Summer might be over, but for Gen-Z, the fight didn’t take a vacation. Across the country, students are filing back into lecture halls and dorms with something more than just syllabi on their minds: how to keep the momentum of last spring’s encampments alive.
From Columbia to UCLA, the encampments that swept campuses earlier this year weren’t just about tents or chants—they were about Palestine. Students demanded that their universities divest from companies profiting from the Israeli military, cut academic and research ties with Israeli institutions, and publicly condemn the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. For many, these weren’t abstract foreign policy debates; they were about whether their tuition dollars and campus endowments were funding violence.
By the time finals rolled around, schools were forced to hold emergency meetings, issue statements, and in some cases even call in police. Images of students being zip-tied and arrested made national news, but behind the headlines was something more profound: a generation refusing to accept silence in the face of genocide.
Now, with the fall semester underway, the big question is: what comes next? For a lot of student organizers, the shift is from the quad to the committee room. Encampments sparked national conversations, but the work this semester is about turning that visibility into tangible policy changes—pressuring boards of trustees to divest from companies profiting from Israel’s violence, and holding administrators accountable for their silence or complicity.
Gen-Z has a unique role here. We’ve grown up online, which means we know how to make local protests go viral. But more importantly, we’re proving we can also stick around after the headlines fade. What makes this generation different is the refusal to see activism as a “phase.” It’s a practice—one that continues in classrooms, town halls, and campus policy meetings long after the tents come down.
And while administrators might hope the return of midterms and campus parties will distract students, Gen-Z isn’t letting up. If anything, the start of a new school year means recruits—first-years walking onto campus for the first time are stepping directly into a culture of organizing. For them, activism isn’t something you “join”; it’s just part of what it means to be a student right now.
So, whether it looks like divestment campaigns, policy reform, or another round of encampments, if universities refuse to listen, one thing is clear: Gen-Z is back on campus, and so is the movement. The tents may be gone for now, but the demands? They’re not going anywhere.
