April 27, 2024 - Campus protest updates

Our live coverage of the protests has moved here.

University of Southern California administrators failed students and faculty who are encouraged by the institution to speak their minds, said Mike Ananny, PHD, an associate professor of communications and journalism at USC who recently criticized university leaders over their handling of campus demonstrations.

On Thursday, Ananny wrote an open letter appearing in the student publication, the Daily Trojan, stating he no longer trusts the school’s provost, Andrew Guzman, and its president, Carol Folt, after witnessing how they handled what he called peaceful protests, especially on Wednesday.

Nearly 100 people were arrested after the university ordered protestors at the campus’ Alumni Park to disperse, CNN previously reported.

“Peaceful protestors were at the university expressing their speech rights and doing all the things that we ask our students to do,” he said. “We want them to be engaged and passionate citizens who are taking care of their world.” 

Ananny cited the university’s decision last week to cancel Asna Tabassum’s valedictorian commencement speech due to safety concerns as the catalyst for the pro-Palestinian protests. This week, the university also canceled its main stage commencement ceremony set for next month – further dismantling trust between administrators and the university community, Ananny claims.

“The university needs to trust its students, trust its faculty to do the work that we know how to do,” he said. “We know how to have these conversations – let us have them.”

Ananny says he has not received a response from Folt to his open letter.

Pro-Palestinian protests are ongoing at major universities across the US. Several schools have called on authorities to remove demonstrators and more arrests have been made Saturday.

A central demand of protesters is for universities divest from Israel-linked companies that they say are profiting from the war in Gaza.

Here’s what you should know:

More arrests and warnings:

Other schools saw relative calm today:

An encampment is cleared at Northeastern University in Boston on April 27.

A Northeastern University student organization, Huskies for a Free Palestine, says it was not infiltrated by outside organizers, as school officials had said after shutting down a protest encampment at the Boston campus.

About 100 people were detained at the encampment, though the school said those with a valid school ID were released and will face school disciplinary proceedings rather than legal action. The school said in a statement that the group had been “infiltrated by professional organizers with no affiliation to Northeastern.”

“We were not ‘infiltrated’ in any way, shape or form by ‘professional protestors’, no one hired, it was comprised primarily of students,” the student group said in a statement Saturday.

Claims about hate speech: The organization is also disputing the university’s statement that the “use of virulent antisemitic slurs, including ‘Kill the Jews,’” was among the reasons for shutting the protest down.

Videos shared with CNN show what appears to be at least two counter-protesters holding an Israeli flag attempting to provoke the crowd to chant, “Kill the Jews.”

After yelling the antisemitic remark, one of them is heard saying, “Anyone on board? Anyone on board?” Some protesters responded with boos.

Asked for any additional comment, the school’s vice president of communications, Renata Nyul, said “the fact that the phrase ‘Kill the Jews’ was shouted on our campus is not in dispute,” citing news reports and video from the scene.

“Any suggestion that repulsive antisemitic comments are sometimes acceptable depending on the context is reprehensible,” Nyul said. “That language has no place on any university campus.”

Faculty group criticizes response: In a statement Saturday, Northeastern University Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine also spoke out against the university’s handling of the protest.

“We were shocked to learn that the Northeastern administration issued a statement claiming that the university’s decision to arrest those in the encampment was triggered by an antisemitic statement allegedly made by protesters,” the group said.

“Numerous videos that have been posted online, along with eye-witness accounts from a WGBH reporter and others, make it clear that the phrase in question – ‘Kill the Jews’ – was uttered by a pro-Israel counter-demonstrator who was seeking to provoke the students at the encampment.”

Indiana State Police wearing riot gear attempt to clear out an encampment at Indiana University Bloomington on April 27.

Officers arrested at least 23 people on Saturday after a protest encampment formed at Indiana University Bloomington, according to the school’s police department.

Police said a group of protesters put up tents and canopies Friday night “with the stated intention to occupy the university space indefinitely,” and that the unapproved “temporary or permanent structures” violated school policy.

Video from the school’s student-run newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student, showed officers in riot gear carrying shields and batons as they attempted to clear out the encampment. Police can be seen shoving demonstrators as they try to break through interlocked arms, and at least four officers are seen dragging a person away from the camp.

In its statement, the Indiana University Police Department said it approached the demonstrators in the school’s outdoor Dunn Meadow area around noon ET, along with Indiana State Police. Authorities say they gave demonstrators “six verbal warnings” to remove the encampment, before detaining those who did not remove their structures.

Police said the 23 people arrested face “charges ranging from criminal trespass to resisting law enforcement.” Police said they had not confirmed how many of those arrested were directly affiliated with the university.

CNN has reached out to state police and the Monroe County Sheriff’s office.

In a post Saturday, the university said, “IU encourages and respects free speech, including the right to peacefully protest and demonstrate,” but said students, faculty, staff and visitors are expected to comply with school policy and state law.

CNN’s Sharif Paget contributed reporting to this post.

This post has been updated with details from a video taken at the scene.

Early Saturday morning, Arizona State University Police arrested 69 people for trespassing after an “unauthorized encampment” was set up, according to a release from the university.

According to the school, a group of people, “most of whom were not ASU students, faculty or staff,” had created an encampment and their demonstration lasted until 11 p.m. local time on Friday, when the group was instructed “multiple times” to disperse. 

Those who refused to leave after multiple warnings, were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, the release said.

The university said while encampments are prohibited on ASU property, “lawful demonstrations” are allowed to take place on campus, except between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Three people were also arrested on the ASU campus Friday in connection with the encampment, CNN previously reported.

Northeastern University campus operations are back to normal and the school’s quad has been “fully secured” as of Saturday afternoon, the university said in a post on X and in an email to CNN.

Police detained about 100 people this morning as officials cleared “an unauthorized encampment” set up by pro-Palestinian demonstrators on Northeastern’s campus in Boston, CNN previously reported.

The school said in its update that the process was complete by 11:30 a.m. ET.

People attend a demonstration in support of Palestinians at Emory University in Atlanta on April 26.

The campus of Emory University in Atlanta was calm Saturday, following the arrest of protesters and at least two Emory professors Thursday in clashes with police.

On Friday, tenured Emory faculty pushed for a “no confidence” vote of Emory President Gregory Fenves in the wake of the violent arrests.

One of the faculty members who had been arrested — Noelle McAfee, chair of Emory’s philosophy department — told CNN that university administrators made the problem worse on Thursday when they called in the police.

She said police told her to step back as she stood near students who were being arrested.

Fenves said in a letter Friday that ahead of the arrests there were “highly organized, outside protestors” who came to the campus in vans to “construct an encampment, and overtake the Quad.”

But students and faculty who participated in the protests recalled events differently, saying the protesters were mostly students and people affiliated with the university.

One such student, Martin Berg, a third-year law student who had been arrested, put it this way: “What I saw was unprovoked and severe brutality exacted by police that Emory University had allowed to come on campus and assault their students. The message that the president of the University sent regarding outside agitators … was a lie.”

“The majority of us (in jail) were associated with the university in one way or another,” he added.

Police close the street near people protesting at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, on April 27.

Protesters at George Washington University in Washington, DC, are now blocking a street.

Around a dozen tents spilled from University Yard — the grassy area where the encampment was initially erected earlier this week — onto H Street NW, where a sign that reads “Liberated Zone Solidarity Camp” stretches between two trees.

The group of protesters has grown since Friday, according to CNN journalists who have been at the scene.

The protesters, who remain peaceful, were chanting, “Students you are not alone. This campus is a freedom zone.”

One chalk-written message on H Street read: “A Free Palestine in our Lifetime.”

The tents on H Street, a public area, puts them in a zone overseen by the DC Metropolitan Police.

DC Metropolitan Police remain in the area, and the U-Yard park is cordoned off by metal barricades and tape.

Things are “relatively calm” on Columbia University’s campus Saturday, especially compared to tense protests off campus earlier this week, according to CNN’s Polo Sandoval.

Negotiations are still ongoing between protest leaders and university administration.

Organizer Mahmoud Khalil spoke with Sandoval on Friday. Khalil said negotiations are at an “impasse” and added that Columbia is not acknowledging “the extent of the movement.”

Student organizers told Sandoval there won’t be an update on negotiations until Monday.

A sign reads “STOP FUNDING GENOCIDE” at a pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University in New York on April 22.

One of the core demands over the past week by the pro-Palestinian student groups at Columbia University has been for the school to withdraw investment funds from what they describe as companies profiting from Israel’s military action in Gaza.

Columbia’s endowment is worth $13.6 billion and is managed by a university-owned investment firm.

The request from Columbia University Apartheid Divest — a coalition of student groups behind the movement — includes, among other steps, divesting endowment funds from several weapons manufacturers and tech companies that do business with Israel’s government. The group has described those companies as profiting “from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and military occupation of Palestine.” Israel denies accusations of genocide.

This is not the first time such demands have been made. Columbia has a history of student activism, from the now-famous 1968 student occupation of multiple campus buildings to raise awareness of the Vietnam War, to hunger strikes over issues such as the university’s expansion in Upper Manhattan.

Keep reading about the demands for divestment and what the university has divested from in the past.

Police clear an encampment on Northeastern University's campus in Boston on Saturday morning. 

Police detained about 100 people as officials cleared “an unauthorized encampment” on Northeastern University’s campus in Boston on Saturday morning, according to a university spokesperson.

In a statement earlier Saturday, Northeastern officials said they believed “professional organizers” had joined the ranks of student protesters on the campus.

Nyul said the “use of virulent antisemitic slurs” at the encampment Friday night had “crossed the line.”

“We cannot tolerate this kind of hate on our campus,” she said.

Nyul said later Saturday that about 100 people were detained as Northeastern and local police cleared the site.

It is unclear from the university’s statement how many of those detained were ultimately arrested.

Pro-Palestinian protesters stand off with police on the California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt campus in Arcata, California, on April 22.

The California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt campus will be closed and move to a remote format until the end of the semester due to the continued occupation of at least two campus buildings, according to a statement on Friday. 

The decision is not entirely unexpected as school officials previously said in an update that the campus would remain closed over the weekend and that they were considering keeping it closed beyond that.

Demonstrators were given until 5 p.m. Friday to leave with a guarantee of no immediate arrest. 

CNN has reached out to the university for comment regarding the situation on the campus. 

Cal Poly Humboldt is a public university in Arcata, California, approximately 275 miles north of San Francisco.

Officials at the University of Pennsylvania called for demonstrators to leave an on-campus encampment, citing ”blatant violations of University policies.”

UPenn officials added that the “vandalism of the statue in front of College Hall with antisemitic graffiti was especially reprehensible and will be investigated as a hate crime.”

“The harassing and intimidating comments and actions by some of the protesters, which were reported and documented by many in our community, violate Penn’s open expression guidelines and state and federal law, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,” the statement said. “All members of our community deserve to access our facilities without fear of harassment or being subjected to discriminatory comments or threats.” 

The university said it has notified demonstrators of their “legal and policy violations” and that failure to immediately disband the encampment would result in sanctions.

In response, the Penn Arab Student Society (PASS) issued a statement on social media, calling for “further investigation” regarding the graffiti incident. 

The Muslim Students’ Association at UPenn shared the PASS statement on their Instagram account and released a statement of their own. 

“The University must carefully consider its actions going forward and ensure they conform to the University’s principles of equality and fairness,” the statement said in part.

The University of Illinois warned of consequences, including arrests and interim suspensions, for those who are taking part in on-campus demonstrations that began Friday morning. 

University police in the afternoon attempted to escort staff into the area to remove the encampment but were prevented from entering by demonstrators, the university said in a statement Friday night. This led officers to make the decision to “deescalate the situation” and step back to “reduce the risk of injury to themselves or the demonstrators.”

The university said they will work to convince the demonstrators to disperse voluntarily, and “hope they make that choice.”

NYPD officers stand guard outside of Columbia University on April 24, in New York City.

About a week after 108 pro-Palestinian activists were arrested at Columbia, university leaders said in a statement to the campus community Friday that calling the New York Police Department again to campus “would be counterproductive.” 

It was signed by university president Minouche Shafik, provost Angela Olinto and board of trustees co-chairs David Greenwald and Claire Shipman.

“The last week has been a period of deep tension and division on our campus, with significant disruption to our community,” the statement said.

Friday’s statement goes on to acknowledge that students have reported feeling threatened and discriminated against on campus.

Talks among the university’s leadership and students in the encampment remain ongoing.

Some context: Demonstrators set up an encampment at the university last Wednesday to denounce Israel’s war in Gaza, calling on the school “to divest all funds, including the endowment, from corporations that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and military occupation in Palestine,” according to organizers Columbia University Apartheid Divest. Shafik authorized the NYPD to shut down the protests and has faced criticism from students, faculty and left-leaning lawmakers.

Activists and students protest on the outskirts of an encampment protest at the University Yard at George Washington University on April 26, in Washington, DC.

Students inside campus encampments that have spread across the US are from a variety of backgrounds — including Palestinians, Arabs, Jews and Muslims, joined by students of other religious and ethnic backgrounds.

They hold a spectrum of political and social views: liberal and heterodox, progressive and absolutist.

Some support Palestinians: Many have been motivated by the reports and video coming out of Gaza and see the actions of the Israeli military as a continuation of a more than 70-year-long oppression of Palestinian rights, land and culture.

Protesters say they want their schools to stand against what they believe is genocide in Gaza.

Some support Israel: As reports of antisemitism have surged to record levels since Hamas’ attack on October 7, many Jews feel Israel requires more support now than ever as a refuge for Jews, who have long been an oppressed minority.

Even if they oppose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies and the country’s actions in Gaza, many Jews believe anti-Israel and anti-Zionist sentiment and even peaceful protest of Israel is itself antisemitic — because the concept of Israel as a Jewish homeland is core to Judaism.

And some support the Israeli government’s efforts to crush Hamas in Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian protestors set up about 30 tents for a "sit-in" protest of the war in Gaza at Auraria campus in Denver, Colorado on April 26.

A central demand of protesters on college campuses across the nation is that universities divest from Israel-linked companies that are profiting from the war in Gaza.

Other common threads include demanding universities disclose their investments, support a ceasefire in Gaza, and sever academic ties with Israeli universities.

At Princeton University, protesters are demanding the school end research on weapons of war “used to enable genocide,” according to a flyer at a demonstration.

At Columbia University, where the movement started last week, protesters want the university to sever ties with its center in Tel Aviv and a dual degree program with Tel Aviv University. New York University protesters also use the school’s Tel Aviv center as a rallying cry.

Amid hundreds of arrests at universities across the US, some call for officials to protect free speech and spare students from being punished for participating in the protests.

At the University of Southern California, protesters are demanding “full amnesty” for those brought into custody and “no policing on campus.”

Columbia protesters called for the university to “disclose and sever all ties” with the New York Police Department and ask that the university support low-income Harlem residents, according to Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

Student protesters say the demands to disclose and to divest are interconnected.

Protesters argue that many of the financial interests of universities are opaque and the links to Israel may be even greater than officials realize.

Read the full story.

Pro-Palestinian supporters continue to organize a protest encampment on the campus of Columbia University on April 26, in New York City.

Pro-Palestinian protests continued at major US universities through Friday evening decrying Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

Throughout the week, several schools called police on protesters, leading to the arrests of hundreds across the country. Protesters have demanded schools divest campus funds from entities connected to Israel.

Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health ministry. Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel killed about 1,200 people.

College administrators are facing increasing pressure from lawmakers to rein in protests. At Columbia - the epicenter of the demonstrations - the school’s senate passed a resolution late Friday to investigate the university leadership’s handling of the protests. 

Here are the latest developments:

Arizona State University: Police at Arizona State University arrested three people Friday on suspicion of trespassing “in connection with setting up an unauthorized encampment,” a university spokesperson said.

Barnard College: The school said it reached resolutions with “nearly all students who were previously placed on interim suspension” for participating in the protest encampment on Columbia’s campus.

Columbia University: The university banned a student spokesperson for the Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition who said in January “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” He subsequently apologized.

Denver campuses: At a joint campus for the University of Colorado Denver, Community College of Denver and Metropolitan State University of Denver, around 40 of the approximately 100 people who set up a pro-Palestinian encampment were arrested Friday, the campus said in a statement.

Emory University: Faculty gathered on campus to express concerns about the violent arrests that took place on campus on Thursday, with tenured professors calling for the university’s president, Gregory Fenves, to step down over the decision to call in state and local police to clear out the protesters. 

George Washington University: The university said Friday that any student who remains in University Yard may be placed on temporary suspension and administratively barred from campus.

Ohio State University: A total of 36 demonstrators were arrested Thursday night after refusing dispersal orders, according to a preliminary report from the university.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: More than 75 students gathered Friday to set up an encampment at the school, demanding the university divest from corporations that invest in Israel and its military operations.

University of Southern California: School president Carol L. Folt said in a statement the campus has become unsafe and the university will launch an inquiry and take action to protect all USC students, faculty and staff.

University of Texas at Austin: The school has placed the Palestine Solidarity Committee on “interim suspension.” The group organized Wednesday’s event, where over 50 arrests ensued.

Virginia Tech: School officials on Friday issued a statement about an encampment on campus, saying they told protesters the event does not comply with university policy.

Yale University: One letter from the Faculty for Justice in Palestine organization criticized student arrests this week and said faculty are prepared to stage walkouts and boycott Yale’s graduation ceremonies. Another letter denounced Yale’s administration for failing “in your responsibility to protect the Jewish students, staff and faculty at Yale.” 

“Outside agitators” at Columbia are “trying to hijack a peaceful protest,” New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said Friday night.

The commissioner added the NYPD has seen the same groups of “professional protestors” demonstrating nightly “at various demonstrations regardless of the message.”

Daughtry reiterated the NYPD is ready to intervene and address issues on Columbia’s campus as soon as the university’s president gives them the go-ahead.