As Protests Grow, Universities Choose Different Ways to End Unrest

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New York|As Protests Grow, Universities Choose Different Ways to End Unrest

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/nyregion/college-protests-divestment-columbia-brown.html

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Columbia has taken the spotlight after twice asking the police to quell pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus. Brown University chose a different path.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through Manhattan in support of student encampments at universities across the city on Tuesday.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

The first time Columbia University tried to shut down the pro-Palestinian encampment on its campus, two weeks ago, it called in the New York Police Department. That backfired. Students who were not arrested reestablished a larger encampment on the next lawn over and drew hundreds of protesters from across the city and beyond who rallied at the campus's gates.

The second time the university attempted to shut down the encampment, on Monday, it tried something different. It offered students who left by a deadline partial amnesty from punishment; if they refused, Columbia would suspend them. That tactic also failed to end the unrest. Instead, a subgroup of protesters took over a campus building, Hamilton Hall, in the middle of the night.

Finally, on Tuesday evening, the university brought in the police again, to rout protesters from the building and encampment. More than 100 people were arrested. As some demonstrators continued to rally outside the gates, and faculty members and students reeled over what had just happened, a question loomed: Would this be the end of weeks of escalating protests on Columbia's campus?

Across the nation, different schools are facing the same question, with no easy answers. Some administrators have called in the police. Others have met with students at the negotiating table. In all cases, university officials are no doubt watching the school calendar, counting the days until the semester ends, but also until a flood of families comes to campus for graduation ceremonies.

The difficulty administrators face stems in large part from one of the demands that student protesters are making: that schools end financial ties with companies supporting Israel. Students at Columbia and elsewhere also want universities to publicly disclose all of their investments, to ensure accountability for divestment.

For universities, considering those demands raises a host of problems, both logistical and political, that may make acquiescing nearly impossible.

Source: Google Earth

By Leanne Abraham, Bora Erden and Lazaro Gamio

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