Students in universities across the United States are facing massive and disruptive protests over the on-going Hamas-Israeli war. Some College officials, afraid that the protests might spread to their campuses and cause major disruptions in the schools’ academic calendar have called in the police to break up the demonstrations, which has led to hundreds of arrests and causing rumpus.
In schools such as the University of Southern California, USC, Columbia University in New York and California State Polytechnic University, Hambouldt have taken preventative measures by negotiating a solution while some campuses have closed earlier this week moving classes online, with other universities making new rules to ban encampments and relocating venues for final exams.
However, protests have continued at Indiana University Bloomington, City College of New York, with police making a few arrests. Students protesting the war are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies enabling the conflict, with some Jewish students of the opinion that the protests have turned into antisemitism and are therefore fear for their lives, thus staying out of campus.
The University of Texas at Austin campus, Emory University in Atlanta are not left out, with police making no fewer than 55 arrests, Thursday, in Austin University Texas, 26 of whom had no link with the university.
At the City College of New York, hundreds of students who were gathered on the lawn beneath the Harlem campus’ famed gothic buildings erupted in cheers after a small contingent of police officers retreated from the scene. In one corner of the quad, a “security training” was held among students.
At the University of Connecticut, and Stanford University, Police arrested one protester and tore down tents held rallies on the same day newly admitted students visited the campus.
Protesters at Emory 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 have been years of “Stop Cop City” activism against the center.
Many colleges, including Harvard University, were choosing not to take immediate action against protesters who had set up tents, even though they were openly defying campus rules. And some colleges were making new rules, like Northwestern University, which hastily changed its student code of conduct Thursday morning to bar tents on its suburban Chicago campus.
George Washington University said it would move its law school finals from a building next to the protest encampment to a new location because of the noise.
The current wave of protests was inspired by events at Columbia University, where police cleared an encampment and arrested more than 100 people last week, only for students to defiantly put up tents again, in an area where many are set to graduate in front of families in a few weeks.
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said the ability to embrace student voices and different perspectives was a hallmark of the nation’s growth but warned authorities wouldn’t tolerate hate, discrimination or threats of violence.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, the U.S. Education Department has launched civil rights investigations into dozens of universities and schools in response to complaints of antisemitism or Islamophobia. Among those under investigation are many colleges facing protests, including Harvard and Columbia.
With reports from AP