Yale University police officers on Monday arrested 47 Yale students who were occupying a campus plaza to demand that the university cut ties with weapons manufacturers, including those connected to Israel.
It’s the second time in the past four days that college administrators have shut down an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters. Last Thursday, Columbia University officials called in the New York City Police Department to arrest more than 100 student protesters who were also demanding that the institution divest its holdings in businesses that they said were profiting from the Israel-Hamas war.
What happened at Yale and Columbia suggests that some colleges are becoming more willing to forcibly halt protests about the war as student activists turn up the heat.
Yale students have held protests at the plaza throughout the past week. On Friday, students began to pitch tents, and hundreds rallied outside a dinner celebrating the tenure of Yale’s president, Peter Salovey, ahead of a Board of Trustees meeting on Saturday. By Sunday, according to the protesters, there were 40 tents and about 600 protesters at the plaza.
At 6:40 a.m. on Monday, university police officers arrested students and took down the tents. When the protesters were cleared from the plaza, they moved to occupy a nearby intersection, where they continued rallying into Monday afternoon.
A Yale spokesperson told The Chronicle that the arrested students could face disciplinary action, including probation and suspension. Protest organizers said in a statement that the students had been charged with criminal trespass. Those arrested were issued summonses and released, according to one of the protesters.
Salovey said in a message to the campus that the university was committed to free expression, but that the tent encampment had violated campus policies and was a safety hazard.
Salovey said administrators had given students several warnings to leave and remove their belongings before the police started making arrests. Protesters said they had been given only one warning before they were arrested.
The arrests at Yale are the culmination of a months-long student campaign to push the university to disclose its investments and to divest from military-weapons manufacturers. Yale has a longstanding policy to not disclose its investments.
In 2018, Yale divested its holdings in assault-weapons retailers, stating that they were responsible for “grave social injury.” But last Thursday, Yale’s investment-advisory committee recommended against divestment from military-weapons manufacturers.
Over the weekend, students and university administrators talked for several hours to try to reach a compromise. Administrators offered students the opportunity to meet with two board members, including one who sat on the investment-advisory committee, in exchange for leaving the plaza. Students declined that offer.
Taran Samarth, a student protester, told The Chronicle that unless Yale leaders disclosed Yale’s investments first, such a meeting would have been pointless.
Samarth said via text message that the protest had “created an educational space for dialogue, critical thought, and broad learning” about what’s happening in Gaza, including the destruction of educational institutions. “Yale took it down,” Samarth said.
