April 26, 2024 - Protests at Columbia and other schools escalate

Virginia Tech officials on Friday issued a statement about an encampment on campus, saying they told protesters the event does not comply with university policy.

The statement continued, "The safety and welfare of all members of the Virginia Tech community is the university’s primary responsibility while we remain unequivocally committed to upholding freedom of speech and academic freedom. This is expressed and upheld through our Principles of Community."

Bipartisan legislation announced on Friday by New York lawmakers would empower the US Department of Education to appoint a third-party antisemitism monitor at colleges and universities that receive federal funding.

The bill, College Oversight and Legal Updates Mandating Bias Investigations and Accountability (COLUMBIA) Act, is sponsored by Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres and Republican Rep. Mike Lawler.

If passed and signed into law, colleges chosen would pay for the monitorship and could lose federal funds if they don’t comply, according to the lawmakers. The monitor would also have to release a report every quarter on efforts by the college or university to combat antisemitism and would issue recommendations.

Torres said he and his office have spoken with Jewish students who feel “deeply unsafe, purely as a result of their religious and ethnic identity.”

Adam Lehman, president and CEO of Hillel International said Friday the pro-Palestinian encampments at university campuses nationwide are "not an issue of free speech."

"We're talking about students who god-forbid show their Jewish identity publicly having a kippah or other aspects of their identity literally ripped from their bodies. This is beyond unacceptable," Lehman said Friday at a joint press conference with Jewish student leaders and heads of other Jewish organizations held at Columbia University.

Lehman decried universities that aren't enforcing policies that he said are meant to protect students from harassment. University presidents, however, have received considerable backlash over suppressing free speech for their efforts to disband encampments on campuses including, in some cases, authorizing police to make arrests.

Hillel as an organization supports the right to free speech, Lehman said, adding that "our students are desperate for dialogue."

"But when the debate that's taking place results in the intimidation and harassment and silence of one part of that community, there is not free speech for everyone," he said.

Brian Cohen, executive director at Columbia and Barnard's Hillel, echoed Lehman's remarks at Friday's press conference.

Dozens of police officers dressed in riot gear are outside one of the campus buildings at Sciences Po University in Paris on Friday, appearing to prepare to break up a pro-Palestinian blockade in the main campus building of the major French university.

Police are lined up with riot shields facing the students. Many students are sitting on the ground, waving Palestinian flags and chanting.

A total of 36 demonstrators at Ohio State University were arrested on Thursday night after refusing dispersal orders, according to a preliminary report from the university.

Of the 36 arrested, 20 were not affiliated with the university and 16 were students, according to university spokesperson Benjamin Johnson.

Students and faculty members of Emory University who were arrested on Thursday morning during a pro-Palestinian protest on the university’s campus will not have any release restrictions placed on them, according to DeKalb County Magistrate Court Judge E. Ann Guerrant. 

Guerrant made the ruling after Amy Adelman, Interim Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Emory University, appeared before the court and said the university did not want any restrictions for Emory faculty, staff and students. 

One of those making their first appearance on Friday was Emory University Economics professor Caroline Fohlin. She was one of two professors CNN witnessed being detained during a pro-Palestinian protest on the university’s campus Thursday morning. 

The attorney for Fohlin had advised the court that Emory University did not want any special conditions placed on her bond, shortly before Adelman joined the court proceedings via Zoom. 

According to her attorney, Fohlin is a tenured professor who has been with the university for 13 years. He said she is “situated differently” from the other defendants because she does not have a set schedule and is in and out of meetings every day. 

Fohlin was charged with disorderly conduct and simple battery against a police officer, according to DeKalb County Jail records. When asked if she understood the charges against her, she replied: “Basically.” 

The judge granted Fohlin a $50 cash bond with no special conditions for release. 

George Washington University said Friday that any student who remains in University Yard may be placed on temporary suspension and administratively barred from campus.

Earlier in the day, the university issued a statement saying the ongoing encampment on campus is against the university's rules.

According to an Instagram post, the encampment, organized by students at multiple universities across the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, represents the coalition of Students for Justice in Palestine.

DC Police have closed off the street where the protests had taken place. Some protesters relocated to a nearby parking spot, spilling out into the street. 

A verbal altercation about the war in Gaza erupted between a Jewish student from GW and some protesters on Friday morning.

New York Democratic Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman visited the encampments at Columbia University on Friday, student-run news outlet Bwog reported.

Ocasio-Cortez told the outlet, "Any leader who has called in enforcement and violence on folks that are peacefully organizing should be deeply ashamed of themselves. I would imagine a decision like that would follow a person for a very long time."

Spokespeople for Ocasio-Cortez and Bowman didn't immediately return requests for comment.

Their visits come after House Speaker Mike Johnson's Wednesday visit to the campus, alongside a handful of other Republican lawmakers, where he called on the university's president to resign "if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos."

The Travis County Attorney Delia Garza has dismissed all criminal charges against the protesters who were arrested on the University of Texas at Austin campus on Wednesday, according to spokeswoman Diana Melendez.

The county attorney’s office says 57 people were charged with criminal trespassing and that all the cases “lack sufficient probable cause to proceed.”

On Wednesday, Texas state troopers in riot gear, including some on horseback, broke up a group of pro-Palestinian protesters at the university, resulting in the arrests.

Amelia Kimball, an associate managing editor at The Daily Texan, described to CNN "tense interactions" and "physical struggles between police and students" on campus on Wednesday.