Both Alabama senators have agreed to co-sponsor a bill that would bar students convicted of crimes linked to campus protests from receiving student loan forgiveness.
Lead sponsor Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, introduced the No Bailouts for Campus Criminals Act on May 2. It has 18 cosponsors, including Alabama Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville.
“American college campuses shouldn’t be daycares,” Britt said in an emailed statement on Sunday, May 5. “When students disrupt campus learning environments by choosing to break the law, they should face real-world consequences. One of these consequences should certainly be that American taxpayers aren’t going to pick up their tab.”
In an interview on Fox Business News, Tuberville, a former football coach, said he spent 40 years on college campuses.
“In the blue states the animals are running the zoo,” he told Larry Kudlow. “They have no control. There’s no leadership. You know, we’re not running daycare centers on our college campuses. These kids need to be accountable. Now, you can protest all you want, do it the right way, but don’t do harm to other people, don’t get in other people’s way.”
The bill follows weeks of protests that have rocked college campuses across the country, including at the University of Alabama.
Many protesters have called for universities to divest from funds and investments linked to Israel, and more broadly, are asking for a cease-fire in Gaza, which has been under attack since Hamas militants killed and kidnapped civilians in Israel on Oct. 7.
An estimated 1,200 people died in Hamas’ initial attack on Israel. The subsequent war in Gaza has left tens of thousands of people dead. The war also has created a humanitarian crisis, with officials from the United Nations declaring a “full-blown famine,” according to news outlets.
Protests on several U.S. campuses have become disruptive in recent days, leading to crackdowns by administators and police. Some Jewish students said they felt threatened by protesters. Occupations have caused damage to some buildings, including a library at Portland State University.
Police in Los Angeles raided an encampment at UCLA on Thursday. At Columbia University, officers forcibly removed protesters from an occupied building on Tuesday. At the University of Texas at Austin, state troopers deployed pepper spray and flash bang grenades to disperse an encampment.
A tally by the Associated Press found at least 2,000 arrests linked to campus protests last week.
“Americans who never went to college or responsibly paid off their debts shouldn’t have to pay off other people’s student loans,” Cotton said in a news release. “They especially shouldn’t have to pay off the loans of Hamas sympathizers shutting down and defacing campuses.”