The University of Southern California canceled its main graduation ceremony Thursday and dozens of other students were arrested on other campuses across the country as protests against the war between Israel and Hamas continued. spread.
College officials across the United States fear ongoing protests could disrupt plans for graduation ceremonies next month. Some universities used police to break up protests, leading to ugly scuffles and arrests across the country, while others seemed to prefer to wait out student protests as the final days of the semester ticked away.
Schools like Columbia University continue to negotiate with protesters, while others rewrite their rules to ban encampments and move final exams to new locations.
But encampments and protests continued to spring up Thursday. A tent encampment appeared at Indiana University in Bloomington before police, armed with shields and batons, rushed a line of protesters, arresting an unknown number.
At the City College of New York, hundreds of students gathered on the lawn beneath the Harlem campus’ famous Gothic buildings applauded after a few police officers retreated from the scene. In one corner of the campus, “safety training” took place among students who said they expected to be arrested in the coming hours.
Students protesting the war are calling on schools to cut financial ties with Israel and divest from companies enabling the conflict. Some Jewish students say the protests have turned anti-Semitic and made them fearful of setting foot on campus.
USC announced the cancellation of its May 10 graduation ceremony a day after more than 90 protesters were arrested on campus. The university said it will still hold dozens of graduation events, including all of the schools’ traditional individual graduation ceremonies. Tensions were already high after USC canceled a planned graduation speech by the school’s pro-Palestinian valedictorian, citing security concerns.
“We understand this is disappointing; however, we are adding many new activities and celebrations to make this graduation academically meaningful, memorable and unique to USC,” the university said in a statement Thursday.
The Los Angeles Police Department said 93 people were arrested Wednesday night during a protest on campus for trespassing. One person has been arrested on allegations of assault with a deadly weapon.
At Emerson College in Boston, 108 people were arrested overnight in an alleyway encampment. A video first shows police warning students in an alley to leave. Students link arms to resist the officers, who forcefully move through the crowd and knock some protesters to the ground.
“As the night went on, it got more and more tense. There were simply more police on all sides. It felt like we were slowly being pushed and crushed,” said Ocean Muir, a sophomore.
“For me, the scariest moment was holding up those umbrellas in case we got gassed, and hearing them coming, and hearing their boots on the ground, just pounding the ground as hard as we could singing, and not being able to see a single person,” she said.
Muir said police picked her up by her arms and legs and took her away. Along with other students, Muir was charged Thursday with trespassing and disturbing the peace.
Emerson College leaders had warned students that the alley was a public right of way, and city officials had threatened action if the protesters did not leave. Emerson canceled classes Thursday, and Boston police said four officers were injured, but not seriously, in the confrontation.
The University of Texas campus at Austin was much quieter Thursday after 57 people were jailed and charged with home invasions the day before. University officials removed the barricades and allowed protesters to move to the main plaza beneath the school’s iconic clock tower.
Thursday’s meeting of students and some faculty members was protesting both the war and Wednesday’s arrests, when state patrols in riot gear and on horseback rushed demonstrators, forcing Hundreds of students left the school’s main lawn.
At Emory University in Atlanta, local and state police moved in to dismantle an encampment, although the university said the protesters were not students but rather outside activists. Some officers carried semi-automatic weapons, and video showed officers using a stun gun on a protester they had held on the ground.
Jail records showed 22 people arrested by Emory police were charged with disturbing the peace.
Protesters at Emory chanted slogans in support of the Palestinians and against the construction of a public safety training center in Atlanta. Both movements are closely linked in Atlanta, where there have been years of “Stop Cop City” activism against the center.
Many colleges, including Harvard University, chose not to take immediate action against protesters who set up tents, even though they were openly defying campus rules. And some colleges were establishing new rules, like Northwestern University, which quickly changed its student code of conduct Thursday morning to ban 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 because of the noise.
The current wave of protests was inspired by events at Columbia University in New York, where police cleared an encampment and arrested more than 100 people last week, only for students to defiantly set up tents again, in an area where many will graduate in front of their families in a few weeks.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the ability to embrace student voices and different perspectives was a hallmark of the nation’s growth, but warned that authorities would not tolerate hatred, discrimination or threats of violence.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, the United States Department of Education has launched civil rights surveys at dozens of universities and schools in response to complaints of anti-Semitism or Islamophobia. Among those under investigation, many universities are facing protests, including Harvard and Columbia.
The University of Southern California canceled its main graduation ceremony Thursday and dozens of other students were arrested on other campuses across the country as protests against the war between Israel and Hamas continued. spread.
College officials across the United States fear ongoing protests could disrupt plans for graduation ceremonies next month. Some universities used police to break up protests, leading to ugly scuffles and arrests across the country, while others seemed to prefer to wait out student protests as the final days of the semester ticked away.
Schools like Columbia University continue to negotiate with protesters, while others rewrite their rules to ban encampments and move final exams to new locations.
But encampments and protests continued to spring up Thursday. A tent encampment appeared at Indiana University in Bloomington before police, armed with shields and batons, rushed a line of protesters, arresting an unknown number.
At the City College of New York, hundreds of students gathered on the lawn beneath the Harlem campus’ famous Gothic buildings applauded after a few police officers retreated from the scene. In one corner of campus, “safety training” took place among students who said they expected to be arrested in the coming hours.
Students protesting the war are calling on schools to cut financial ties with Israel and divest from companies enabling the conflict. Some Jewish students say the protests have turned anti-Semitic and made them fearful of setting foot on campus.
USC announced the cancellation of its May 10 graduation ceremony a day after more than 90 protesters were arrested on campus. The university said it will still hold dozens of graduation events, including all of the schools’ traditional individual graduation ceremonies. Tensions were already high after USC canceled a planned graduation speech by the school’s pro-Palestinian valedictorian, citing security concerns.
“We understand this is disappointing; however, we are adding many new activities and celebrations to make this graduation academically meaningful, memorable and unique to USC,” the university said in a statement Thursday.
The Los Angeles Police Department said 93 people were arrested Wednesday night during a protest on campus for trespassing. One person has been arrested on allegations of assault with a deadly weapon.
At Emerson College in Boston, 108 people were arrested overnight in an alleyway encampment. A video first shows police warning students in an alley to leave. Students link arms to resist the officers, who forcefully move through the crowd and knock some protesters to the ground.
“As the night went on, it got more and more tense. There were simply more police on all sides. It felt like we were slowly being pushed and crushed,” said Ocean Muir, a sophomore.
“For me, the scariest moment was holding up those umbrellas in case we got gassed, and hearing them coming, and hearing their boots on the ground, just pounding the ground as hard as we could singing, and not being able to see a single person,” she said.
Muir said police picked her up by her arms and legs and took her away. Along with other students, Muir was charged Thursday with trespassing and disturbing the peace.
Emerson College officials had warned students that the alley was a public right of way and city officials had threatened to take s measures if the demonstrators did not leave. Emerson canceled classes Thursday, and Boston police said four officers were injured, but not seriously, in the confrontation.
The University of Texas campus at Austin was much quieter Thursday after 57 people were jailed and charged with home invasions the day before. University officials removed the barricades and allowed protesters to move to the main plaza beneath the school’s iconic clock tower.
Thursday’s meeting of students and some faculty members was protesting both the war and Wednesday’s arrests, when state patrols in riot gear and on horseback rushed demonstrators, forcing Hundreds of students left the school’s main lawn.
At Emory University in Atlanta, local and state police moved in to dismantle an encampment, although the university said the protesters were not students but rather outside activists. Some officers carried semi-automatic weapons, and video showed officers using a stun gun on a protester they had held on the ground.
Jail records showed 22 people arrested by Emory police were charged with disturbing the peace.
Protesters at Emory chanted slogans in support of the Palestinians and against the construction of a public safety training center in Atlanta. Both movements are closely linked in Atlanta, where there have been years of “Stop Cop City” activism against the center.
Many colleges, including Harvard University, chose not to take immediate action against protesters who set up tents, even though they were openly defying campus rules. And some colleges were establishing new rules, like Northwestern University, which quickly changed its student code of conduct Thursday morning to ban 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 because of the noise.
The current wave of protests was inspired by events at Columbia University in New York, where police cleared an encampment and arrested more than 100 people last week, only for students to defiantly set up tents again, in an area where many will graduate in front of their families in a few weeks.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the ability to embrace student voices and different perspectives was a hallmark of the nation’s growth, but warned that authorities would not tolerate hatred, discrimination or threats of violence.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, the United States Department of Education has launched civil rights surveys at dozens of universities and schools in response to complaints of anti-Semitism or Islamophobia. Among those under investigation, many universities are facing protests, including Harvard and Columbia.
