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Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times has a featured article this morning reviewing the state of campus protests and encampments. Police have been called into a number of colleges and universities and arrests have been made (see map above). Here are excerpts from the article.

Police officers at the University of California, Los Angeles, on Wednesday ordered pro-Palestinian protesters to leave their encampment or face arrest after a night of chaos at the campus that saw violent clashes with counterprotesters.

A stream of students left the encampment after the warning, but hundreds remained inside, putting on helmets, masks and goggles. Dozens of police officers were stationed nearby, and lines of police cars are parked around the encampment, which had been the scene of wild clashes overnight when the counterprotesters attempted to breach it.

The university’s chancellor, Gene Block, had described the counterprotesters as “instigators” who attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment. Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles called for a “full investigation” into the “absolutely detestable” violence at the U.C.L.A. campus.

Elsewhere, police officers in riot gear arrested pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Fordham University’s Manhattan campus on Wednesday evening, the third university in New York City to face mass arrests in the past 24 hours as a surge of protests have put American universities on edge.

Police officers remained a jarring sight on the lawns and sidewalks of several American universities on Wednesday evening, including at Tulane in New Orleans, the University of Wisconsin, Madison and elsewhere.

Students at many other universities remained in protest encampments, indicating no intention of backing down, even as demonstrations spread to more campuses. The wave of student activism opposing the war in Gaza has posed a challenge for administrators who want to protect free speech rights while minimizing campus disruption.

More than 1,300 protesters have been taken into custody on U.S. campuses since  April 18, according to a tally by The New York Times.

Here’s what else to know:

• Columbia’s campus remained closed to everyone but students who live there and employees who provide essential services, after officers in riot gear on Tuesday cleared a building that had been occupied for nearly a day. The school’s embattled president asked the police to remain on campus past graduation to prevent more conflict.
• Pro-Palestinian demonstrators also were arrested at City College of New York in Harlem on Tuesday night after some of them tried to take over an administrative building.
• At Tulane, 14 people were arrested, administrators said, as state and local forces helped campus police disperse protesters. At the University of Arizona, campus police sprayed chemicals as they broke up a demonstration. And at least 17 people were arrested when officers cleared an encampment at the University of Texas at Dallas.
• There were signs of de-escalation on some campuses. In Rhode Island, students at Brown University dismantled their encampment on Tuesday. On the West Coast, the police ended the eight-day occupation of an administration building at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.

Tony

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