Police take Columbia protesters into custody; Penn drops first batch of disciplinary actions; 11 arrested at Princeton

Officers took protesters into custody late Tuesday after Columbia University called in police to end the pro-Palestinian occupation on the New York campus.

The scene unfolded shortly after 9 p.m. as police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields, massed at the Ivy League university’s entrance. Officers breached Hamilton Hall, an administration building on campus, to clear out the structure.

The demonstrators had occupied Hamilton Hall more than 12 hours earlier, spreading their reach from an encampment elsewhere on the grounds that’s been there for nearly two weeks.

Penn encampment organizers said they met with university leadership Tuesday and are no closer to having their demands met.

During an encampment-wide update on the meeting, a protester slammed the university, characterizing leaders as acting in bad faith during negotiations.

The university accused the encampment of making students feel unsafe, said the speaker, while failing to protect other students who have been been doxxed and harassed for their pro-Palestinian activism.

At about 5:30 p.m., a University of Pennsylvania Fire Department official showed up with a member of campus police for a safety check.

More than an hour after their arrival, encampment leaders had not let them in.

The inspection had initially been delayed because encampment organizers were meeting with university leadership, according to encampment members. The meeting was only the second since organizers pitched tents on the College Green.

Republicans are trying to tie Democratic support for student loan forgiveness to unrest at college campuses, in an attempt to capitalize politically on boiling tensions about the war in Gaza.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign arm for the Senate Republicans, and its counterpart in the House, are dropping digital ads on Wednesday targeting potentially vulnerable incumbent Democrats.

An ad aimed at Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) says “students radicalized by the far left are acting like terrorists. Now Joe Biden and Bob Casey want to pay off their student loans.”

Penn encampment members remain firm: They will not be showing their identification to delegates from Penn's Office on Open Expression.

The office had been at the encampment earlier, checking for IDs and taking photos of those who refused to comply, which was everyone.

Though the protesters opposing the Israel-Hamas war remained resolute Tuesday, a more guarded air took over the encampment as students were hesitant to speak to the media on the record.

Student protests over the Israel-Hamas war have popped up at many college campuses after being inspired by demonstrators at Columbia University.

The students are calling for universities to separate themselves from companies advancing Israel's military efforts in Gaza and in some cases from Israel itself. Police have arrested hundreds nationwide since detainments at Columbia on April 18.

Officials are trying to resolve the protests as the academic year winds down, but students have dug in at several high-profile universities.

The University of Pennsylvania in a statement Tuesday afternoon acknowledged that it had opened several student disciplinary cases in connection with the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus.

“These actions, while unfortunate, are necessary,” a university spokesperson said.

Earlier Tuesday, the Inquirer reported that delegates from the Office on Open Expression entered the encampment and began asking protesters to show their Penn IDs. One of the office representatives told students that showing their IDs was voluntary, but that if they didn’t do it, their photos would be taken and could lead to discipline.

Dozens of protesters took over a building at Columbia University in New York early Tuesday, barricading entrances and unfurling a Palestinian flag from a window in the latest escalation of demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war on college campuses nationwide.

In a statement Tuesday, Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said, “Students occupying the building face expulsion.” Chang said the university had given protesters a chance to leave peacefully and finish the semester, but that those who didn’t agree to the terms from Monday were being suspended — restricted from all academic and recreational spaces, allowed only to enter their residences, and, for seniors, ineligible to graduate.

“Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation — vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances — and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday,” he said.

Gabriel Steinberg, a Jewish student from Orlando, Fla., was studying for the MCAT in Penn's Van Pelt Library across from the encampment Sunday night when he said he heard the chants opposing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Since then, Steinberg said, he no longer feels safe studying in the library.

“When they’re chanting ‘Intifada, revolution,’ they claim it means ‘shaking off,’ which is true,” said Steinberg, a junior. “But it also is reminiscent of a period of mass casualties …when Jewish students hear that, we feel it’s a call for violence.”

As protests over the war in Gaza continued on campuses around the country, sparking some condemnation from the White House on Tuesday, the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations visited Philadelphia and encouraged high school students here to “make their voices heard.”

Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke to students at William W. Bodine High School for International Affairs after a private meeting with six Palestinian students at the school.

“I just met with six of your classmates who gave me a very hard time on what our policies are in Gaza,” she told the students. “And what I said to them, and I say to you, is you need to make your voices heard. And you have the opportunity with a member of President Biden's cabinet to make your voices heard on any number of policy issues and it's not something that young people around the world always get the opportunity to do.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro said the interim president of the University of Pennsylvania – as well as all university presidents across the state – have a “moral and legal responsibility to keep their students free from discrimination and safe on campus,” as encampments continue across the state.

“While folks are peacefully protesting, and even if they have honest differences with the policy in the Middle East, those protests cannot be used as an excuse to spread antisemitism in our communities, or Islamophobia, for that matter,” Shapiro added. “Universities have a responsibility to root that out, to make sure that their rules are followed on campus.”

Shapiro said his administration has been in “close contact” with administrators at Penn and other universities in the state over the last several months. Those conversations increased in recent weeks as encampments began, but he declined to say what exactly has been communicated between his administration and Penn.

Delegates from the Office on Open Expression entered the encampment at noon Tuesday to begin asking encampment participants to show their Penn IDs.

A representative from the Office on Open Expression began telling students that showing their IDs were voluntary, but if they failed to comply, their photos would be taken and shared in referrals for disciplinary cases.

Those who failed to show IDs would be considered trespassers, the university employee told groups of encampment participants, all of which declined to show identification.

Sparrow — a senior at the University of Pennsylvania who declined to share their last name over fears of retaliation — has stayed overnight at the encampment with their service dog Skippy since the protest began Thursday.

“He goes everywhere with me,” said Sparrow. “He’s a staple of Penn activism.”

Sparrow didn’t expect to spend their last days on campus inside a tent; they submitted their senior thesis last Monday but felt “compelled to be here” after having participated in other activism on campus, including the 39-day-long Fossil Free Penn encampment that advocated for fossil fuel divestment in 2022.

The Biden administration condemned the actions of protesters at Columbia University, who took over and barricaded themselves in a building on campus early Tuesday.

“President Biden has stood against repugnant, Antisemitic smears and violent rhetoric his entire life. He condemns the use of the term “intifada,” as he has the other tragic and dangerous hate speech displayed in recent days," White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement Tuesday.

"President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful," Bates added. "Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful — it is wrong."

Three student organizers with the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and the Freedom School for Palestine at the University of Pennsylvania have received disciplinary hearing notices from the university’s Center for Community Standards and Accountability (CSA), encampment members told The Inquirer Tuesday morning.

These students — each of whom have spoken with media outlets about their involvement in the protests — received emails from CSA around 5 p.m. Monday, said Sonya Stacia, a junior at Penn and Gaza Solidarity Encampment organizer. The names of these students have not yet been released by organizers.

Students were referred to CSA by the Vice President of University Life Hikaru Kozuma, said Stacia, where they will then stand for a disciplinary hearing: A panel hears testimonies from the subjects of the hearing, witnesses and university administrations. The panel determines whether the violations will be dismissed — or if the students will receive consequences such as suspension or expulsion.

At Princeton University, 13 people were arrested Monday night including 11 students, after briefly occupying Clio Hall, a building that houses its graduate school.

The protesters received summons for trespassing and have been barred from campus, President Christopher Eisgruber said in a statement.

“Everyone on this campus needs to feel safe and to be safe,” Eisgruber said. “Faculty, students, and staff must be able to conduct University business without disruption, harassment, or threat.”

Dozens of protesters took over a building at Columbia University in New York early Tuesday, barricading the entrances and unfurling a Palestinian flag out of a window in the latest escalation of demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war that have spread to college campuses nationwide.

Video footage showed protesters on Columbia’s Manhattan campus locking arms in front of Hamilton Hall early Tuesday and carrying furniture and metal barricades to the building, one of several that was occupied during a 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protest on the campus. Posts on an Instagram page for protest organizers shortly after midnight urged people to protect the encampment and join them at Hamilton Hall. A “Free Palestine” banner hung from a window.

“An autonomous group reclaimed Hind’s Hall, previously known as ‘Hamilton Hall,’ in honor of Hind Rajab, a martyr murdered at the hands of the genocidal Israeli state at the age of six years old,” CU Apartheid Divest posted on the social media platform X early Tuesday.

Dozens of people were arrested Monday during protests at universities in Texas, Utah, and Virginia, while Columbia said hours before the takeover of Hamilton Hall that it had started suspending students.

Police moved to clear an encampment at Yale University in Connecticut on Tuesday morning, but there were no immediate reports of arrests.

The Yale Daily News, an independent student newspaper, reported that Yale and New Haven police surrounded the encampment in the Cross Campus quad with caution tape starting around 6 a.m. and said that anyone inside the blocked-off area would be subject to arrest and suspension if they did not leave. Officer Christian Bruckhart, a New Haven police spokesperson, said no arrests had been made as of 7:30 a.m.

At the University of Pennsylvania, where the encampment is in day six, interim president J. Larry Jameson through a statement has ordered the protesters to disband the encampment, but they have not complied. The university also has said that the students and staff must provide their IDs, which organizers at the encampment have said they will refuse to do.

On Monday, signs were posted around the encampment area, warning protesters they are trespassing on school grounds. There were 30 tents and about 60 protesters there Monday.

The signs said protesters who set up tents on the College Green were in violation of Philadelphia city code, which prohibits “tents and other structures” from being erected without first obtaining permits. The notice also said the area where protesters have set up are “not zoned for outdoor living accommodations.”