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Dozens of protesters took over a building at Columbia University in New York on Tuesday, barricading the entrances and unfurling a Palestinian flag from a window in an escalation of demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war on college campuses nationwide. The school promised they would face expulsion.
The occupation at the campus in New York — where protesters had shrugged off an earlier ultimatum to abandon a tent encampment Monday or be suspended — unfolded as other universities stepped up efforts to end the protests. Police swept through some campuses, leading to confrontations and arrests. In rarer instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life.
And as ceasefire negotiations appeared to gain steam, it wasn’t clear whether those talks would inspire an easing of campus protests.
Protesters on Columbia’s Manhattan campus locked arms early Tuesday and carried furniture and metal barricades to Hamilton Hall, one of several buildings that were occupied during a 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protest. Protest organizers posted on Instagram soon after midnight urging people to protect the encampment and join them at Hamilton Hall. A “Free Palestine” banner hung from a window.
On social media Tuesday, the protest group CU Apartheid Divest called the building “Hind’s Hall,” honouring a child killed earlier this year along with several members of her family in Gaza City.
Facing expulsion
The students occupying the building “face expulsion,” Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said in a statement Tuesday.
He said the university had given protesters a chance to leave peacefully and finish the semester, but that those who didn’t agree to the terms were being suspended — restricted from all academic and recreational spaces, allowed only to enter their residences, and, for seniors, ineligible to graduate.
“Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation — vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances — and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday,” he said.
A CU Apartheid Divest spokesperson said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon that some students recently learned they had been suspended for protesting. She declined to give her name but said she is a Columbia graduate student who has been suspended and is not allowed back on campus.
She stressed that she was not a representative of the students who seized the administration building, but pledged that their commitment wouldn’t waver, despite the risk to their educations and careers.
Later, the tent encampment was quiet and nearly empty. A small band of protesters chanted behind the university’s locked gates.
Access to the campus was limited to students living in the residential buildings and essential employees, with one access point into and out of campus. New York Police Department Chief Jeffrey Maddrey said officers won’t enter Columbia’s campus without the college administration’s request or an imminent emergency.
Protesters have insisted they will remain in the hall until the university agrees to three demands: divestment, financial transparency and amnesty.
The campus standoffs drew concern from the White House. U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said President Joe Biden believes students occupying an academic building is “absolutely the wrong approach,” and “not an example of peaceful protest.”
And Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said “there must be accountability” for the building takeover, “whether that’s disciplinary action from the school or from law enforcement.”
At California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, where protesters occupied two buildings, dozens of police officers in helmets and carrying batons marched onto campus and cleared both overnight. The university said 25 were arrested and there were no injuries. The sweep was broadcast on the Facebook page of KAEF-TV, a satellite of KRCR-TV, until police detained the reporter.
University president Tom Jackson Jr. said in a statement that “serious criminal activity that crossed the line well beyond the level of a protest had put the campus at ongoing risk.”
California Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire, whose district includes the campus, said damage there was estimated at more than $1 million US.
Yale authorities on Tuesday morning cleared a protesters’ encampment after students heeded final warnings to leave, university officials said. No arrests were reported. Demonstrators said on social media that they were moving their gathering to a sidewalk area. The encampment was set up Sunday, six days after police arrested nearly 50 people and took down dozens of tents.
Dozens of people were arrested Monday during protests at universities in Texas, Utah, Virginia and New Jersey.
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