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How Gaza Encampments Upended Higher Ed

Pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles link arms as police stand guard during a demonstration on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. A wave of pro-Palestinian protests spread and intensified on Wednesday as students gathered on campuses around the country, in some cases facing off with the police, in a widening showdown over campus speech and the war in Gaza.

In April and May, campus protests of the Israel-Hamas war — specifically, Israel’s strikes on Palestinians — reached a fever pitch. The catalyst was Columbia University, whose president testified before Congress on April 17 about how the institution had responded to antisemitism and protests since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel provoked the current war.

That same day, Columbia students set up tents on campus and vowed to stay there until the university agreed to cut financial ties with Israel. Columbia’s leaders, having just told Congress they had no qualms about enforcing campus policies, called the New York Police Department to clear the encampment.

Since then, nearly 100 colleges have seen pro-Palestinian encampments, sit-ins, or multiday protests, and thousands of people have been arrested at dozens of campuses.

Colleges struggled to respond to protests that they say crossed a line into disruption; a small number of protests led to property damage and violence. Administrators also struggled to balance the free-speech rights of the protesters with the safety concerns of Jewish community members who alleged that some of activists’ chants were antisemitic.

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BACKSTORY

Latest News

Shifting rhetoric
October 14, 2024
Faculty members at Columbia University say they disagree with a pro-Palestinian student group’s recent endorsement of violence, but some support the group’s right to express that sentiment.
Campus Activism
September 24, 2024
Cornell University has vowed to suspend more than 100 students — a striking example of how colleges are ratcheting up pressure on protesters this fall.
Campus Clampdown
September 18, 2024
Responses to a survey at the University of South Florida — where police shut down an encampment last spring with tear gas and arrests — shed light on how students and staff are thinking about tightened protest policies.

Mapping the Spread of Student Protests

Encampments and sit-ins proliferated across the country in April, May, and June. Our map has been updated to include recent encampments at Wayne State University, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and a handful of other institutions.

Latest Opinion from The Review

By Silke-Maria Weineck September 3, 2024
College leaders crack down on protests — and lie about it.
By Evan Goldstein August 15, 2024
Are colleges facing — and facilitating — an intellectual crisis?
By Alexander Jabbari June 26, 2024
Recently, the University of Minnesota tarnished its reputation by caving to community pressure over the hiring of a director for its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
By Eboo Patel June 21, 2024
Hint: It’s not all about free speech.

More News and Opinion

Campus Activism
By Declan Bradley, Garrett Shanley September 12, 2024
No “unauthorized structures.” No chairs. No “amplified musical instruments.” “Free Expression Permits.” Ahead of a fresh wave of pro-Palestinian activism, campus officials have clamped down on free expression.
Student Activism
By Katherine Mangan September 5, 2024
Rallies and demonstrations are again testing administrators’ ability to decipher between antisemitism and free speech. A new guide developed by scholars aims to help.
'This Is the Playbook'
By Kate Hidalgo Bellows August 29, 2024
The university announced that its foundation will stop investing in companies that make money from weapons manufacturing, a move one student organizer described as “historic.”
Gaza Activism
By Katherine Mangan August 26, 2024
Student protesters are deploying new tactics to press administrators to meet their demands.
Campus Activism
A Republican congresswoman had choice words for what she said were Columbia’s failures to discipline activists, while the UC system president said its campuses would tighten their protocols.