dailyillini.com/news-stories/around-campus/2024/05/10/encampment-ends-13-days-sjp-statement/
Seems that summer fun takes precedent over the cause.
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It's weird to read people first say "they're just virtue signaling by being here" and now to see these same people say "see, they're virtue signaling by leaving here."
I mean if any of them come back next year I think it’s fair to say they are protesting in bad faith. Demanding divestment and immediately turning around and giving money to the University that is still invested in Israel is absolutely hypocritical. They are free to attend an alternate university, but some will actively choose not to. Those who pay tuition next year better realize that they are as much the problem as the university.
There's actually not a lot of accredited in state options for universities that don't invest in Israel affiliated companies. I know it's easy for you to imagine them just "going somewhere else" but there's usually reasons they're not somewhere else already.
Paying for something you find necessary but disagree with isn't hypocritical. I hate Amazon but I have to use it for work, I'm aware that both things are true. I pay taxes even though I think our military is a poison to our planet. I'm not hypocritical, I just don't want to go to jail for my pride. "There is no ethical consumption under capitalism".
Your use of the phrase "bad faith" makes me wonder what articles and journalists you've been listening to. Bad faith means intentional deception. It's generally an indicator that you're a victim of propaganda if you call an entire group of people liars without ever seeking their perspective.
First off, the bad faith I am speaking of is self deception: lying to yourself to escape the fact that you are entirely responsible for every choice you make. This is an existentialist understanding of the term. All students have a choice to go to college. Nobody is truly forced. Any claim to the contrary is necessarily self deception. People are radically free and radically responsible for their decisions. If these students value their education enough to fund an apartheid, that’s their choice. But it is still a choice—not a forced hand. Plenty of people do not go to college, and that’s fine too. Your implied premise that these students need to come back is just plain wrong. They value returning more than they value protesting apartheid.
Options beside UIUC include: trade school, community colleges, other colleges that don’t invest in Israel (there are a few!), and jobs that require a HS diploma.
Not attending UIUC isn’t really comparable in terms of consequences to not paying taxes. I choose to pay taxes because I know I will lose my freedom if I don’t and I value my freedom and do not want to involve my family in the carceral state. Not attending UIUC does not carry any such consequences.
Who is saying they're forced to go to college? There's a straw man established in your second, third, and fourth sentence. Higher learning is a beauty and joy and every protestor would agree. I never implied they need to come back: however every human should be allowed to expand themselves at an institution of learning. Are you treating University as a degree mill? There's much more they offer you know.
Plus, perhaps they want to work in public policy and quickly and tangibly work against apartheid. You understand those jobs need degrees, right.? Like, you understand that if someone wants to dedicate their live to ending this apartheid, they'd be more effective as a lawyer than as a City of Urbana clerk, right?
Please provide me a list of colleges with similar accreditation and cost that don't invest in Israel. The protestors have been looking but apparently your research is better.
Edit: bad faith doesn't just mean deception, it means intentional deception. I know you probably got a C- in RHET105 but they did certainly cover "connotation" and "denotation". Why don't you Google those words and think about "bad faith" a little harder
Easier to win arguments in your head when you strawman and operationally define terms in a way that supports your premises.