It has generally been reported or revealed that most of the protestors are not students put paid agitators. Sadly, this co-opts the real issues that students should have the academic freedom and support to debate. It is easy to trash academia right now with all the outside interference showing up on campuses, but we should remember during WWII and in most totalitarian societies or countries where ethnic cleansing has happened the intellectuals and academics are the first to go. Having had the experience of working in a country that lost their intellectual class, this is not a path that bodes well.