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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.
Mark Abramson, The New York Times, Redux

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

Campus Activism
May 19, 2025
As the academic year got underway, colleges tightened their rules. Now the Trump administration is threatening institutions that don’t crack down.
'A Different Playbook'
May 8, 2025
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past several days have led to more than 100 arrests, as well as suspensions for violating colleges’ policies and protest restrictions.
Leadership
May 7, 2025
Wednesday’s congressional hearing marked yet another expansion of efforts to put higher ed under pressure.

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.

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