The Kent Stater hopes to encourage lively debate about today’s issues in our Opinion section. To submit an opinion piece for potential publication, email your article to [email protected].

This week, the administration at Kent State covered up an art installation portraying President Donald Trump’s head on a stake, along with identical visuals of other prominent figures, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

In an email from University President Todd Diacon on Saturday, it was stated that the artist willingly took the thesis art installation down from the windows of the Center for the Visual Arts, which is to be taken with a grain of salt. 

After the installation was put up, users on social media, predominantly Twitter, began to call on President Trump to defund the university since the installation was inciting violence, which they claim is not within the rights of the First Amendment. The First Amendment of the Constitution states that the U.S. is a nation that grants us freedom of speech, religion and peaceful assembly. 

In no way, shape or form does this installation fall outside of these rights. 

Diacon must realize Kent State is a university with a very lengthy history of activism—predominantly left leaning activism. While acknowledging the tragedy that occurred on the Kent campus on May 4, 1970, Diacon is missing the bigger picture. 

Not only Kent State, but university campuses as a whole are nearly always where social movements arise from. Universities were the birthplace of protests around the country against the Vietnam War and more recently, against the genocide in Gaza. 

On March 31 of this year, the university allowed the Kent chapter of Students Supporting Israel to host three members of the Israeli occupational force. It is appalling that Diacon would allow these people onto our campus who are the very criminals they swore to stand against. 

In his email, Diacon made the university’s devotion to protecting free speech clear, but not without caveat.

“However, as we state clearly and often, we continue our work as a university to guide free speech within our Kent State values of kindness and respect,” Diacon’s email stated.

The event, titled “Triggered, The Tour: From Combat to Campus,” does not represent the values of kindness nor respect as the individuals on tour from campus to campus actively fought in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attacks. This is truly disgusting. 

These individuals are not deserving of any respect for the acts they committed on Palestinian land. Israel, following Oct. 7, claimed they had used the attacks as justification for the scale at which they are retaliating against Hamas. 

In reality, Israel is not targeting Hamas. If they were, the civilian death count would not be anywhere near where it currently stands at over 62,000. 

What Israel is actually carrying out is a genocide of the Palestinian people in order to further colonize the land. This occupational force must be put to an immediate end, and the Palestinian people must be liberated. The scale of human loss and suffering as a result of these atrocities is unimaginable. 

These soldiers are not welcome on the Kent campus, where 55 years ago our very own soldiers fired upon civilians. We must continue the legacy of the four students killed on May 4, but by inviting individuals such as those hosted by Students Supporting Israel, we are failing them. 

The university does not get to cite May 4 only when it is convenient, and that is exactly what Diacon has done here. 

In times like these, students must be protected more than ever. President Trump’s tyranny must not be allowed to percolate into our universities, more than he has already forced. Harvard is setting the standard for how academia must oppose fascism in every form. They can threaten to cut university funding based on a political dogma, but we must not back down.

These are truly unprecedented times, and when we look back it is crucial to know that we were on the right side of history, and with the removal of this installation, Kent State is not. The artist’s bravery, artistry and passion must be acknowledged as well; these are scary times to exercise your rights and I salute you for standing up for what you believe. Don’t let them silence you. 

In a world of Todd Diacons, Chuck Schumers and John Fettermans, be an Alan Garber or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Do not let their empty threats scare you away from being firm in your beliefs. When push comes to shove, morality will prevail. 

Jackson Small is a columnist. Contact him at [email protected].