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Posted by Joshua Scheer
A few weeks ago we had a chance to speak with Hannah Epstein. Sadly, as the American empire descends into its last gasps, we have fallen behind on another vital series of stories taking shape in this modern dystopian America — the assault on academic freedom. We have our podcast here.
This latest sit‑down is with journalist Hannah Epstein to unpack a story that sounds like dystopian fiction but is happening on American campuses right now. Her reporting for The Nation where Epstein traces a broader pattern of surveillance, intimidation, and administrative panic that is chilling dissent and undermining student journalism nationwide.
Across the United States, a new and unsettling reality is taking shape on college campuses: students engaged in political activism are finding themselves watched, tracked, and treated like security threats by the very institutions meant to protect their intellectual freedom. In The Nation, journalist Hannah Epstein provides some of the clearest examples yet—first exposing Bryn Mawr’s use of surveillance tactics, then investigating and uncovering a broader problem, including surveillance systems at other colleges, where a University of Michigan student slowly realizes he is being followed by a network of private investigators hired by his own university. What begins as a strange encounter on State Street unravels into a portrait of a campus climate defined by surveillance, intimidation, and administrative panic.
Epstein’s reporting situates this incident within a broader national pattern. After more than two years of pro‑Palestinian protests, universities have increasingly turned to extraordinary measures—private security firms, covert monitoring, and opaque disciplinary processes—to manage student dissent. The result is a chilling environment where activism carries the risk of being watched, questioned, or quietly punished, and where student journalists documenting these abuses face pressure of their own.
Her piece is a stark reminder that the struggle over academic freedom is no longer theoretical. It is unfolding in real time, in hallways, classrooms, and campus quads—places once imagined as sanctuaries for inquiry and debate. Epstein’s work captures the human cost of this shift and the growing fear that the university, long mythologized as a bastion of open thought, is becoming something far more controlled and far less democratic.
Universities across the country have used extraordinary measures to target student activists following more than two years of pro-Palestinian protests.
Surveilled on Your Own Campus: Student Journalism, Private Investigators, and the New Academic Crackdown
Highlights from a conversation between Joshua Scheer and journalist Hannah Epstein
A few weeks ago, we spoke with journalist Hannah Epstein, and as the American landscape grows more chaotic and disorienting, we’ve fallen behind on another vital story unfolding in this modern dystopian moment: the accelerating assault on academic freedom. Our ongoing project, Academic Freedom on Life Support, has been documenting how universities—once imagined as sanctuaries for inquiry—are increasingly embracing surveillance, secrecy, and political pressure. This latest conversation with Epstein makes clear just how far that shift has gone.
Epstein, a senior at Bryn Mawr College and contributor to The Nation, has reported for the Baltimore Sun, Capital Gazette, and Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Her recent piece, “Surveilled on Your Own Campus,” exposes a pattern of universities using private investigators and covert monitoring to track pro‑Palestinian student activists.
Bryn Mawr’s Secret Use of Private Investigators
Epstein and co‑writer Rana Rastegari uncovered that Bryn Mawr College had quietly hired private investigators to probe student protest activity. Students reported:
being followed off campus
being summoned to meetings under false pretenses
walking into rooms expecting to see their dean and instead facing two private investigators
being accused of policy violations they had never been informed of
One student, Epstein recalls, was “threatened with disciplinary action” without any prior notice.
The student newspaper followed standard journalistic procedure: they gave the administration 72 hours to respond, published the full statement, and verified allegations with deep‑background sources. Yet when the story ran, the college president issued a campus‑wide email titled “December Reflections, Choosing Trust and Community,” publicly accusing the paper of misrepresentation.
Epstein remembers the newsroom’s reaction: “Everyone was texting each other like, what is going on?”
Despite the administration’s claims, they could not identify a single factual error.
A Story That Feels Like Fiction—But Isn’t
Epstein’s article contains a scene that could have been lifted from a political thriller. A University of Michigan student, Josiah Walker, realizes he is being followed by multiple vehicles and confronted by a man who appears inside an academic building.
As Joshua Scheer notes, it’s “a chilling snapshot of a national trend,” one in which universities are “deploying surveillance, private investigators, quasi‑police tactics to monitor, intimidate, and discipline pro‑Palestinian student activists.”
Epstein confirms that Michigan is not an outlier. She first encountered Walker’s story through The Guardian, but soon discovered similar tactics at her own college.
The New Pressure on Student Journalists
Scheer connects Epstein’s experience to a broader pattern: “Tyrants hate truth… and it starts with a chilling effect on student journalists.”
Epstein agrees that the dynamic has shifted dramatically:
“We’ve never been under the amount of pressure that we’re currently under.”
Students are increasingly afraid to go on the record.
Anonymous sourcing—never ideal—has become necessary.
Administrators are more willing to publicly discredit student reporting.
This is happening not only at Bryn Mawr. Epstein points to the University of Alabama, where administrators shut down an independent student magazine after it elevated voices of students of color—fearing it would be perceived as “DEI.”
A National Crackdown Driven by Political Pressure
Epstein’s reporting reveals a convergence of forces:
Congressional hearings targeting college presidents
Pressure from the White House
Threats to federal funding and Pell grants
Faculty firings and disciplinary actions
Administrators treating campuses as businesses, not academic communities
Free speech experts told Epstein this is the most intense repression on campuses in 50 years.
Scheer underscores the pattern: “This is outsourced repression… mirroring union‑busting tactics.”
Universities hire private firms to insulate themselves from accountability, creating a buffer between administrative decisions and the students they affect.
Fear, Silence, and the Chilling Effect
Epstein describes the emotional climate on her campus:
“There is definitely a big sense of fear amongst the student body.”
Students worry that anything they say or do could lead to academic reprisal—even if that fear isn’t always grounded in policy. The result is self‑censorship, the most corrosive outcome of all.
Scheer calls it what it is: “The chilling effect of self‑censorship.”
Hope, Transparency, and the Power Students Still Have
Despite the bleak landscape, Epstein insists students are not powerless:
“The more people pay attention, the more hope there is.”
She points to Michigan ending its contract with the private investigative firm after public exposure. She believes transparency, student solidarity, and continued reporting can force institutions to meet students halfway.
Scheer closes with a reminder: “Hope takes work. We hope, but it’s working every day toward that hope.”
Epstein agrees—and promises to keep reporting.
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