Pro-Palestinian protesters retake MIT encampment, occupy Rhode Island School of Design building

NEW YORK (AP) — Monday’s deadline for pro-Palestinian protesters to leave an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology allowed many demonstrators to retake the site, while demonstrators at the Rhode Island School of Design began to occupy a building as part of the ongoing protest movement. linked to the war between Israel and Hamas.

At MIT, protesters were given a deadline in the afternoon to voluntarily leave the protest site or face suspension. Many left, according to an MIT spokesperson, who said protesters breached the fence after demonstrators from outside the university arrived. On Monday evening, dozens of protesters remained at the encampment in a calmer atmosphere, listening to speakers and chanting before taking a pizza break.

Sam Ihns, an MIT graduate student in mechanical engineering and a member of the MIT group Jews for a Ceasefire, said the group has been at the camp for two weeks and is calling for an end to the killings in Gaza .

“Specifically, our camp is protesting the direct research ties between MIT and the Israeli Ministry of Defense,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Erica Caple James, professor of medical anthropology and urban studies at MIT, attended the protests as an academic observer and advisor to the Concerned Professors Alliance.

“I hope the day ends without anyone being hurt, without physical violence, and hopefully with space to reopen negotiations between the administration and students, faculty, and staff concerned about influence MIT World,” she said.

No arrests had been made as of Monday evening, according to the MIT spokesperson.

At the Rhode Island School of Design, where students began occupying a building Monday, a spokesperson said the school affirms students’ rights to free speech and peaceful assembly and that they all support members of their community. The RISD president and provost were on hand to meet with protesters, the spokesperson said.

Demonstrations at Columbia University, where the protest movement began about three weeks ago, have rocked its campus. Officials canceled the large main ceremony Monday, but said students will be able to celebrate in a series of smaller school-based ceremonies this week and next.

The move comes as universities across the country grapple with how to handle enrollment of students whose high school diplomas were derailed by COVID-19 in 2020. Another campus rocked by protests, Emory University, announced Monday that it would move its start from its Atlanta campus. in a suburban arena. Others, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Northeastern, held ceremonies with little disruption.

Columbia’s decision to cancel its major ceremonies scheduled for May 15 spares its president, Minouche Shafik, from having to deliver a commencement speech in the same part of campus where police dismantled a protest encampment last week. The Ivy League school in northern Manhattan said it made the decision after discussions with students.

Columbia had already canceled in-person classes. More than 200 pro-Palestinian protesters who camped on the Columbia Green or occupied a university building have been arrested in recent weeks.

Similar encampments have cropped up elsewhere as universities grapple with where to draw the line between allowing free speech and maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.

The University of Southern California previously canceled its main graduation ceremony. The students abandoned their camp at USC on Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest.

Other universities held graduation ceremonies with heightened security. The University of Michigan ceremony was interrupted by chanting several times Saturday.

Emory’s ceremonies scheduled for May 13 will take place nearly 20 miles northeast of the Atlanta University campus, President Gregory Fenves said in an open letter.

“Please know that this decision was not taken lightly,” Fenves wrote. “This was done in close consultation with the Emory Police Department, security advisors and other agencies, each of whom have advised against holding commencement events on our campuses.”

The 16,000-student university is one of several that have seen repeated protests following the conflict that began Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, for mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostages. Student protesters are calling on their schools to divest from companies that do business with Israel or otherwise contribute to the war effort.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its residents.

Hamas announced its acceptance of a proposed ceasefire between Egypt and Qatar on Monday, but Israel said the agreement did not meet its “fundamental demands” and that it was continuing its assault on the town of Rafah, south of Gaza.

“Ceasefires are temporary,” said Selina Al-Shihabi, a sophomore at Georgetown University who was participating in a protest at George Washington. “There may be a ceasefire, but the US government will continue to arm the Israeli army. We plan to stay here until the university divests or until they move us out of here. »

At the University of California San Diego, police cleared an encampment and arrested more than 64 people, including 40 students.

The University of California, Los Angeles moved all classes online for the week due to continued disruptions following the dismantling of an encampment last week, which resulted in 44 arrests.

Chancellor Gene Block said Monday evening that UCLA’s new security chief will lead an investigation to identify and prosecute the “group of instigators” who carried out a violent attack on pro-Palestinian protesters on April 30 . The FBI and the district attorney’s office asked for help, Block said.

Schools are trying a variety of tactics ranging from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action to get protesters to destroy encampments or move to other areas of campus.

The school at the Art Institute of Chicago said in a Facebook post Sunday that it was offering protesters “amnesty from academic sanctions and trespassing charges” if they moved and that many protesters left voluntarily.

“Those who remained were arrested,” the school said.

A group of faculty and staff at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have asked the administration for amnesty for student protesters who were recently arrested and suspended. UNC Faculty and Staff for Palestine Justice said in a media advisory that it would send a letter on behalf of more than 500 faculty who support student activists.

Harvard University’s interim president, Alan Garber, has warned students that those participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment at Harvard Yard could face “involuntary leave.” That means they would not be allowed on campus, could lose their student housing and would not be able to take exams, Garber said.

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LeBlanc reported from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.