This article is a segment of Fox News Digital’s investigative series, Campus Radicals. Access the complete series here.

During a panel discussion in Washington, D.C. this week, the chancellor of Syracuse University expressed his belief that Iran may have played a role in promoting pro-Hamas and anti-Israel demonstrations.

Chancellor Kent Syverud spoke on a panel Tuesday alongside the chancellors from Vanderbilt and Washington University in St. Louis and described the protest activity that took place on his college campus as well as other universities across the country. 

“I truly think these events were encouraged by Iran,” Chancellor Syverud told the audience. “These protests seemed to lack significant involvement from our student body.”

The leader of Syracuse University suspects that Iranian influence spurred the pro-Palestinian protests. (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The chancellor also highlighted the challenge of identifying and holding accountable those involved in these protests, noting how many participants concealed their identities with masks or other face coverings.

“People were using masks to avoid accountability for what they were saying and doing,” Syverud added, noting that people in masks could have been “activists from elsewhere.”

Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud and Director of athletics John Wildhack pose for a photo following a news conference in the Iocolano-Petty Football Wing Auditorium on July 12, 2016 in Syracuse, New York. (Rich Barnes/Getty Images)

Chancellor Daniel Diermeier of Vanderbilt, in Nashville, also pointed out clear coordination and the “playbook” for protests were backed by “organized networks” that could have motivated or directed students and agitators to demonstrate and disrupt campus. 

“[Students] were looking at [and] were using the playbook that they had seen at Columbia and other places, and it was the same messaging. It’s more than social contagion,” Diermeier explained. “I think there are organized networks as well. And for sure we saw that.”

Washington University Chancellor Andrew D. Martin nodded in agreement. 

“Many of the things that happened on our campus, including an attempted encampment, we didn’t allow it to take place and ultimately had folks arrested to shut it down on a Saturday evening,” Martin added. “Three quarters of those individuals had nothing to do with the university.”

The panel was organized by Alums for Campus Fairness, a group that gathers university alumni and serves to combat antisemitism on college campuses and across the U.S.

The protests which Syverud refers to have plagued university campuses mainly after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. 

Columbia faced a significant number of protests that still often occur, though just outside the campus gates as the university has changed rules that previously permitted demonstrations. 

Protest stickers were put on the doors at Butler Library at Columbia University’s campus on May 7, 2025, in New York City. Pro-Palestinian protesters held a demonstration inside the Butler Library on Columbia University’s campus, disrupting finals week. ( Indy Scholtens/Getty Images)

Last April, more than 100 protesters were arrested after the NYPD was forced to break up an encampment that was impacting students’ ability to navigate campus. 

In May, protesters occupied the Butler Library on Columbia’s campus, calling it “Basel Al-Araj Popular University.” Officers were once again called to the scene and made multiple arrests. More than 70 students were expelled or suspended.

Similar protests occurred at other prominent universities such as Harvard, NYU and UCLA.

Syracuse University did not respond to a request for comment.

Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News Digital covering breaking news. Story tips can be sent to Preston.Mizell@fox.com and on X @MizellPreston