The arrests of three City College students and a campus secretary who took part in a protest against the presence of military recruiters on campus raise questions about whether the college was too heavy-handed in its treatment of students who are loudly critical of the government.

Nick Bergreen, Justino Rodriguez and Hadas Thier, City College undergraduates, and Carol Lang, a secretary in the theater department, have been charged with crimes ranging from assault to obstruction of a government administrator.

They joined the ranks of counter-military recruiters who've been showing up at schools and colleges around the country where military recruiters go in search of recruits. Their goal is to warn students that being in the military is a lousy job, especially now that one runs the risk of being sent to war in Iraq.

During a job fair at Shepherd Hall last week that attracted more than 50 employers, including recruiters from several branches of the military, about 20 students and college staffers who were planning a protest against the military recruiters entered the building.

The following facts aren't in dispute. When the protesters entered the building, campus security guards warned them that they wouldn't be allowed to demonstrate inside. But they entered anyway, some signing up as job fair participants.

Once inside, they assembled near the Army National Guard recruitment table and started chanting loudly: "U.S. out of Iraq!" and "Recruiters off campus!"

About 20 security guards surrounded the protesters, herded them into a hallway and shut the door. Again, they told the protesters they couldn't demonstrate in the building and threatened to arrest them if they continued.

The students kept on chanting, and the security guards moved in to make arrests. That's where the accounts diverge.

CCNY president Gregory Williams said one of the student protesters jumped a security guard, that another student wrestled the guard to the floor and yet another tried to kick the man, who wound up being beaten on his head and body.

"We're talking about physical assault to public safety officers, and that simply cannot be tolerated," Williams told me. He said the students were ejected because they were disrupting the job fair, but that they could protest outside the building.

But students and staff who witnessed the incident tell a different story.

They said when the guards tried to arrest them, Nick Bergreen tried to run away but was tackled by a guard who then held him down with his foot. They said this started a melee during which which Justino Rodriguez was repeatedly shoved against the wall by security guards.

Meanwhile, Hadas Thier, a woman who stands less than 5 feet tall, was trying to take pictures of the incident with her cell phone-camera and was arrested for trying to record what was happening.

Not a single student or staffer I talked to who was there saw anyone attack a security guard. It was the other way around, they said.

There's no question that the students violated college rules by taking their protest inside Shepherd Hall. But college students are young and passionate about many issues, and they should be given more leeway in expressing themselves than older adults, provided they don't behave criminally.

Once the protesters were removed to the hallway with the door closed, they had lost their target audience, and their protest would probably have died down quickly if the security guards had shown more restraint. Their handling of the situation appears to have been provocative and unprofessional at best.

I don't happen to agree that military recruiters should be kept off campuses, since students who aren't anti-military and would like to talk to them should be able to. But from all accounts, these protesters weren't standing there with their arms linked, blocking access to the military table. They were just chanting.

Colleges are supposed to be places where students and faculty can engage in spirited debates about controversial issues. But since 9/11, some colleges have become more repressive on those who express views that are not deemed to be patriotic.

The security guards at City College appear to have behaved overzealously in their handling of these protesters, and college officials should conduct a thorough investigation of exactly what happened and whether the situation was handled properly.

© 2005 Newsday, Inc.

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