Campus antiwar protests spread
Hundreds of arrests across U.S.
Student anti-israel protesters woke up in tents at college campuses across the U.S. Sunday morning, planning more protests demanding that schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies accused of enabling the conflict.
Decisions to call in law enforcement, leading to hundreds of arrests nationwide, have also prompted negative reactions from protesters. The tensions have piled pressure on school officials, who are scrambling to resolve the protests as May graduation ceremonies near.
School faculty members at universities in California, Georgia and Texas have initiated or passed votes of no confidence in their leadership. They are largely symbolic rebukes, without the power to remove their presidents.
Early protests at Columbia University in New York City sparked anti-israel demonstrations across the country and students and administrators there have engaged in negotiations, the university said in a statement Saturday night.
Columbia has set a series of deadlines for protesters to leave encampment — which they have missed — but bringing back police “at this time” would be counterproductive, the school wrote in an email to students.
The University of Southern California said on Saturday it had temporarily closed its University Park Campus to non-residents and USC property was vandalized by members of a group “that has continued to illegally camp on our campus,” disrupt operations and harassing people.
Students declined attempts by university President Carol Folt to meet, and the administration hopes for “a more reasonable response Sunday before we are forced to take further action,” said Joel Curran, senior vice president of communications.
In Boston, police in riot gear cleared an encampment on the campus of Northeastern University on Saturday.
Massachusetts State Police said about 102 protesters were arrested and will be charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct.
Northeastern said in a statement that the demonstration, which began two days ago, had become “infiltrated by professional organizers” with no affiliation to the university and antisemitic slurs, including “kill the Jews,” had been used.
“We cannot tolerate this kind of hate on our campus,” the statement posted on social media said.
The Huskies for a Free Palestine student group disputed the university’s account, saying in a statement that counter-protesters were to blame for the slurs and no student protesters “repeated the disgusting hate speech.”
The nationwide campus protests began in response to the war in Gaza.