Pro-Palestinian student protesters set up a tent encampment at the Ivy League university in New York last week. Police first tried to clear the encampment on Thursday, when they arrested more than 100 protesters. But the move backfired, acting as an inspiration for other students across the country and motivating protesters at Columbia to regroup.
University officials said early Wednesday that they were extending a deadline for protesters to clear out. They said the demonstrators had committed to removing a significant number of tents and agreed that only students would remain at the encampment. They also said they would make the encampment more welcoming by banning any discriminatory language or harassing messages. The encampment on the upper Manhattan campus appeared calm and a little smaller on Wednesday morning.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Columbia on Wednesday to meet with Jewish students over concerns about antisemitism on college campuses. Johnson said Israel and Jewish students on campus will not stand alone. Protesters nearby said they couldn’t hear him and he responded, “Enjoy your free speech.”
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California has canceled its main stage graduation ceremony as the campus is roiled by protests stemming from the Israel-Hamas war. The university already canceled a commencement speech by the school’s pro-Palestinian valedictorian, citing safety concerns. The Los Angeles Police Department said more than 90 people were arrested Wednesday night during a protest at the university for alleged trespassing. One person was arrested for alleged assault with a deadly weapon.
LAPD Capt. Kelly Muniz told reporters that there was an altercation, but she did not have specific details of the alleged assault. There were no reports of injuries. The university posted on X on Wednesday that it had closed campus and that police would arrest people who did not leave.
Earlier in the day police removed several tents, then got into a back-and-forth tent tugging match with protesters before falling back. At one point, USC police detained a man and put him in a vehicle. A crowd surrounded the car and chanted “Let him go!” and the officers eventually did so.
The University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas campus was much calmer on Thursday, a day after a demonstration saw police and state troopers in riot gear and on horseback make dozens of arrests and forced hundreds of students off the school’s main lawn.
On Thursday, university officials pulled back the campus barricades and allowed another demonstration involving students and some faculty on the main square underneath the school’s iconic clock tower in central campus. The group was also protesting the Wednesday arrests.
While the group was vocal with chants and angry shouts against Israel and campus leadership, the demonstration was far less volatile. No violence erupted as a small group of campus police watched from the steps of the tower building. The gathering lasted about two hours.
George Washington University
About 50 students at George Washington University set up a tent encampment on the school’s University Yard on Thursday.
The protest at the Washington, D.C.-based school grew steadily through the morning, with demonstrators waving Palestinian flags, beating drums and chanting slogans. Later in the day, a group of Georgetown University students and professors staged their own protest walkout and marched to the George Washington campus to join up with the protesters there.
Despite a robust police presence on the edges of the encampment, there were no serious incidents. According to reports on social media, one pro-Israeli protestor waving an Israeli flag attempted to march through the center of the protest but was led away by police.
The protestors are demanding that the university divest from all relations with Israel and lift a suspension against a prominent pro-Palestinian student group.
Dayna Bowen Matthew, dean of the law school, released a video message saying that law school finals, which were set to be held in a building next to the protest encampment, would be moved to another building because of the noise.
The university released a statement saying that peaceful demonstrations were permitted, however people not associated with the university were not allowed to protest on campus. The statement also said that overnight encampments were not allowed on university property and the protesters “will be required to remove tents and disperse” by 7 p.m.
Harvard University
Trying to stay ahead of protests, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, locked most gates into its famous Harvard Yard ahead of classes Monday and limited access to those with school identification.
The school also posted signs warning against setting up tents or tables on campus without permission. Those efforts didn’t stop protesters from setting up a camp with 14 tents Wednesday, which came after a rally against the university’s suspension of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt
Protesters at the university used furniture, tents, chains and zip ties to block entrances to an academic and administrative building on Monday. Protesters chanted, “We are not afraid of you!” before officers in riot gear pushed into them at the building’s entrance, video shows. University officials closed the campus through this weekend, saying instruction would continue to be remote. They said in a statement Tuesday that students had occupied a second building and three students had been arrested. On Wednesday, officials said some unidentified people who were not students were also inside one of the occupied buildings. Humboldt is located about 300 miles (480 kilometers) north of San Francisco.
On Thursday, the university said protesters continued to occupy the two buildings on campus and it was making contingency plans, including possibly keeping campus closed beyond Sunday.
Emerson College
Boston Police said Thursday that 108 people were arrested at an encampment at Emerson College. Police said four officers suffered injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening. Those arrested were expected to appear in Boston Municipal Court.
On Tuesday, about 80 students and other supporters at Emerson College occupied a busy courtyard on the downtown Boston campus. College officials warned the students on Wednesday that some of the protesters were in violation of city ordinances, including by blocking a right-of-way and fire hydrants, and violating noise laws.
The school said the alley where some protesters have set up tents is owned by the city, and Boston police have warned of imminent law enforcement action. The college said in a statement that campus police were offering escort services for students after officials received credible reports of some protesters engaging in “targeted harassment and intimidation of Jewish supporters of Israel.”
New York University
At New York University, an encampment set up by students swelled to hundreds of protesters earlier this week. Police on Wednesday said that 133 protesters had been taken into custody. They said all were released with summonses to appear in court on disorderly conduct charges.
Emory University
Atlanta police and Georgia state troopers dismantled a camp on Emory University’s quadrangle Thursday morning, with Associated Press journalists counting at least 17 people detained.
University police had ordered several dozen demonstrators who set up tents on the campus early Thursday morning to leave, according to Emory spokeswoman Laura Diamond. She said in an email to The Associated Press that the group “trespassed” onto the private school.
“These individuals are not members of our community,” Diamond said. “They are activists attempting to disrupt our university as our students finish classes and prepare for finals.”
A long line of officers surrounded the encampment of about three dozen tents after 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, as protesters chanted slogans supporting Palestinians and opposing a public safety training center being built in Atlanta. The two movements are closely entwined in Atlanta, where there has been years of “Stop Cop City” activism that has included a fringe of anarchist attacks on property and the killing by state troopers of a protester who was occupying the site.
Northwestern University
Northwestern University hastily changed its student code of conduct Thursday morning to bar tents on its suburban Chicago campus as anti-war student activists set up an encampment similar to Pro-Palestinian demonstrations at colleges nationwide.
Groups including Jewish Voice for Peace and Educators for Justice in Palestine said the encampment on the Evanston campus was “a safe space for those who want to show their support of the Palestinian people.” The students want the university to divest from Israel, among other things.
Dozens participated as University President Michael Schill issued an email saying the university had enacted an “interim addendum” to its student code to bar tents, among other things, and warned of disciplinary actions including suspension, expulsion and criminal charges.
“The goal of this addendum is to balance the right to peacefully demonstrate with our goal to protect our community, to avoid disruptions to instruction and to ensure university operations can continue unabated,” Schilling said.
No arrests had been made by Thursday mid-afternoon.
Yale University
Protests continued Thursday at Yale, though the number of students involved has visibly shrunk since Monday when 48 people, including 44 students were arrested and charged with trespassing after camping out for several days on Beinecke Plaza.
The vast majority of those arrested were charged with trespassing. Classes for the semester at the New Haven, Connecticut-based school are scheduled to end on Friday, with final exams May 2 through 8.
Fashion Institute of Technology
A few dozen protesters set up tents and occupied a building Thursday at the Fashion Institute of Technology, part of the public State University of New York system. Protesters sat on the floor or milled around, many wearing face masks and keffiyas. Other protesters outside the building held signs and Palestinian flags. They refused to speak to a reporter.
