Ahead of commencements, FL tells universities to take ‘any steps’ to prevent pro-Palestine protests

Pro-Palestine protesters at Florida State University move away from a sprinkler during a protest on the Tallahassee campus on April 25, 2024. (Photo by Jackie Llanos)

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Following the arrests of pro-Palestine protesters at Florida universities, the state is authorizing public universities to take “any steps necessary” to make sure that commencement ceremonies are not canceled or modified because of protests.

Meanwhile, DeSantis said student protesters who do not follow the rules will be expelled. He made the comments Wednesday morning  after he signed legislation banning lab-grown meat in Hardee County.

“The state of Florida is not New York, and so when you go out and try to commandeer property, when you try to set up encampments, you are not going to be allowed to do that in this state,” DeSantis said at the news conference in Hardee, in Central Florida. “And people have found that out at University of South Florida, Florida, Florida State. So just understand that that’s the way it’s going to go. We do not allow the inmates to run the asylum in the state of Florida, and if you can’t abide by the rules that we have in place for conduct, then we will show you the door, and you will be expelled. It is that simple.”

Since Monday, police have arrested more than 20 people holding demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza at the University of Florida, the University of South Florida and Florida State University. The arrests started taking place after the protesters erected tents on the campuses, and at around 5:20 p.m. on Tuesday, police deployed tear gas at USF in Tampa, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Additionally, sprinklers were turned on at the FSU campus in Tallahassee when students rallied last week.

Police arrest a pro-Palestine protester at Florida State University on April 30, 2024. (Screenshot from Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society Instagram page)

As tensions escalate in the campuses across the state, Ray Rodrigues, the chancellor of the State University System of Florida, sent a memo to the presidents of the state’s public universities on Tuesday. In the memo, he wrote that the presidents can’t tolerate protests during the commencement ceremonies, which are scheduled take place over the next few days.

“These ceremonies are important milestones for our graduating students, and we owe it to our students to see to it that these ceremonies take place as planned. While we respect and honor the First Amendment, a commencement ceremony is not the time nor place to hold a political
protest,” Rodrigues wrote in the memo. “You are authorized to take any steps necessary to ensure the safety of all attendees during the ceremony. Please promptly inform faculty, staff, students, and guests that protests, discrimination or harassment at commencement ceremonies will not be tolerated.”

Rodrigues also criticized the protests taking place on college campuses outside of Florida.

“While we are witnessing a descent into chaos all over the country, under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida has maintained law and order,” Rodrigues wrote. “As the academic year concludes, we must protect the integrity of our commencement ceremonies and ensure the safety of our students.”

Pro-Palestine protests have also taken place at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

Five people were arrested Tuesday at the FSU campus.

“SDS condemns these sham arrests. We see them for what it is: Blatant intimidation and political repression of student activists by Florida State University,” the group Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society wrote in a press release.

The group scheduled a rally on Wednesday afternoon to demand that police drop the charges against the protesters.

A notice from FSU given to a student who was arrested states that the student cannot go to commencement, according to the notice provided to the Florida Phoenix.

Correction: A Wednesday press release on the arrests by the Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society was incorrect. An FSU spokesperson said only two of the five people arrested on Tuesday were FSU students.

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