Pardon the pun, but TikTok …

Time’s a tickin’, and the thousands of students who were on the front lines (and front pages) protesting – ostensibly based on their convictions – have not been heard from since they left their college campuses around six weeks ago.

Sure, we have some animated college alumni who still threaten to stop their contributions and a few students who claim that they’re “being recruited” by nonstudent organizations to discern how to best disrupt their campuses in the fall.

Canvassing dozens of state newspapers over the past several weeks, I note some drips of news about sustaining the “energy” from campus protests into student home communities. But that’s been rare and equivocal.

Maybe these “traumatized” Gen Zers and their faculty “apostles” do not seem to be able to go on without determining next steps related to interrupting college life for the 99% of other students who just want to learn, engage, lead and contribute to their professional portfolio. (Note: A recent Axios poll showed that “conflict in the Middle East” ranked ninth out of nine in terms of the issues “most important” to college students.)

Masks for COVID-19? Nah, that’s so 2020! Today, they’re for the students and faculty who don’t wish to be held accountable (or be seen) for their unethical and illegal activities. I know of more than a few faculty who, when they heard police were approaching, immediately left encampment sites. Professors, in particular, should be ashamed of themselves for shepherding unethical marches to illegal encampments. We can certainly understand a 19-year-old not fully recognizing the consequences of all of their actions; few of us understand a 50-year old professor who incites, agitates or otherwise prompts young people to act in disingenuous and illegal ways.

And so, ultimately, I’m confident in my original conclusion about the largest majority of these protests: They were performative in nature.

To be sure, we will see both student and faculty performances act out the script of their convictions once school starts in the fall. They will walk out on speeches, push for administration censuring or votes of no confidence, and do everything they can to occupy buildings and violate local ordinances and constitutional tenets. Oh, yeah: They’ll be surfing the net for sales on tents, too.

The Gaza-Israel war is complicated, exhausting and consequential: The scales of justice need to be reconciled between an unprovoked invasion, killing and kidnapping of Israeli citizens and the relentless bombing of innocent Palestinians in Gaza with most weapons supplied by America. And yes, it’s disgusting that over the years, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu financially propped up Hamas to dissuade it from seeking a Palestinian state.

Regardless how one feels, however, I think it’s clear that there is a ring of hollowness regarding the authenticity of the vast majority of these student protests.

True commitment to an ideal should never end simply because the sun shines and the beach beckons.