Grad ceremony cancelled and dozens more arrests in U.S. campus protests over Gaza
BOSTON — The University of Southern California cancelled its main graduation ceremony on Thursday and dozens of students were arrested on other U.S. campuses as protests against the Israel-Hamas war continued to spread.
College officials across the U.S. are worried the protests could disrupt their plans for commencement ceremonies next month. Some universities called in police to break up the demonstrations, resulting in ugly scuffles and arrests, while others appeared content to wait out student protests as the final days of the semester ticked down.
Other approaches taken by schools included rewriting rules to ban encampments and moving final exams to new locations.
USC announced the cancellation of the May 10 ceremony a day after more than 90 protesters were arrested on campus. The university said it will still host dozens of commencement events, including all the traditional individual school commencement ceremonies, during which students cross a stage and receive their diplomas.
Tensions were already high after the university cancelled a planned commencement speech by the school’s pro-Palestinian valedictorian, citing safety concerns.
“We understand that this is disappointing. However, we are adding many new activities and celebrations to make this commencement academically meaningful, memorable, and uniquely USC,” the university said in a statement Thursday.
The Los Angeles Police Department said 93 people were arrested Wednesday night during a campus protest for allegedly trespassing. One person was arrested on allegations of assault with a deadly weapon.
At Emerson College in Boston, 108 people were arrested overnight at an alleyway encampment. New encampments and protests continued to pop up at campuses across the country.
Students protesting the war are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies enabling the conflict. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.
At Emerson, video showed police first warning students in the alleyway to leave. Students link arms to resist officers, who move forcefully through the crowd and throw some protesters to the ground.
“As the night progressed, it got tenser and tenser,” said protester Ocean Muir. There were just more cops on all sides. It felt like we were being slowly pushed in and crushed. The scariest moment was holding these umbrellas out in case we were tear-gassed, and hearing them come, and hearing their boots on the ground, just pounding into the ground louder than we could chant, and not being able to see a single person.”
At Emory University in Atlanta, local and state police dismantled a camp, although the university said the protesters weren’t students but rather outside activists. Some officers carried semiautomatic weapons, and video showed officers using a stun gun on one protester who they had pinned to the ground.
Twenty-two people arrested by Emory police were charged with disorderly conduct.