the Middle East. I have students who have been involved in protests and I care deeply about them and support them. But I also care about those who just want to get their education, just want to have an environment where all students can thrive and learn.

And so today, this environment is making me angry, as well as immensely sad. I know not everyone agrees with me, but I must say this: The protests are not solving the war in Gaza, the humanitarian crisis, the hunger, the lack of medical help. It gives, indeed, ammunition to those who want to take down/remake (destroy) higher education and are working at it. Quite ironic, as CUAD has long declared that its goal is to take down Western Civilization.

I am particularly sensitive to those students who just want to learn and do their best, who see college education at an IVY no less, as they way to succeed, to do better than their families did , to have an easier life. I am a first generation. Neither of my parents could even go to high school because of the conditions in which they grew up. I went to school on loans. I did not go hungry, I was not food or housing insecure, but some of my students have been.

There is something not right here...