Students protesting the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip at universities across the United States of America (USA), some of whom have clashed with police, "digging in" their decision and today vowed to continue their demonstrations, while several colleges condemned the university presidents for calling the police to evict the protesters.
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As New York's Columbia University continues negotiations with pro-Palestinian students encamped on campus, the university's Senate on Friday formed a task force to examine the actions of the administration that called the police last Sunday in an attempt to "clean up the protest" that led to clashes and more than 100 arrests.
Although the university has repeatedly set and then pushed back deadlines for removing the encampment, it emailed students on Friday that a renewed police presence "would be counterproductive" and added that it hoped negotiations would yield "concrete signs of progress as early as tonight." .
As the death toll in the Gaza war rises, protesters across the US are demanding that universities cut financial ties to Israel and stop working with companies they say are enabling the conflict. Some Jewish students say the protests have turned into anti-Semitism and they are afraid to set foot on campus.
The decisions to call the police, which led to hundreds of arrests across the US, prompted college board members in California, Georgia and Texas to initiate or vote of no confidence in their leadership. These are mostly symbolic reprimands, without the authority to dismiss.
But the tensions are piling pressure on university authorities who are scrambling to deal with the protests as graduation ceremonies in May approach.
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, has given protesters barricaded in the building since Monday until Friday afternoon to leave "to avoid arrest." That deadline has passed. Only some of the demonstrators left, but others came and there were twice as many in total. After protesters repelled police this Sunday, the campus was closed until the end of the semester.
In Colorado, police swept through a student encampment at Denver's tri-university Auraria campus on Friday, arresting about 40 protesters on trespassing charges.
Students representing the Columbia campus that has inspired a wave of protests across the U.S. said Friday they had reached an impasse with administrators and intended to continue their protest.
After meetings Thursday and Friday, student negotiators said the university had not met their primary demand for divestment, although there had been progress in efforts to make financial disclosures more transparent.
"We will not rest while Columbia is being sold," said Jonathan Ben Menachem, a fourth-year doctoral student.
In a letter to Columbia students Friday night, the university's leadership said it "supports the ongoing discussions with the student leaders of the camp."
A report by the University Senate's executive committee found that the administration had taken "many actions and decisions that harmed Columbia University," including calling the police and allowing students to be arrested without consulting faculty, misrepresenting student protest groups, and hiring private investigators.
On Friday, Columbia student Kimani Jackm retracted comments made in an online video in January that drew widespread attention for saying "Zionists don't deserve to live" and should thank him for not killing them.
James, who was the spokesperson for Columbia University's pro-Palestinian camp, was banned from campus.
At Indiana University in Bloomington, police clashed with protesters Thursday and arrested 34 people, at Ohio State University 36 were arrested and at the University of Connecticut one person was arrested.
The University of Southern California canceled its May 10 graduation ceremony after more than 90 campus protesters were arrested.
Universities where faculty members have initiated or voted no confidence in their presidents include Cal Poly Humboldt, the University of Texas at Austin and Emory University.
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