When protests against the Israel-Hamas war swept across college campuses this past spring, student activists were joined in some cases by their professors. That’s what happened at Indiana University, where state police led a particularly aggressive crackdown on demonstrators. The professors’ reasons for participating were varied and complex, but their decisions point toward a thorny and persistent question: Do faculty members have any business joining student protests?

Guest: Kate Hidalgo Bellows, staff reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education

Related Reading: 

• Mideast War, Midwest Crisis: Indiana U. made a series of unpopular decisions. Then it called the police on protesters. 
• ‘These Terms are Just Absurd’: How One University Disciplined Professors Accused of Assisting an Encampment
• As an 8-Day Protest Shut Down a University, Administrators and Faculty Sparred Over What to Do
• Cooley law firm’s review Indiana University’s handling of protests. 

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters.