Pro-Palestinian activists and students remain entrenched in ad hoc encampments on more than 80 campuses across the United States, including dozens where university and local government officials are demanding they depart or face arrest for trespassing and unlawful assembly in the coming days, if not hours.
That process is already underway with San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies arriving at the University of California–San Diego (UCSD) campus at daybreak on May 6 to clear out a “Gaza Solidarity” encampment, arresting dozens.
UCSD Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla said in a statement that activists and students have occupied part of the campus since May 1 and have been asked for a week to remove their tents and fortifications but refused.
“The encampment has tripled in size in violation of the group’s commitment not to expand the footprint. This encampment poses an unacceptable safety and security hazard on campus,” he said.
George Washington University President Ellen Granberg is among officials warning students inside a campus encampment that patience is growing thin regarding their disruptive occupation.
In a May 5 statement, she called the encampment “potentially dangerous” and said it has been “co-opted” by activists unaffiliated with the school engaged in “an illegal and potentially dangerous occupation of GW property.”
“When protesters overrun barriers established to protect the community, vandalize a university statue and flag, surround and intimidate GW students with anti-Semitic images and hateful rhetoric, chase people out of a public yard based on their perceived beliefs, and ignore, degrade, and push GW Police Officers and university maintenance staff, the protest ceases to be peaceful or productive,” Ms. Granberg said.
As of May 6, more than 2,400 have been arrested in pro-Palestinian protests on at least 45 campuses in at least 30 states since the April 18 arrests of 108 Columbia University students in New York City, according to a running tally by The Associated Press and on-the-scene accounts by reporters for The Epoch Times.
The demonstrations are disrupting final exams at some schools and clouding commencement exercises elsewhere, such as at Columbia University, which announced on May 6 that it will not stage a campuswide graduation ceremony on May 15 but instead will have smaller, school-based ceremonies.
“Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families,” Columbia said in a May 6 statement.
“They are eager to cross the stage to applause and family pride and hear from their school’s invited guest speakers.”
That announcement drew a sharp rebuke from U.S. House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) who called for the Columbia University Board of Trustees to fire President Minouche Shafik.
“President Shafik and Columbia University administrators have displayed a shocking unwillingness to control their campus. They’ve allowed outside agitators and terrorist-sympathizing students and faculty to rewrite campus rules and spew vile, anti-Jewish aggression,” he said in a May 6 statement.
“Now, thousands of students who’ve worked hard to achieve their degrees will not get the recognition they deserve.”
Mr. Johnson said that because it is “abundantly clear that President Shafik would rather cede control to Hamas supporters than restore order,” trustees should “immediately remove her and appoint a new president who will.”
“Our once great universities desperately need strong moral leadership, now more than ever,” he said.
Emory University announced on May 6 that it would scale back and move its May 13 graduation ceremony off its Decatur campus near Atlanta to Gas South Arena in Duluth, about 20 miles away.
“Please know that this decision was not taken lightly,” Emory University President Gregory Fenves said in a statement.
“It was made in close consultation with the Emory Police Department, security advisers, and other agencies—each of which advised against holding commencement events on our campuses.”
With ad hoc encampments being declared “illegal temporary structures” to justify police’s clearing them out—even if protests are peaceful—Princeton University students are using a new tactic: a hunger strike.
At least 17 undergraduate students are taking part in a hunger strike that began on May 5, the Daily Princetonian reported.
USC, UCLA Campuses Reopen
The University of Southern California (USC) was the first major university to alter its commencement plans because of the protests, announcing on April 25 that it would instead host “new activities and celebrations” to ensure graduation events are “meaningful, memorable, and uniquely USC.”Ironically, a sense of normalcy is returning to USC, as well as to the campus of its crosstown rival, the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA).
USC’s University Park campus reopened on May 5 after police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment for the second time in less than a week without making any arrests, and UCLA’s campus—the scene of violent skirmishing between protesters and counter-demonstrators—reopened on May 6 with staff expected to “resume work” and facility “encouraged to resume in-person instruction as soon as possible.”
Professors have an option to conduct classes courses remotely at their discretion through May 10 “without the need for departmental authorization,” UCLA said.
“A law enforcement presence continues to be stationed around campus to help promote safety.”
About 20 UCLA faculty members protested over the weekend at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, supporting the protests and demanding that UCLA Chancellor Gene Block resign immediately.
The American Association of University Professors, which includes more than 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations, condemned “in the strongest possible terms, the heavy-handed, militaristic response to student activism that we are seeing across the country.”
“Too many cowardly university leaders are responding to largely peaceful, outdoor protests by inviting law enforcement in riot gear to campus and condoning violent arrests,” the group said in a statement signed by more than 50 chapters.
Florida’s university system staged commencements over the weekend without disruption, as did two of the nation’s largest universities—Ohio State University and the University of Michigan.
Pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to disrupt University of Michigan graduation ceremonies in Ann Arbor on May 4 but were quickly removed, with no arrests reported.
