Pro-Hamas protesters at the University of Texas at Austin. Photo: Nuri Vallbona via Reuters Connect.

The University of Texas at Austin has levied disciplinary sanctions against four students who illegally occupied the campus as part of a pro-Hamas demonstration aimed at pressuring the university to boycott and divest from Israel.

Three students have been sentenced to deferred suspensions, a form of probation which allows them to continue their studies so long as they comply with school rules going forward, according KUT News, a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate. As part of their punishment, they must pass an exam testing their knowledge of school policies on free speech and protests and formally declare their awareness of the harsher, full suspensions they will receive should they violate school rules again.

One student, KUT added, was given a “full” two-year suspension during which he is banned from campus. The suspension effectively disenrolled him from the university, but he can reapply for readmission in 2026.

“The University of Texas at Austin provided a world-class learning environment where every student can thrive,” said a letter, as quoted by the outlet, sent to one of the students who was placed on deferred suspension. “At this juncture, suspension appears to be the appropriate consequences for these serious infractions.”

It continued, “However, recognizing your commitment to educational growth, we want to offer you an alternative path to avoid suspension by proving that you have learned from this experience. We offer you the choice to accept a deferred suspension.”

The University of Pennsylvania has also disciplined pro-Hamas rioters for their conduct this past semester. According to a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) splinter group — Freedom School for Palestine — four students have been “placed on semester-ling or year long suspension.”

Harvard University and Stanford University barred several of its protesters from graduation, withholding their degrees pending further review of their conduct. Meanwhile, Columbia University reportedly suspended over a dozen protesters, some of whom vandalized school property.

Administrators and faculty have been disciplined for their conduct too.

Last week, Drexel University president John Fry announced that professor Mariana Chilton “has been placed on administrative leave” for participating in a mass theft of items from a synagogue in a suburb outside Philadelphia. Chilton, 56, a professor of health management and policy at Drexel, is accused of and criminally charged with stealing pro-Israel signs from the Main Line Reform Temple in Lower Merion Township, traveling there from her neighborhood of residency, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Chilton allegedly drove the getaway car while two other accomplices, Sarah Prickett and Sam Penn — who is from New York — trespassed the synagogue and absconded with the loot.

Chilton’s case is unlike any other reported in the past year. While dozens of professors have been accused of abusing their Jewish students and encouraging their classmates to bully and shame them, none are alleged to have resorted to stealing from a Jewish house of worship to make their point.

On Monday, Columbia University announced that three administrators have been place on involuntary leave for sharing communications which “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes” while serving on the job, president Minouche Shafik said in a statement. The action followed an explosive Washington Free Beacon report which revealed that administrators Susan Chang-Kim, Cristen Kromm, Matthew Patashnick, and Josef Sorett, who is dean of Columbia College, sent a series of text messages which denigrated Jews while spurning their concerns about rising antisemitism and the fate of Israel, denouncing them as “privileged” and venal.

“Whether intended as such or not, these sentiments are unacceptable and deeply upsetting, conveying a lack of seriousness about the concerns and experiences of members of our Jewish community that is antithetical to our university’s values and the standards we must uphold in our community,” Shafik said. “We are taking action that holds those involved in this incident accountable … more broadly, we will launch a vigorous program of antisemitism and antidiscrimination [sic] training for faculty and staff this fall, with related training for students under the auspices of university life.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

Co-founders and business partners chef Mashama Bailey and Johno Morsiano are going to be closing their only Texas restaurants this summer in downtown Austin. Southern restaurant Diner Bar and casual cafe the Grey Market will have their last days inside the Thompson Austin hotel at 500 San Jacinto Boulevard on Sunday, July 14.

Diner Bar and Grey Market are closing because their host site’s parent company Hyatt Hotels is turning its restaurants into in-house operations, according to Bobby Hernandez, the general manager Diner and Grey. Or, as Hernandez writes in email: “The Thompson Hotel’s ownership is continuing to internalize all [food & beverage] operations,” a process that started earlier this year. The hotel’s revenue and reservations manager, Melina Indrasena, confirmed the last day of service.

The Thompson Austin’s switch to in-house restaurants tracks with what happened with the the downtown hotel’s other restaurant/bar, Wax Myrtle’s. It had been run by Chicago-based restaurant group Land and Sea Dept when the hotel opened in February 2022. However, the rooftop spot closed at the end of 2023, and was replaced by a new Mexican restaurant, Arriba Abajo, in March 2024.

Bailey and Morsiano opened their first-ever Texas restaurants in 2022, starting with Grey Market that March, and followed by Diner Bar that April. The restaurants, much like their other one — the original Grey in Savannah, which they opened in 2014 — are rooted in Southern and East Coast port city-style cuisines. Bailey won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast in 2019 for the Georgia-based restaurant, and then the Outstanding Chef award in 2022.

Hernandez writes that the Grey team is focusing on their already-announced restaurant in Paris, which is aiming to open in late 2024 or early 2025.

This impending Diner Bar/Grey Market shutter is similar to another out-of-town chef’s Austin hotel shutter this year. San Antonio chef Steve McHugh had opened his first two local restaurants, Luminaire and Las Bis, inside of the Hyatt Centric Congress Avenue Austin in downtown in February 2023. Just less than a year later, the hotel and rooftop bar suddenly closed on January 1, 2024. The hotel’s statement cited that the hotel and the restaurant group “decided to part ways.”

THERE have been excessively high temperatures across the US this week and officials are calling for an air conditioning mandate. 

Americans from California and Texas across to Maryland experienced the excessive heat which could lead to risks under certain circumstances. 

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Austin’s Council member Vanessa Fuentes has called for the city to require residents to have AC 15 degrees cooler than the outside temp, Community Impact reported.

The city is nearing the building code temperature mandate being approved in July.

“Just taking one step outside will show you why we need this,” Fuentes said, per Community Impact.

“When our neighbors are collapsing from heat illness, suffering from exhaustion, and facing high wildfire risks, they’re going to need a cool place to stay.”

Dallas and Houston have temperature restrictions for residential buildings.

However, a similar legislation for mandated AC in Austin was denied in 2023.

The long-running heat wave across the US has broken multiple records and is affecting both the West and the East with dangerous temperatures.

About 36 million people, or 10% of the US population, are under an excessive heat warning, according to the National Weather Service.

The high temperatures have even hindered the operation of emergency medical helicopters, which cannot fly safely over 120 F, per the Associated Press.

HOT TEMPS

The heat is causing stress for some Americans, while others are thrilled to experience the record-breaking temps. 

Death Valley located in California receives some of the hottest temperatures in the US and people travel there for it.

Officials at Death Valley have advised people to avoid visiting the park because temperatures have been too high recently. 

“While this is a very exciting time to experience potential world record-setting temperatures in Death Valley, we encourage visitors to choose their activities carefully,” Park Superintendent Mike Reynolds said, per Associated Press.

Death Valley during the summer has always been a bucket list thing for me

Tourist Chris Kinsel

“Avoiding prolonged periods of time outside of an air-conditioned vehicle or building when temperatures are this high,” he continued. 

Some visitors, like Chris Kinsel and Tracy Housley, expressed excitement about experiencing extreme temperatures despite the risks.

“Death Valley during the summer has always been a bucket list thing for me,” Kinsel said, per AP News.

‘For most of my life, I’ve wanted to come out here in summertime.”

“We just thought, let’s be there for that,” Housley said.

“Let’s go for the experience.”