The House speaker wants Columbia’s president to resign over pro-Palestinian protests. Philly-area students and faculty have their own demands.

Rage and fear blistered numerous U.S. college campuses on Wednesday, as the Israel-Gaza conflict continued to be the catalyst inciting pro-Palestinian demonstrations from the University of Southern California to Harvard Yard.

Police and activists clashed at the University of Texas at Austin, while masked students put up 40 tents at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dozens of arrests for trespassing or disorderly conduct have been made nationwide, while many Jewish students said they’ve been subjected to antisemitism, according to the Associated Press.

Across the country and in the Philadelphia region, at a time when campuses are normally winding down the school year and readying the rituals of graduation, many college administrators were faced with growing discontent and a moment-to-moment unease about what will happen next.

At Columbia University, which has been the seat of the pro-Palestinian protest, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson showed up on Wednesday to call for Columbia president Minouche Shafik to step down because, he said, she failed to protect Jewish students, the New York Times reported.

About the same time, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro criticized schools that didn’t protect students sufficiently, leading to antisemitic incidents.

“What we’re seeing at Columbia and what we’re seeing in some campuses across America, where universities can’t guarantee the safety and security of their students, it’s absolutely unacceptable,” Shapiro told Politico.

Columbia canceled in-person classes on Monday and said it would switch to a hybrid mode for the rest of the semester after more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up an encampment at the school and were arrested. Protesters also were arrested at New York University and Yale, as encampments spread to other colleges, including the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus.

About 4 a.m. Wednesday, Columbia officials issued a written commitment to engage in further negotiations with student protesters for at least 48 hours.

“The university’s previous threats of an imminent sweep by the NYPD or the National Guard had severed negotiations,” campus protesters wrote in a statement.

While the campus at Princeton University was quiet Wednesday, W. Rochelle Calhoun, vice president for campus life, issued a school-wide message by email in anticipation of potential unrest:

“Any individual involved in an encampment, occupation, or other unlawful disruptive conduct who refuses to stop after a warning will be arrested and immediately barred from campus.”

Students would “jeopardize their ability to complete the semester,” the email continued. “In addition, members of our community would face a disciplinary process (for students this could lead to suspension, delay of a diploma, or expulsion).”

Johnson’s call for Shafik to step down echoed the demands for the University of Pennsylvania’s former president Liz Magill to resign after her testimony before a congressional committee on colleges’ handling of antisemitism on campus. Magill resigned in December following a bipartisan backlash against her comments and after a semester of near-weekly protests on campus. Shafik testified a week ago before the same panel, the House Committee on Education & the Workforce.

While Penn saw pro-Palestinian protests earlier this semester following the university’s tumultuous fall, there were no encampments or protests there Wednesday as officials planned for a “community listening session” dedicated to the conflict in the Middle East.

The session, which is open only to Penn students, faculty and staff, is scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday on campus.

Last weekend, the Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn’s student newspaper, reported that Penn had suspended the pro-Palestinian student group Penn Against the Occupation from campus.

On Tuesday evening, Penn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors in a statement condemned “in the strongest terms the wave of recent repression of students and faculty engaged in peaceful and principled protest by university administrations across the country.”

They also had harsh words for what they called “the capricious and one-sided suppression of dissent at Penn this year, most recently seen in the unjustified ban” of the student group.

“Our university administration must end its campaign of one-sided suppression of political dissent, which discredits the entire institution’s commitment to academic freedom, open expression, free inquiry, and freedom of association,” they wrote. “We further demand that disciplinary procedures against students at Penn and at campuses across the country be reviewed and revised by faculty and students, not administrators, to protect the freedoms and due process rights of all.”

Campuses in the Philadelphia region on Wednesday were relatively quiet. Officials at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges, as well as Drexel and Temple Universities, reported no disuptions on their campuses.

At Villanova University, a “Gaza Solidarity” event has been scheduled by the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine for noon next Tuesday. It’s being described by the chapter as a “disruptive yet peaceful action,” whose members ask participants to “please wear your mask and wear all black.”

At Swarthmore College, about 30 people spent Tuesday night in 20 tents erected Monday afternoon outside Parrish Hall.

The area was encircled with rope and dubbed the “People’s College for the Liberation of Palestine” by protesting students.

The scene was peaceful Wednesday, with students spread out on blankets and sitting in circles on the grass. Others lounged on Adirondack chairs in the afternoon sun.

“We want divestment from the settler-colonial state of Israel,” said V.S., a student organizer and 21-year-old biology and philosophy major from India who wore a red and white keffiyeh draped over his shoulders. He declined to provide his full name, saying he feared doxing online and repercussions that could affect his visa.

V.S. called it “morally depraved that the college has not stood up for the rights of Palestinians.”

”The liberation of Palestine is deeply intertwined with Black liberation,” said V.S., who said many of the students protesting are Black and brown.

Cara Anderson, spokesperson for Swarthmore, said, “We have engaged with student organizers ... on multiple occasions during the past several months, and we remain open and willing to explore more realistic ways to find common ground and bring this latest demonstration to a peaceful conclusion.”

Protesters also include students with Jewish Voice for Peace. Among them is Julia Stern, 19, a sophomore from New York City studying history and environmental studies.

”I think it’s very important to be here in solidarity,” Stern said. “I’ve found the way colleges have been repressing students ... to be really reprehensible.”

Swarthmore, a small, highly selective private college in Delaware County, for years has been a place for student protest over issues including divestment from fossil fuels, sexual assault, Greek life and most recently the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

In December, students belonging to the Swarthmore Palestine Coalition held a 15-day sit-in at the college’s main administration building, calling for the college to divest any financial holdings with Israel and push for a cease-fire.

In spring of 2019, student protesters seeking an end to Greek life staged a days-long sit-in at a fraternity house. In 2015, students held a 32-day sit-in, calling on the college to divest its endowment money out of fossil fuels.