30th April, 2024
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia University took over a campus building at the New York university early Tuesday.
The school administration has urged students and staff to stay away from campus for the day.
The Pro-Palestinian protests escalated after demonstrators occupied an academic building called Hamilton Hall, barricading themselves inside.
According to the BBC, the Pro-Palestinian protesters said they did so in honour of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl found dead in Gaza earlier this year.
Columbia has urged students and staff to stay away from campus on Tuesday.
It began suspending student protestors who defied a deadline of 14:00 EST on Monday to leave their two-week encampment, though dozens of students remain at the site.
Elsewhere in the country, the BBC reports that dozens of protestors at the University of Texas at Austin were arrested.
At Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, students said police used tear gas and pepper spray against their gathering on Monday.
And a rare deal was struck with protestors and officials at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, north of Chicago, who had been camped out for days.
Under the deal, the university said it would permit “peaceful demonstrations”, provided the encampment was limited to a single tent.
Pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are being detained Tuesday morning after the university sent them a demand to vacate their encampment, according to CNN.
Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said students occupying the building [Hamilton Hall] face expulsion.
The warning comes after university leaders set a 14:00 local time deadline on Monday for protesters gathered on its campus to leave.
After the deadline passed, dozens of students broke into the building and barricaded themselves inside.
“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,” the spokesman said in a statement.
The CNN reports that all the protesters at Yale University have chosen to leave the campus encampment after the university demanded students must end their actions or face discipline, including suspension for violating university rules and arrest for trespassing.
“All the protesters chose to leave the encampment, and the university is in the process of clearing tents and other items from the area,” a statement from Yale said.
“Yale fully supports peaceful protests and freedom of speech; however, claiming control of our shared space is inconsistent with our principles and values.”