April 30, 2024 - US university protests

Our live coverage of the protests rocking US campuses has moved here

NYPD officers detain students at Columbia University in New York City on April 30.

Over 100 protesters were arrested Tuesday at Columbia University and City College of New York, according to a law enforcement official.

Most of the arrests were made at Columbia, including about two dozen protesters who police say tried to prevent officers from entering the campus, the official said.

Tactical teams at Columbia first set up a perimeter around the campus to hold back protesters and prevent further arrests, according to the official. Offers then entered the campus through multiple entry points.

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Jonas Du, editor-in-chief of a Columbia student magazine, told CNN that the protests on campus are student-fueled regardless of any outsider involvement.

It’s “hard to say” whether those arrested from Columbia’s Hamilton Hall were students or from outside the institution, the Columbia Sundial editor said.

“Even though campus has been locked down to Columbia ID holders, now there has been ways of getting in, getting non-affiliated into campus. But for the most part you need Columbia IDs, you need students to provide you with IDs that can get you into campus,” said Du, who is a junior student at the university.

Du said he believes there is “evidence” of outside organizations behind the occupation’s planning, but he also says numerous Columbia students were inside Hamilton Hall. 

He said he recognized “many, many Columbia students in the crowd” that formed human chains around the entrances to Hamilton Hall while reporting on the protests. 

“At the end of the day, it’s still a student-fueled movement. It wouldn’t have gotten to (this) extent without the of the student organizations here.” 

Du said students received a text message and email alert from the school stating that a shelter-in-place order had been issued, asking them to remain in their dorms and not to go on campus.

“But all of us knew that that was sort of a signal that the NYPD was going to raid campus,” he added.

This screengrab shows a campus police officer removing a hijab off a protester’s head at Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona.

Video taken over the weekend at Arizona State University shows a campus police officer removing a hijab from a protester’s head during her arrest.

The blurred video, obtained by Mass Liberation AZ and provided to CNN by attorney Zayed Al-Sayyed, who represents the women, shows several ASU Police Department officers surrounding a woman whose hands are held behind her back as one of the officers removes her hijab.

People nearby can be heard yelling, “You’re violating her privacy,” and “Give it back.”

The officers then pull the woman’s sweatshirt hood over her head and a bystander yells, “So she can wear a hood but not her hijab?” At one point one of the officers blocks the woman from the view of those taking the video, as a person yells, “let her go!”

A lawyer representing her and three other women who said it also happened to them is demanding accountability.

Al-Sayyed, who said the arrests took place early Saturday, did not identify the women but indicated that three of them are students at the university and all four are Phoenix-area residents. They are facing criminal trespass charges.

Upon being taken into custody, Al-Sayyed said, the women explained the significance of a hijab and “begged” to keep their hijabs, but he said they were told that their hijabs had to be removed for safety reasons.

“They never expected that an officer … who’s sworn to protect and serve is going to violate their most basic protected right under the United States Constitution, which is the right to practice their religion. So they’re hurt,” Al-Sayyed said.

After being detained and bused to jail, the women were not given their hijabs back, Al-Sayyed said.

Around 15 hours later, when he was finally given access to his clients, Al-Sayyed said he was able to bring them new hijabs.

The Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-AZ), condemned the university police for the recorded incident and others like it and called for a full investigation.

“This act represents a blatant infringement upon the religious liberties of peaceful protesters. It is profoundly distressing for the affected women, and ASU Police must conduct a thorough investigation into this matter,” Azza Abuseif, executive director of CAIR-AZ, said in an email to CNN.

In a statement to CNN, the university said, “This matter is under review.” CNN has reached out to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for comment.

A lead student negotiator for protesters at Columbia University has told CNN that protests will continue on the campus despite the school’s request for a police presence.

The university has asked NYPD to maintain its presence on campus until May 17.

“I’m very confident that students will continue this movement even after all this brutality against them,” negotiator Mahmoud Khalil said, adding that students still have the right to protest despite increased security.

Since negotiations between student protesters and the Columbia University administration began two weeks ago, the university has not viewed them as an anti-war movement, he said. 

“Instead, they dealt with it as an internal student discipline matter. They negotiated with us about bringing food and blankets to the encampment. They refused to acknowledge that this actually is more than that, this is a nationwide movement.

“This is a movement that asks Columbia to divest its investments from the companies that are fuelling the war in Gaza right now,” said Khalil, who is a second-year graduate student at Columbia.

Tensions escalated on campus when officers entered Columbia’s Hamilton Hall, which had been occupied by protesters since the early hours of Tuesday, and dozens were seen being arrested.

Khalil said that “the autonomous group decided to take that building when they felt the university is not answering their demands” and was “alienating” them.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones reports live from Columbia University.

Julia Vargas Jones, a CNN journalist and Columbia Journalism School graduate student, said the university’s request for an on-campus police presence through May 17 will only “dampen the mood even more” as students and their families prepare for graduation.

NYPD swarmed the university Tuesday night after the university authorized them to go into the campus to clear out a building being occupied by protesters. CNN has witnessed dozens of arrests.

“Graduation is May 15. That is my graduation as well. I have family coming from Brazil to come watch me walk across the stage and get my diploma. I hope of course, as everyone does, that this (graduation) can happen,” Jones said.

“But at the same time, is there a climate for celebration, for graduation?” Jones said.

Jones said she’s unsure the climate on campus will be celebratory as graduation nears.

“I spoke to a lot of students on campus today and students were just feeling caught in between. I don’t really see celebration being something we flock to in the coming weeks,” she said. “I’m interested to see who will actually attend graduation.”

Jones said she has not witnessed any violent altercations as she reported from inside Columbia’s campus Tuesday night. After the campus was cleared by NYPD, Jones described the atmosphere as quiet enough to “hear a pin drop.”

NYPD officers used flash-bang grenades to breach Columbia’s Hamilton Hall, which protesters had barricaded themselves inside Tuesday, the police department told CNN.

The building’s doors had been barricaded with chairs, tables and vending machines, and windows had been covered with newspaper, the NYPD said.

When a flash-bang grenade is deployed, it emits a bright flash and a very loud bang, often used to shock and disorient. 

Video posted by NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry shows officers searching a bookshelf-lined office after busting the door’s lock with a hammer.

Another video shows officers packing a stairwell and passing chairs to one another.

At least 50 officers had earlier used an elevated ramp to climb into the building through a window. 

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Columbia University’s property has been cleared, the New York Police Department told CNN, less than two hours after officers entered the school’s campus in Morningside Heights.

Hamilton Hall has also been cleared, the NYPD says, and nobody was wounded during the operation. 

The NYPD is still monitoring different locations for protesters across the city, they said.

The New York Police Department entered the Columbia University campus late Tuesday evening after receiving a letter from the university authorizing them to go into the campus, a law enforcement source familiar with the situation told CNN. 

Officers entered Hamilton Hall, which had been occupied by protesters since the early morning hours Tuesday.

Dozens of people have been arrested.

NYPD officers use a special vehicle to enter Columbia University's Hamilton Hall, which has been occupied by student protesters in New York on Tuesday.

Police detain a protester.

A NYPD bus transports people detained at Columbia University.

Police stand guard on campus at Columbia University.

Protesters walk with barricades as police maintain a cordon around campus.

NYPD officers in riot gear march onto the Columbia University campus.

University of Southern California President Carol Folt has again met with protesters from the encampment on campus, but no agreement was reached. 

“We brought some very specific proposals that would address concerns they had about the endowment, which they have said is one of their most important issues,” a statement from Folt said Tuesday. 

“I deeply respect the passion they feel for their cause and recognize the pain and suffering taking place in our own community as well as in the Middle East. Unfortunately, they seemed more interested in having me issue a political statement in support of their viewpoint as opposed to coming up with practical solutions to resolve the situation.”

This was the second meeting between protesters and Folt.

NYPD officers set fences near Columbia University where pro-Palestinian students are barricaded inside a building and have set up an encampment in New York City on April 30, 2024.

Columbia University has asked the NYPD to maintain a presence on campus through at least May 17 — two days after the school’s commencement — “to maintain order and ensure encampments are not reestablished,” according to a letter sent by university President Minouche Shafik to the NYPD.

The letter was sent to NYPD Deputy Commissioner Michael Gerber earlier Tuesday to formally request that police clear a large protester encampment and Hamilton Hall, a university building that has been occupied by students protesting Israel’s war in Gaza. 

The New York Police Department action on Columbia’s Hamilton Hall Tuesday evening comes 56 years after police took action on student protests in the same building, according to Columbia Daily Spectator archives.

More than 700 people were arrested on April 30, 1968, after protesting the Vietnam War and other issues. Hamilton Hall, which police entered through tunnels, was among five occupied buildings cleared by police.

“TO BE CLEAR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HAS CALLED THE COPS ONTO ITS OWN STUDENTS FOR THE SECOND TIME IN TWO WEEKS, ON THE 56TH ANNIVERSARY OF WHEN THEY LAST CALLED THE POLICE ONTO CAMPUS TO ARREST OVER 700 PROTESTING THE VIETNAM WAR & HARLEM GENTRIFICATION ON APRIL 30TH, 1968,” Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine posted on X Tuesday night.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall in protest against Israel’s war in Gaza. Several other student-led movements at the university have occupied Hamilton Hall, built in 1907 and containing multiple language departments, to take an escalated stance against a war.

In 1985, Columbia University students protesting South Africa’s apartheid regime and demanding the university divest from business in South Africa chained the doors to Hamilton Hall shut and blocked the entrance for nearly a month.

The university threatened to expel students and sent out disciplinary notices, as community leaders such as Jesse Jackson and Desmond Tutu expressed their solidarity with the students, according to the Global Nonviolent Action Database. Immediately after the blockade ended, university trustees agreed to consider divesting the university’s $39 million portfolio of stocks in US companies doing business in South Africa.

Later that year, Columbia became the first Ivy League school to agree to divest holdings in companies that supported South Africa.

Columbia University students also occupied Hamilton Hall in 1972 in protests against the Vietnam War, and again in 1992 and 1996. 

The NYPD has told reporters that the department used “distraction devices” during their response to the protest at Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall on Tuesday night, refuting reports that tear gas may have been used.

The NYPD uses flash-bang grenades or other methods to surprise and distract people, a spokesperson said. When a flash-bang grenade is deployed, it emits a bright flash and a very loud bang, often used to shock and disorient. 

The NYPD would not elaborate on the so-called distraction devices or confirm arrest numbers to CNN at this time.

Dozens of people have been arrested during the police response tonight, CNN has observed.

NYPD officers arrest people at Columbia University in New York on Tuesday.

CNN observed dozens of people arrested at Columbia University on Tuesday night after New York Police Department officers entered the campus.

Those who were arrested were zip-tied and escorted to buses.

The demonstrators who broke into Hamilton Hall on Tuesday were led by people not affiliated with Columbia University, according to a university spokesperson.

“We regret that protesters have chosen to escalate the situation through their actions. After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice. Columbia public safety personnel were forced out of the building, and a member of our facilities team was threatened. We will not risk the safety of our community or the potential for further escalation,” the spokesperson said in a statement outlining the New York Police Department’s arrival on campus Tuesday evening.

The University of California, Los Angeles, is adding more “security presence” near a pro-Palestinian encampment and taking “several immediate actions,” Chancellor Gene D. Block said in a statement Tuesday.

The university said it will add “greater numbers of law enforcement officers, safety personnel and student affairs mitigators” and ask law enforcement to investigate “recent acts of violence,” according to the statement. A student conduct process was also started that “could lead to disciplinary action including suspension or expulsion,” Block said. 

“Many of the demonstrators, as well as counter-demonstrators who have come to the area, have been peaceful in their activism,” Block said. “But the tactics of others have frankly been shocking and shameful. We have seen instances of violence completely at odds with our values as an institution dedicated to respect and mutual understanding. In other cases, students on their way to class have been physically blocked from accessing parts of the campus.”

Barriers placed by protesters have been removed and university staff are on-site to make sure they do not go back up, the statement said. 

“UCLA supports peaceful protest, but not activism that harms our ability to carry out our academic mission and makes people in our community feel bullied, threatened and afraid,” Block said. “These incidents have put many on our campus, especially our Jewish students, in a state of anxiety and fear.”

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The New York Police Department just entered Columbia’s Hamilton Hall through a second-floor window.

Live pictures and video show at least 50 officers using an elevated ramp to climb into the building through a window. Most were wearing helmets and some were carrying heavy-duty bolt cutters and flexi-cuffs, a zip-tie-like restraint cuff.

Protesters breached Hamilton Hall in the early morning hours of Tuesday. They barricaded and locked doors at the entrance.

Several protesters at Columbia University were seen being taken into custody just off campus at 116th and Amsterdam in New York.

Scores of New York Police Department officers in riot gear could be seen coming down Amsterdam toward protesters, drawing audible boos from the crowd.

Officers were also standing shoulder to shoulder in front of the gate at 116th and Amsterdam.

Police tell students to go inside the dorms at Columbia University in New York on Tuesday.

New York City Police officers crowded the streets outside Columbia University’s campus Tuesday night and began ordering students who had come out of their off-campus dorms to go back inside.

In one dorm building near the campus, police and students pushed against each other until the students retreated into the dorm entrance.

People can be heard in one video yelling and booing as police stream around a street corner.

Protestors had barricaded doors around Hamilton Hall on campus, which they had been occupying.

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Members of the NYPD could be seen in live pictures on CNN entering the Columbia University campus.

This comes after the New York Police Department received a letter from Columbia University authorizing them to go into the campus, a law enforcement source familiar with the situation told CNN. 

“The operation at Columbia University has commenced. All credentialed media members must convene with DCPI personnel at West 114th Street and Broadway, or they will be escorted from the area,” NYPD press said in a statement.

Police arrested 16 people after taking over and vandalizing the University of New Mexico Student Union Building early Tuesday morning, according to university officials.

Palestinian supporters had been protesting peacefully at the UNM Duck Pond since last week, according to UNM spokesperson Steve Carr in an email to CNN.

More than two dozen protesters attempted to camp inside and occupy the Student Union Building (SUB) around 6:30 p.m. local time Monday night, according to Carr.

“They remained unlawfully in the building past closing time and proceeded to vandalize the building, damaging furniture, walls, and doors, writing graffiti with markers, paint, and chalk, on the walls, on banisters, in bathrooms, and more,” he said in the email.

According to Carr, some protesters barricaded doors with chairs and tables.

“Beyond this property damage in the SUB, graffiti was spray-painted across campus. Students who were trying to study in the SUB were also verbally harassed,” he said.

New Mexico State Police and UNM police began removing tents and escorting protesters out of the building around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, Carr said.

CNN reached out to New Mexico State Police but has not heard back.

In a university statement released Tuesday, officials said the “takeover” of the student union building is “not acceptable,” 

“What began as protest ended in criminal acts,” the statement said. “Those who occupied the building were not peacefully protesting, they were engaged in criminal activity by entering, remaining in, and damaging the SUB after its closing hours.”

NYPD officers gather near Columbia University in New York on Tuesday.

The New York Police Department expects to have a letter from Columbia University, asking for them to clear out the protesters from the campus encampment within the next hour or two, according to a law enforcement official, though they cautioned that the situation is fluid.

Officers are strapping on their tactical gear and devising strategies while they wait for Columbia to send them the letter, the official said.

NYPD officers have also made arrests at the encampment of nearby City College of New York, the official said.

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Columbia University’s Emergency Management Operations Team just sent the following email to students:

“Shelter in place for your safety due to heightened activity on the Morningside campus. Non-compliance may result in disciplinary action. Avoid the area until further notice.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters are confronted by police at the University of Texas in Austin on Monday.

Attempts to shut down or disrupt campus operations “will not be tolerated,” University of Texas System Board of Regents Chairman Kevin P. Eltife said in a statement Tuesday.  

“There is no rationale whatsoever that justifies the endangerment of our students and campus environments,” Eltife said. “Massive crowds of students, along with outside groups with absolutely no connection to UT, have intentionally caused disturbances with plans to harm our campus community.” 

“While free speech is fundamental to our educational institutions, it is violated when it includes threats to campus safety and security or refusal to comply with institutional policies and law,” the statement continued. “At UT Austin, I have been working closely with President Hartzell on decisions to protect its entire campus community, and we will not acquiesce on those protections under any circumstance.”

Eltife thanked campus police as well as the Texas Department of Public Safety, and stressed that students who violate campus policies or those not affiliated with the campus who break the law “are fully prosecuted.” 

Of 79 people who were arrested on the University of Texas-Austin campus Monday, 45 were not affiliated with the campus, school officials told CNN. 

“Nothing is more important than the safety of our students, and we will not hesitate again to use all resources available to us to keep them safe and our UT campuses open,” Eltife said. 

About 77% of Barnard College faculty who participated in a vote said they have no confidence in the leadership of the school’s president, Laura Ann Rosenbury, according to a statement Tuesday from the Barnard College chapter of the American Association of University Professors. 

A memorandum on the no-confidence vote on Rosebury shared with CNN cites four main issues: disregard for student wellbeing, disregard for academic freedom, administrative dysfunction and violations of shared governance. 

Barnard is both an independently incorporated educational institution and an official college of Columbia University, according to the school’s website.

Out of 409 eligible faculty members, 228 members voted “agree” to the no-confidence vote, 56 members voted “disagree” and 12 members voted to abstain, the group said in an email. 

In response to the vote, a statement from Barnard College said they are aware of the vote and share the faculty’s “commitment to free speech and academic freedom.”

NYPD officers arrive near Columbia University where pro-Palestinian students are barricaded inside a building and have set up an encampment in New York City on April 30, 2024.

Hundreds of officers from the New York Police Department’s Strategic Response Group have just arrived outside Columbia University’s campus on Broadway.

The group responds to citywide mobilizations, civil disorders, and major events with highly trained personnel and specialized equipment, according to the NYPD. They also respond to other incidents, including crime suppression, protests, shootings, bank robberies and other incidents, according to the NYPD.

At least half of the demonstrators on the Columbia University campus are not affiliated with the university, a law enforcement official tells CNN.  

The number of protesters on campus fades and surges depending on what’s going on, anywhere from 250 to 400 people, the official said.

While there is no official request from Columbia for New York Police Department assistance, teams of officers around the city are preparing to go in once word is given from the university, the official said.

Protesters camp outside Hamilton Hall on Columbia University's campus in New York on Tuesday.

The New York Police Department has no timetable to respond to the Columbia University campus amid protests, but they are ready to assist whenever needed.

“We’re in constant dialogue with the officials at Columbia University, so right now there is no timetable, we have no letters from them, we are here ready to assist them whenever they need our help,” NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry described how authorities would respond if needed on campus.

“We’re going to treat them just like when we went into NYU, when we went into Columbia the first time, there were no incidents,” Daughtry said. “Our officers went in there and performed admirably as they were under attack by bottles, chairs, tables, so we expect that.”

Officers would need to review specific facts to determine what charges might be brought against protestors they arrest, according to Rebecca Weiner, deputy commissioner of the NYPD”s intelligence and counterterrorism.

The individuals inside Hamilton Hall could be charged with burglary in the third degree, criminal mischief and trespassing, Daughtry said. Protesters in the encampments outside could be charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct, he added.

A prominent activist once described as “the nation’s best known protest consultant” confirmed to CNN she was the woman in widely viewed videos on social media where she was shown advising demonstrators how to protest inside the gates of Columbia University earlier this week.

Lisa Fithian, who has a long history of participating in protests worldwide, told CNN in a brief interview Tuesday that she joined students as they gathered in front of Hamilton Hall and advised them on effective, nonviolent protest strategies.  

A video taken late Monday evening shows her directing students to use zip ties to secure a table to one of the doors of Hamilton Hall. Fithian said she’s seen tables like this being used to shove people, so securing it to the door was meant as a safety measure.  

Even though Columbia restricted access to its campus on Monday, only allowing certain students and press to enter, Fithian said she had no trouble getting onto university grounds, but wouldn’t say which entrance she used. She also said she isn’t affiliated with – or paid by – any group and came to Columbia’s campus on her own accord.

Videos of Fithian were posted on social media this week and have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

Portland State University President Ann Cudd asked protesting students to voluntarily leave the university library they are occupying and said the university is in touch with police about removing students.

“I’m willing to talk to you, to enter into a constructive dialogue with you. We cannot, however, allow the continued occupation of Millar library. That’s just plain and simple. We’ve asked the Portland Police Bureau to help us to remove the occupiers from the library,” Cudd said in an Instagram post. 

No deadline had been given to protesters to leave the building, a public information officer for the Portland Police said. Police said the department is collaborating with PSU “and other city bureaus” but would not discuss “our tactical planning process.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks at a news conference on Tuesday.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams warned that “external actors” are causing public safety issues in the protests around Columbia University, and urged protesters Tuesday night to “leave the area now.”

“They are actively creating serious public safety issues at these protests. Maybe some of the students involved don’t understand what they are involved in,” Adams said. “We urge those and everyone else violating Columbia’s order to leave the area and leave the area now.”

Adams said the city can’t wait until the situation becomes more serious, it “must end now.”

He called on the parents of protesting students to call their children “and urge them to leave the area before the situation escalates in any way.”

At least 36 protesters were detained at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill on Tuesday morning, according to the school.

Six of the protesters were arrested and taken to the Orange County Magistrates Office where they were charged with trespassing, the university said. They were later released with a written promise to appear.

Three of the six are UNC students, while the other three are not affiliated with the school.

The other 30 protesters were cited for trespassing and released on-site, according to the university. Ten were UNC students and 20 were not affiliated with the university.

Previously the university had said 13 were students and 17 were not affiliated with the school.

This post has been updated with the latest numbers from UNC.

Five people were arrested during a demonstration on Florida State University’s campus on Tuesday afternoon, the school told CNN. The university is in Tallahassee.

“Anyone who was arrested today made a conscious choice to engage in unlawful conduct,” FSU officials said in a statement.

Two of the five individuals are current FSU students, the school said. The demonstration of a “small group” was held on Landis Green for multiple days.

“The university’s rules and regulations had been explained repeatedly over several days and the group had been compliant until this afternoon,” the school said. “Today’s arrests occurred after the individuals ignored multiple requests and warnings to comply with a lawful order.”

School officials say they will continue to enforce university rules and any violence, disruption of exams, destruction of property, intimidation, threats and harassment will be handled by law enforcement or campus officials.

People gather at the gates of Columbia University in support of protesters who barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall in New York on Tuesday.

Protests on college campuses surrounding the Israel-Hamas war continued on Tuesday, stretching into their second week – just as many universities wrap up the spring semester and prepare for graduation ceremonies in the coming weeks.

More than 1,000 people have been arrested by law enforcement on various campuses.

A central demand of protesters is for universities to divest from Israel-linked companies that they say are profiting from the war in Gaza.

Here’s what you should know:

Classes canceled on last day:

Students occupy buildings:

More arrests and developments:

CNN is monitoring campus protests and will continue to update this map with any new arrests.

Columbia University alumni are demanding school officials immediately end the occupation of Hamilton Hall and take strong action to restore order on campus.

“The University must act forcefully and decisively to end the anarchy that has been allowed to overtake and endanger the Columbia campus,” alumni wrote in an open letter to Columbia Preisdent Minouche Shafik. “Anything less than the full enforcement of laws and policies signals a surrender of Columbia’s fundamental identity.”

The letter calls for Shafik to request assistance from the New York Police Department if necessary. It also demands that all students occupying Hamilton Hall be expelled and participating professors placed on “administrative suspension.”

The statement said Columbia alumni “of good conscience stand united with” the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association “in horror” over the situation on campus.

The letter adds that the takeover of Hamilton Hall “has crossed an indefensible line far beyond legitimate protest.”

A similar statement dated Monday calling for “meaningful action” received about 2,080 signatures as of 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, according to organizers. By Tuesday evening, more than 2,500 alumni signatures were collected in total, though it’s unclear how many support the latest statement. 

CNN has not independently verified who signed the statements nor their relation to Columbia.

Alumni from the University of Pennsylvania have circulated a similar open letter addressed to its interim university president, Larry Jameson, detailing alleged incidents of antisemitism on Penn’s campus and calling for the end of that school’s pro-Palestinian encampment.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said Tuesday the students who breached Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in the early morning hours should face disciplinary action from the university or law enforcement. 

During an unrelated press conference, Hochul reiterated her support for peaceful student protests but underscored vandalism, harassment and destruction of property meant a “line has been crossed.” 

“[Protesters] forced staff from their jobs, students from the security of using buildings, they broke windows, barricaded exits, and these individuals are clearly breaking the law,” Hochul said. “There must be accountability, whether that’s disciplinary action from the school or from law enforcement.”   

As other universities cancel plans for commencements due to campus protests, Hochul said her administration has offered support to figure out a way for in-person graduation to move forward with proper security measures in place.

“Every student deserves to celebrate at a commencement,” Hochul said. “We have seen across the country, other schools have canceled commencements denying these students who were also denied the opportunity to walk across their stage four years ago because of the pandemic as high school students. They have the right to graduate.” 

Travis County prosecutor Delia Garza speaks at a press conference on Tuesday.

Travis County prosecutor Delia Garza on Tuesday called for University of Texas-Austin leadership to initiate a compromise with student protest organizers, as police presence on campus and arrests are “dwindling” law enforcement resources.

Nearly 80 people were arrested on campus Monday and Garza’s office is processing at least 65 criminal trespass cases, she said.

“While we understand the safety concerns of the university, continuing to send protesters to jail on criminal trespass charges — one of the lowest level non-violent crimes our office is presented with – is putting a tremendous strain on our criminal justice resources,” Garza said.

The attorney explained that her office is working to process the “large volume” of cases that has caused “a delay on normal, everyday processes,” and that magistrates are working to determine eligibility for release. 

“When large numbers of APD officers are sent to assist and round up protesters for criminal trespass charges, that means less officers available for other calls, like domestic violence and assaults,” Garza said.

She added that she is “deeply concerned” by how demonstrations can escalate when people believe they are being prevented from being able to exercise their right to peaceful protest. 

“It is not the role of the criminal justice system to jail people for conduct that has not yet occurred or that might occur, nor is it the role to assist our governor in efforts to suppress non-violent and peaceful demonstrations,” she said. 

For now, Garza said the cases her office have reviewed so far will remain active, as they work to determine the most appropriate course of action.

President Joe Biden condemned the “ferocious surge of antisemitism” that many Jewish Americans face in a proclamation Tuesday for Jewish American Heritage Month. 

“Here at home, too many Jews live with deep pain and fear from the ferocious surge of antisemitism – in our communities; at schools, places of worship, and colleges; and across social media,” Biden said in the statement. “It is our shared moral responsibility to forcefully stand up to antisemitism and to make clear that hate can have no safe harbor in America.”

In the statement, Biden also said that his administration continues to work to secure the release of hostages being held by Hamas and reach a ceasefire deal. 

“My Administration is working around the clock to free the hostages who have been held by Hamas for over half a year; as I have said to their families, we will not rest until we bring them home,” he wrote. “We are also leading international efforts to deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid to Gaza and an immediate ceasefire as part of a deal that releases hostages and lays the groundwork for an enduring two-state solution.”  

An occupier waving a Palestinian flag at Columbia University emerged onto the roof of Hamilton Hall Tuesday and was met with cheers and chants from the crowd below protesting off campus.

Students occupying the hall face expulsion, the university said in a statement Tuesday. “Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation … and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday,” university spokesperson Ben Chang said.

A protester waves a Palestinian flag from the roof of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York on Tuesday.

At least one student who was arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the University of Georgia on Monday has been suspended from the school the student says.  

In an email obtained by CNN, the university notified “Ezra” Lewis that they had been suspended over UGA “Code of Conduct” regulations, after participating in an on-campus protest that “violated the University’s Policy on Freedom of Expression.”

The letter alleges Lewis “intentionally or recklessly” disrupted the normal operations of the university when they participated in an encampment set-up on the school’s campus on Monday. 

Lewis, a third-year student at UGA, received the suspension notification just hours after being arrested by authorities at UGA. They said the email notification gave them roughly two minutes to leave campus or face being arrested again. 

“It’s so crazy to me that the university would turn their back on us,” Lewis told CNN in an interview on Tuesday. Lewis fears further reprisal from the university for speaking out on the arrest and related suspension, which Lewis plans on appealing. 

“They have touted my name around as a diversity and inclusion person,” Lewis said, in rebuke of the school’s decision, adding that the university has used their image in “every single website” and “on campus walls” for their multiple academic accomplishments. 

Lewis, an honors student, is the President of Zeta Phi Beta sorority. They were also one of the first recipients of a scholarship from the Landscape Architecture Foundation given to people of color, according to a release from UGA. 

According to jail records, Lewis was charged with one count of criminal trespass, a misdemeanor. They have since posted bond and been released from jail. 

On Monday, UGA told CNN at least 25 people were arrested after setting-up in an encampment on campus. A University spokesperson said the protests violated school policy, and that the arrests were made after “multiple warnings” were given to the group to disperse. 

Lewis said that authorities used “a crazy amount of force,” during the arrests. 

UGA has not responded to requests for comments about the suspensions on Tuesday. 

Lewis told CNN that the group didn’t take out a permit to protest in an act of “civil disobedience.” They added that the protest was in solidarity with Palestine, and in tandem with protests on other colleges and universities across the country.

They demand that UGA disclose and divest from companies that support Israel, protection for students on campus and to stand in solidarity with Palestine. Protesters are also specifically demanding divestment in the school’s study abroad programs in Tel Aviv. 

Black students wait in vain for food service at this F.W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 20, 1960. 

Segregation sit-ins  

While student protests for racial equality gained the most traction in the 1960s, some of the first demonstrations against segregation took place decades before.   

In the 1940s, students at Howard University began practicing what they called a “stool-sitting technique” where students would go to restaurants that denied Black people service and remain seated. 

Civil Rights protests  

Students across the country protested to demand racial equality in admissions, curriculum that reflected diverse perspectives and more people of color on the faculty.  

A Black Students Union leader rallies a crowd of demonstrators at San Francisco State College in December 1968. The union had gone on strike after racial strife between students and administration. 

In one case, in 1968, the Black Student Union at San Francisco State University led a strike that shut down the university. The administration cancelled classes over three months, according to the university’s website. 

Vietnam anti-war protests  

The 1960s and 1970s saw a rise in anti-war protests on campuses.  

Students demanded the Vietnam war’s end and spoke out against the military draft.  

Police use tear gas and night sticks to break up anti-war demonstrations at the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison, Oct. 18, 1967. 

In 1970, four students were killed and nine others were wounded at Kent State University when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on protesters.   

The South African apartheid divestment movement  

Between the 1960s and 1980s, US student activists led a movement to pressure universities to cut financial ties with companies doing business with South Africa’s apartheid government. 

University of Pennsylvania students burn mock passbooks, like those carried by Black South Africans, at a rally to demand the university divest from South Africa's apartheid government on Feb. 10, 1986. 

Students successfully pressured universities, including in New York, California and North Carolina, to sever financial ties. 

Black Lives Matter movement  

College students across the country have played a key role in the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement following the deaths of Trayvon Martin in 2012 and Michael Brown in 2014. 

Students stage a "die in" at Washington University to draw attention to police violence against unarmed Black men on December 1, 2014, in St. Louis, Missouri. 

The movement demands an end to police violence against Black men. 

In 2020, the police killing of George Floyd sparked unrest across the country and many students joined the protests that swept the nation. 

 Read more.  

GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blasted the escalations of pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses across the country, pointing to specific pro-terrorist and antisemitic hate speech. 

The Republican leader tied the current campus protests back to student protests in the US in the 1960s as well as to young Nazis in Germany in the early 20th century. 

“Of course, today’s campus radicals did not invent this brand of aggressive lawlessness. Here in the United States they trace their roots back to the 1960s,” he said Tuesday. “Other countries too have had their own infamous histories of student intimidation and violence; most notoriously, the student Nazis of Weimar, Germany. This is about dangerous, radical politics.”

McConnell went on to blast Ivy League universities for having a “short supply” of basic comprehension of history, theology and geography.

“So-called elite universities aren’t just in the news for the well-documented decline in academic rigor. They’re not drawing their nation’s attention just because another generation of students has decided to test the limits of the First Amendment with grotesque hate,” he said. “No, they’re in the news because weakness and inaction from campus leaders has allowed universities to become cauldrons of criminal chaos.”

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has canceled the last day of classes and non-mandatory operations, the school said in a social media post.

The decision came after police at the university broke up protests.

The demonstrations became physical, with police physically pushing back pro-Palestinian protesters after the group breached barricades surrounding the school’s flagpole and replaced the American flag with a Palestinian one.

Protesters were throwing water bottles at the officers as police and counterprotesters raised the American flag on the pole. Police at UNC deployed a chemical irritant against the crowd of protesters.

Protesters then attempted to lower the American flag again. Other students gathered around the flag to hold it and prevent it from being taken off the pole.

According to the school’s website, Tuesday was meant to be the last day of classes at the university.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks on the Senate floor on Tuesday in Washington, DC.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer addressed the growing pro-Palestinian protests across college campuses, saying, “Smashing windows with hammers, taking over university buildings, is not free speech. It is lawlessness.”

Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said the protesters who caused damages on campus property should “promptly face the consequences that are not merely a slap on the wrist.” He underscored that universities and college campus should be places where free speech, strong disagreement and open dialogue are cherished.

But “campuses cannot be places of learning and argument and discussion when protests veer into criminality,” he said. “And those who commit such acts are doing nothing to convince others that their cause is just.”

Police at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill push back protesters on Tuesday.

The situation at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has turned physical, with police physically pushing back pro-Palestinian protesters, as witnessed by a CNN crew.  

Student protesters chanting and waving Palestinian flags breached barricades and surrounded the flagpole in the school’s quad area. Protesters then took down the campus’ American flag and replaced it with a Palestinian flag.

While being pushed the protesters are chanting, “the people united will never be defeated.”

The confrontations come as protesters backtracked their commitment to comply with university policies. Roughly 30 have also been detained Tuesday morning, after refusing the university’s demand to vacate their encampment.

Video from CNN affiliate WRAL showed police moving in on the encampment early this morning, with some people being bound with zip ties. 

Since April 18, more than 1,000 people have been arrested on college and university campuses from coast to coast as schools prepare for spring commencement ceremonies.

Protesters have been arrested on more than 25 campuses across at least 21 states. However, many other schools have experienced protests without arrests.

CNN is monitoring campus protests and will continue to update this map with any new arrests.

House Education Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina on Tuesday called for the presidents of Yale University, UCLA and the University of Michigan to testify before Congress on campus antisemitism.

It’s not clear if any of the university presidents will agree to appear at the hearing, which is scheduled for May 23.

This would be the third hearing held by the committee and the first since college campuses across the country were rocked by pro-Palestinian demonstrations. 

“No stone must go unturned while buildings are being defaced, campus greens are being captured or graduations are being ruined,” Foxx said during a news conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson in Washington. “College is not a park for play-acting juveniles or a battleground for radical activists. Everyone affiliated with these universities will receive a healthy dose of reality: actions have consequences.”

Representatives from Yale, UCLA and the University of Michigan were not immediately available for comment on the hearing.

Yale announced Tuesday that all protesters left the encampment on campus after the university threatened suspensions and arrests. 

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik testified before Foxx’s hearing earlier this month just as unrest on campus started to escalate significantly.

The first antisemitism hearing was held in December with the then-presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania as well as the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That hearing went so poorly that Penn President Liz Magill stepped down days later and Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned in January amid a plagiarism scandal. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Tuesday in Washington, DC.

House Speaker Mike Johnson announced Tuesday that Republicans are launching “a House-wide effort to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses” at a news conference with other top GOP lawmakers.

The announcement comes as House Republicans have vowed to increase scrutiny of college campuses by expanding investigation and oversight across multiple committees.

“We will hold these universities accountable for their failure to protect Jewish students on campus,” Johnson said. “That’s why today we’re here to announce a House-wide effort to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses. Nearly every committee here has a role to play in these efforts to stop the madness that has ensued.”

Oklahoma Rep. Frank Lucas, a Republican and chairman of the House Science Committee, said, “It’s time we review whether universities that allow the harassment, assault or intimidation of their Jewish students are in compliance with their federal obligations.”

“As a part of the conditions of receiving taxpayer dollars through the NSF, universities must comply with Title six of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin. School like Columbia and UC Berkeley annually received more than $50 million each in NSF grants,” he said.

Protesters celebrate reaching a deal with the administration at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on Tuesday.

Brown University student protesters have reached an agreement to disband their encampment after the university agreed to hold a vote on divestment from companies that support Israel, according to the protest group.

“This is an unprecedented win,” a release from the student group said. “This vote is a major concession that affirms the power of our encampment and the national movement of student encampments for Palestine.”

The Ivy League university agreed to the vote on a divestment resolution, after protesters negotiated with the administration over the last two days, according to the student group.

As part of the agreement, the protesters have agreed to end their encampment by 5 pm this evening, according to the release. 

“Although the encampment will end, organizing to ensure that the Brown administration fulfills our calls to act on divestment will continue until the Corporation vote in October,” the group said in their statement. 

In a statement, Brown President Christina H. Paxson said that students agreed to end the encampment and “refrain from further actions that would violate Brown’s conduct code through the end of the academic year, which includes Commencement and Reunion Weekend.”

“The University agreed that five students will be invited to meet with five members of the Corporation of Brown University in May to present their arguments to divest Brown’s endowment from ‘companies enabling and profiting from the genocide in Gaza,’” according to the statement. The president will ask an advisory committee to give a recommendation by September 30.

The headline of this post has been updated to indicate the university is agreeing to hold a vote on divestment.

Protesters hold umbrellas as they move supplies into Hamilton Hall in New York on Tuesday.

One of Columbia University’s main student protest groups claims an “autonomous group” has “reclaimed” the university’s Hamilton Hall overnight, with intentions of remaining in the building until Columbia meets their demands of “divestment, financial transparency, and amnesty,” a statement from Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) released Tuesday said.

“Taking back our own campus is the only and last response to an institution that obeys neither its own ‘rules’ nor ethical mandates, which is why we began the Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” the statement added.

Mahmoud Khalil, the lead negotiator of CUAD, told CNN he left Columbia’s campus Tuesday morning before 4 a.m. ET and received a suspension notice soon after.

He said the group occupying Hamilton Hall is not CUAD, but that it includes some of its members.

Khalil said dozens of CUAD members remain in the encampment on campus, adding he did not know how many members were in Hamilton Hall.

“It’s up to the university what happens next,” he said. “It’s the university’s responsibility to come back to the negotiation table.”

All the protesters at Yale University have chosen to leave the campus encampment after the university demanded students must end their actions or face discipline, including suspension for violating university rules and arrest for trespassing. 

“All the protesters chose to leave the encampment, and the university is in the process of clearing tents and other items from the area,” a statement from Yale said. “Yale fully supports peaceful protests and freedom of speech; however, claiming control of our shared space is inconsistent with our principles and values.”

According to the university, some protesters remained near the area and on nearby streets Monday morning after leaving the encampment, but no arrests were made.

The Columbia University students who have been occupying Hamilton Hall now face expulsion, the university said in a statement Tuesday.

“We made it very clear yesterday that the work of the University cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules. Continuing to do so will be met with clear consequences,” university spokesperson Ben Chang said in the statement. “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.”

The statement said that restoring order and safety is the administration’s top priority, noting that the disciplinary actions are not political.

“This is about responding to the actions of the protesters, not their cause,” Chang said.

The university also said the demonstrations have created disruptions on campus. Many Columbia students are headed into final exam week, which marks the end of Spring 2024 term.

“Disruptions on campus have created a threatening environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty and a noisy distraction that interferes with teaching, learning, and preparing for final exams, and contributes to a hostile environment in violation of Title VI,” the university statement said.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a media briefing on Tuesday in New York.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday he is in “daily communication” with Columbia University leadership, as pro-Palestinian protests on continue to unfold on campus.

Speaking at his weekly media briefing, Adams said the NYPD is standing by in the event that university administrators request help handling protesters inside the campus.

“We’re going to respect their right to determine when they want police involvement and when they ask us, we’re going to carry out the necessary exercises to do it with the minimum amount of force and to not harm faculty, students or the law enforcement personnel,” Adams said. 

CNN reported Tuesday Columbia University has not made any official requests for police assistance so far. Overnight, Columbia University protesters breached the entrance into Hamilton Hall and moved metal gates to barricade the doors. Protesters also blocked entrances and zip-tied doors shut.

For days now, the NYPD has been on the scene around the perimeter of the campus, where Adams said they’re helping monitor entry points and the surrounding streets. 

Columbia students are also currently headed into final exam week marking the end of Spring 2024 term.

“You may have 500 people who are protesting but you have thousands of students who are just trying to pass the final and we can’t allow them not to be able to do their job,” Adams said. “In this city, we can have a duality, people can protest but the city can still function,”

Adams is treading a tightrope — on the one hand, saying he supports student’s right to protest, while on the other, stressing that calls for violence are unacceptable. 

Asked whether he would support Governor Kathy Hochul deploying the National Guard to help with protesters on campus, Adams said he believes the NYPD has done a good job so far and the National Guard is not needed.  

Adams said he is expected to be briefed by the NYPD this afternoon and will meet with the university’s president to determine “next steps.”

The leaders of University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill issued a statement Tuesday afternoon, expressing their disappointment in the way the Pro-Palestinian encampment on campus had to be broken up and assured current students that the protests would not impact graduation.

“We were disappointed that we had to take action this morning regarding protesters, including many who are not members of the Carolina community, who violated state law and University policies that provide for peaceful demonstration,” Interim Chancellor Lee H. Roberts and Provost J. Christopher Clemens wrote.

Their note said while university leaders had been engaged in “constructive conversations” with protest organizers over the weekend, “that changed Sunday evening when protestors backtracked on their commitment to comply with these [reasonable time, manner and place] policies,” and ended the university’s “attempts at constructive dialogue.”

University officials also assured students and families that their commencement ceremony would take place as planned, writing “The Class of 2024 had both their senior year of high school and their first year at Carolina severely disrupted by the pandemic. We want to reassure the Class of 2024 that Commencement will be a joyous day for them and their loved ones and that the Carolina community near and far will celebrate their accomplishments.” 

Thirteen people were “arrested and charged with unlawful assembly and trespassing” during a protest on Virginia Commonwealth University’s campus Monday night, the school said in a statement.

Demonstrators were asked “respectfully and repeatedly” to follow VCU gathering policies, according to a Tuesday campus update, and were issued four mass warnings urging them to leave the encampment after tents and other structures were raised. Some of those who stayed despite orders to leave threw objects and used chemical spray on officers, who utilized pepper spray to disperse the crowd, the university said.

Of the 13 protesters arrested and charged, six were students who will now face the university’s student conduct process, the campus alert read. University officials say the encampment was not permitted under VCU’s “reservation and use of space policy.” The Richmond Police Department, who were joined by VCU and Virginia State Police officers, determined it was an unlawful assembly.

On Monday, dozens of protesters gathered near the university’s library in an area they called a “liberation zone,” according to CNN affiliate WWBT. Video from the affiliate shows officers in riot gear apprehending individuals and throwing one person to the ground while shouting: “Stop resisting. You’re under arrest.”

“While our community cherishes the right to peaceful protest, setting up structures on our campus lawn violated our policy,” VCU President Michael Rao said in a statement Tuesday. “Our staff respectfully and repeatedly asked individuals to comply.”

“As has happened on other campuses around the country, conflict between police and protesters took place,” Rao said. “I deeply appreciate those who peacefully expressed their views and the efforts of our staff during this time.”

A tent is dismantled in an encampment set up on McGill University's campus in Montreal on Tuesday.

Canada’s McGill University has requested police assistance amid pro-Palestinian protests on campus, the university said in a statement on Tuesday.

The decision to request law enforcement for help came after dialogue with student representatives failed to reach a resolution, leading the institute to take the “final step” in its protocol and request police assistance on Monday, according to the statement.

“Police representatives, who have expertise in skillfully resolving situations such as these, have now started their own process. We continue to work with them to resolve the matter,” the university said.

Students have been protesting the war in Gaza at McGill, setting up an encampment since Saturday. The university said it informed the students the protest was not authorized, but that the students chose to remain.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Johns Hopkins University reached an agreement to disperse the encampment that had been set up on campus, according to a university spokesperson. 

“Our priority today was to accommodate a protest while maintaining a safe environment for our community,” a statement released early Tuesday morning said. “The peaceful resolution of today’s events speaks to the value of these principles.”

After an hours-long meeting, Johns Hopkins President Ron Daniels and Provost Ray Jayawardhana and student participants came to a mutual agreement that the encampment would be dismantled overnight and that a peaceful protest would only be allowed from 10 am to 8 pm ET.

A group of around 100 protesters gathered on the university’s Baltimore campus Monday, according to reporting from CNN affiliate WJZ, establishing an encampment of tents, despite being told to leave. Around 1 am, attendees began to collect their supplies peacefully and shut down the encampment.

A university spokesperson noted that though most of the protesters appeared to be students, not all of the approximately 100 demonstrators were affiliated with the university. 

The university joins campuses nationwide that have seen students protest in solidarity with the Palestinian people in opposition to Israel’s attacks, calling on administrators to disclose and divest from investments linked to Israel. 

The university, according to the emailed statement, said it intends to “continue dialogue” with students as protests persist.

“We are immensely relieved at this peaceful and productive resolution, and express our profound appreciation to those who helped reach this agreement,” the statement said.

Students can return to a designated area on “the Beach,” an outdoor gathering space on campus, each day to continue “daytime protest activities” as permitted under Johns Hopkins’ policy, according to the statement from university leaders.

A banner hangs out of a window at Hamilton Hall at Columbia University on Tuesday.

Pro-Palestinian student protesters around the country are illegally occupying college buildings as university officials attempt to break up the encampments that have been a hallmark of campus turmoil over the past two weeks.

Dozens of Columbia students are currently occupying Hamilton Hall, one of the campus buildings also occupied during 1968 student protests.

Across the country, at Cal Poly Humboldt, police say they have cleared buildings occupied by protesters since last week.

On Monday evening, a group of protesters briefly occupied Clio Hall, home of the Graduate School at Princeton University. Thirteen people were arrested, including five undergraduates, six graduate students, one postdoctoral researcher and one person not affiliated with the University, according to a statement from Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber.

Portland State University officials, meanwhile, asked the city’s police department to help remove dozens of protesters who they said had broken into and occupied a university library on Monday evening, blocking campus safety officers from entering the building. Between 50 and 75 people broke into the library building, said Portland police chief Bob Day. He did not indicate when officers would enter the library to remove the protesters.

The White House condemned the takeover of campus buildings on Tuesday morning.

“President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful. Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful — it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America,” Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.

Law enforcement arrested roughly 35 people at the California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, campus in Northern California early Tuesday morning, clearing buildings occupied since last week and “restoring order,” according to an update from the university.

The college recently closed its doors for the rest of the semester amid escalating pro-Palestinian protests on campus, with two buildings — Siemens Hall and Nelson Hall East — occupied by protesters.

At the time of the arrests, the university known as Cal Poly Humboldt issued a shelter-in-place order for students living on campus and urged people living off campus to stay away from the premises due to “continuing criminal activity.”

According to an update from the university, those arrested face a range of charges including unlawful assembly, vandalism, conspiracy, assault of police officers and more. Additionally, the university said students could face discipline for conduct violations while employees could face disciplinary action.

“What was occurring was not free expression or a protest,” the university wrote on their website. “It was criminal activity, and there were serious concerns it would spread even further on campus.”

Before the arrests, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Northern California urged the Cal Poly Humboldt administration to avoid involving law enforcement in the campus protests and to instead “take advantage of every available tool to peacefully reach a resolution with students,” Abdi Soltani, executive director of ACLU Northern California, said in a statement.

The campus closure will remain in place through May 10, the university said, as law enforcement continues to monitor the situation.

“This is a difficult day, it breaks my heart to see it, and truly nobody wanted to see things come to this,” Tom Jackson Jr., Cal Poly Humboldt president, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, serious criminal activity that crossed the line well beyond the level of a protest had put the campus at ongoing risk. I commend the law enforcement team for their effort in resolving this very dangerous situation.”

Protesters have taken over a building at Columbia University, the epicenter of demonstrations that began earlier this month.

Overnight, dozens of protesters on the Morningside Heights campus in New York made their way from the West Lawn encampment to Hamilton Hall, an academic building for undergraduates. They locked arms outside the building, barricading the entrance. 

Yesterday, the university said it had begun suspending students who refused to leave the encampment before a 2 p.m. deadline.

The New York Police Department told CNN it had no plans to enter Columbia without an official request from the university. University officials are advising “members of the University community” to avoid going to the campus if possible.

A protester breaks the windows of the front door of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York in order to secure a chain around it and prevent authorities from entering early Tuesday morning.

Protesters link arms outside Hamilton Hall, barricading students inside the building.

Protesters barricade themselves inside Hamilton Hall.

A member of the maintenance crew confronts a demonstrator inside Hamilton Hall.

Demonstrators lock arms in front of Hamilton Hall.

A Columbia University Public Safety officer confronts protesters inside Hamilton Hall.

Protesters block the entrance of Hamilton Hall.

Demonstrators barricade themselves inside Hamilton Hall.

A banner that reads "intifada," the Arabic word for uprising, hangs from Hamilton Hall after protesters barricaded themselves inside.

Pro-Palestinian protesters are confronted by police at the University of Texas in Austin on Monday.

Nearly 80 people were arrested Monday relating to protests on the campus of the University of Texas-Austin, a jail official tells CNN.

Of the 79 people booked into Travis County Jail, almost all were booked on criminal trespass charges, with one facing an interfering with public duties charge, according to jail spokesperson Kristen Dark.

As of this reporting, none of the arrestees have made their initial appearance in court, she added.

It is unclear how many of those taken into custody are students.

Dark says 95% of those booked were arrested by campus police, the rest of the arrests were made by the Austin Police Department.

And least 80 people were arrested at a protest encampment on the lawn at Virginia Tech’s Graduate Life Center, according to a statement from Tim Sands, the university president. 

“Last night, 82 protesters (largely students) were arrested for trespassing after occupying the Graduate Life Center lawn for three days and repeatedly refusing to comply with university policy and public safety regulations,” Sands said on Monday. “Virginia Tech strongly supports free speech, even when the content of that speech may be disagreeable to some. However, those rights do not extend beyond the point where they interfere with the rights of others, violate our policies, the Code of Virginia, or federal laws and/or create a threat to safety for others.”

The White House says taking over campus buildings is wrong following protests at Columbia University overnight that saw protesters take over a university facility.

“President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful. Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful — it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America,” Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said.

“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,” Bates said.

Columbia University — the epicenter of pro-Palestinian protests in the United States — is advising “members of the University community” to stay away from its main Morningside Heights campus Tuesday as protesters barricade themselves inside Hamilton Hall.

A state trooper pepper sprays pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Texas in Austin on Monday.

Pro-Palestinian protests and encampments on college campuses have entered their second week, as law enforcement arrest hundreds and remaining protesters occupy campus buildings.

At the heart of the demonstrations, protesters are demanding universities to divest from Israel-linked companies that they say are profiting from the war in Gaza.

Here’s what you need to know:

More arrests and developments:

California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, a small college in Northern California, issued a shelter-in-place order for students living on campus, due to “continuing criminal activity” early Tuesday morning, according to the university’s website.

The university now known as Cal Poly Humboldt closed its doors for the rest of the semester amid escalating pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Law enforcement arrived in the early morning hours Tuesday and made some arrests.

The college urges people living off campus to stay away from the premises.

“It is dangerous to be out on campus at this time,” the college website said. “In order to protect life and safety, residents on campus should shelter in place in their residence halls and remain alert to their surroundings.”

Students, faculty, and staff at Columbia were directed to “immediately vacate” Pulitzer Hall, the building housing the university’s journalism school, early Monday citing “safety concerns related to the situation on campus,” a message sent to students early Monday morning read.  

The email noted that all classes will be remote and that “It will not be possible to enter the building. Everyone must leave.”

No further information was provided as to the cause for the evacuation.

The University of North Carolina Police detained roughly 30 people who refused to leave the Pro-Palestinian encampment on campus, after the school issued a demand to vacate the area at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, according to an update from the university. 

At 6 a.m., the university said campus police “calmly approached the group and detained approximately 30 people who refused to leave.” Protesters then attempted to block the UNC Police vehicles by standing in front of them and throwing things at officers, the update said. 

The encampment at Polk Place was cleared in about 45 minutes, according to the UNC update, noting that remaining protesters “escalated their tactics” and attempted to “forcibly enter” UNC’s South Building by shoving officers and refusing to comply. 

Outdoor furniture and ropes secure the front entrance of Hamilton Hall which student protesters barricaded at Columbia University on Tuesday.

The New York Police Department currently has no plans to enter the Columbia University campus, a law enforcement official tells CNN, since the University has not yet made an official request.

Overnight, protesters made their way from the West Lawn encampment to Hamilton Hall. In the last few hours, there has been some destruction of property on the private campus including a smashed glass door. But in order for NYPD to enter and make any type of arrest, it needs a complainant.

The university, as the complainant, would have to call to the police department and request assistance, but the official said they have not yet done so.

Banners are seen hanging from windows of Hamilton Hall on Columbia's campus on Tuesday morning.

A protester breaks the windows of the front door of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York in order to secure a chain around it to prevent authorities from entering early Tuesday morning.

Pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses have entered their second week – just as many universities prepare for graduation ceremonies in the coming weeks.

Hundreds of students have been arrested by law enforcement on various campuses.

A central demand of protesters is for universities to divest from Israel-linked companies that they say are profiting from the war in Gaza.

Here’s what you should know:

More arrests and developments:

Divestment negotiations:

Schools weigh graduation ceremonies:

The blockade at the entrance to the library at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, is seen on Monday.

Portland State University (PSU) officials have asked the city’s police department to help remove dozens of protesters who they said had broken into and occupied a university library on Monday evening, blocking campus safety officers from entering the building.

Between 50 and 75 protesters broke into the library building, said Portland police chief Bob Day. He did not indicate when officers would enter the library to remove the protesters.

Speaking at a press conference Monday evening, Day said the demonstrations had “become a criminal event.”

“(The protest) is no longer considered to be a public order or free speech event, and requires a different type of response,” he said.

Speaking at the same press conference, PSU president Ann Cudd said pro-Palestinian protesters had begun to gather at the campus last week and that by Monday morning the encampment had grown, resulting in damage to property and a risk to safety on campus.

After a peaceful protest Monday afternoon, a group “broke into Millar library, the main PSU library, and entered the building. Other protesters remained outside the building, blocking access,” Cudd said.

The university called in the Portland Police Bureau after campus police were unable to enter the library, she added.

“Given the growing health and safety risk to our campus community, and interference with our university operations, this afternoon we, the PSU leaders, asked the protesters to vacate the library portico,” Cudd said.

The university sent out a campus-wide alert around 7:30 p.m. about police activity at Millar Library, telling people to “avoid the area.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters at the Chapel Hill campus of the University of North Carolina (UNC) are being detained Tuesday morning after the university sent them a demand to vacate their encampment.

Video from CNN affiliate WRAL shows police moving in on the encampment, with some people being bound with zip ties. Others were being kept back from the area by a cordon of police.

UNC-Chapel Hill’s interim chancellor Lee Roberts and provost Christopher Clemens said in a statement Tuesday that student protesters must leave their encampment at the Polk Place quadrangle. The statement was acknowledged by UNC Students for Justice in Palestine in a photo posted to Instagram.

UNC said in its statement: “During events in recent weeks, the student demonstrators abided by our policies. That changed Sunday evening when protesters – including outside activists – backtracked on their commitment to comply with these policies, including trespassing into classroom buildings overnight.”

The statement went on to say:

“By 6 a.m. today the protesters assembled in Polk Place must remove all tents, tables, and other items and depart from the area. Failure to follow this order to disperse will result in consequences including possible arrest, suspension from campus and, ultimately, expulsion from the university, which may prevent students from graduating.”

College campuses across the United States have been roiled by pro-Palestinian protests this month, with nearly all demonstrations calling for universities to divest from Israel in some form. So far, universities have refused to yield to those demands.

What would divestment look like?

Put most simply, divestment is the opposite of investment.

Many universities have an endowment, which is donated funds generally invested in stocks, bonds and other financial instruments to help the university earn money.

At Columbia, a group of students want the college to divest its $13.6 billion endowment from any company linked to Israel, including Microsoft and Amazon. Protesters at other schools, such as Cornell and Yale, want their universities to stop investing in weapons manufacturers.

What are university officials saying?

On Monday, Columbia’s administration reiterated that it would not divest from Israel. Last week, the University of California also said divestment wouldn’t happen.

But some colleges are willing to talk with protesters.

Christina Paxson, president of Brown University, sent a letter to demonstrators saying she would agree to hear a divestment proposal if the school’s encampment were disbanded, according to the student-run newspaper, the Brown Daily Herald.

They’ve been here before.

Columbia students protesting South Africa’s apartheid racial segregation policy in the 1980s called on the school to severe its financial ties with companies doing business in the country.

Columbia eventually voted to sell the majority of its stock in South Africa-connected companies. Other colleges followed suit.

Read more here.

People hang a banner outside of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York in the early hours of Tuesday.

Student protesters occupying Hamilton Hall at Columbia University have displayed banners from a window reading “Intifada,” the Arabic word for an uprising, and “Hind’s Hall,” according to video obtained by CNN.

A student group explained in a statement that “Hind’s Hall” was in honor of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl from Gaza. Rajab and her relatives were found dead in January after being trapped in a car that came under Israeli fire, CNN reported.

Outside Hamilton Hall early Tuesday, students were chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Palestine will live forever,” the video shows.

According to the Columbia Spectator, dozens of student protesters have moved metal gates to barricade the doors to Hamilton Hall, blocking entrances with wooden tables and zip-tying doors shut.

This post has been updated to correct the month Rajab was found dead.

Demonstrators supporting Palestinians in Gaza barricade themselves inside Columbia University's Hamilton Hall in New York City on April 30.

Columbia University officials are advising “members of the University community” to avoid going to the Morningside campus if possible on Tuesday in light of the protesters occupying Hamilton Hall, according to a campus alert from Columbia Public Safety.

“Essential personnel should report to work according to university policy. Please check with your supervisor if you have any questions. Be aware that access to campus and other campus buildings may be restricted,” the alert said.

Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus is located at Broadway and 116th Street in Manhattan and is the main campus for the university. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily briefing at the White House on April 29.

The White House declined Monday to say if President Joe Biden believes that demonstrators who’ve camped out on college campuses across the country to protest the war in Gaza should face disciplinary action.

“These are institutions – some of them are private, some of them are public – and it is up to their leadership, university leadership and colleges, to make that decision,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a daily press briefing. 

Jean-Pierre reiterated the president’s support for the right to peacefully protest while criticizing antisemitic rhetoric and calls for violence. 

She also acknowledged the anguish felt by many Americans as the civilian death toll in Gaza continues to rise: “We get that it is a painful moment that Americans are dealing with, and free expression has to be done within the law.” 

However, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson indicated Friday that he would consider pulling federal funding to college campuses roiled by protests.

“We’re looking at very seriously reducing or eliminating any federal funds at all to campuses who cannot maintain basic safety and security of Jewish students,” the lawmaker said in an interview with Salem news program “This Week on the Hill.”

An anonymous Jewish student alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday that Columbia University is failing to provide a safe learning environment for students during the ongoing pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

The lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, argues the university has “become a place that is too dangerous for Columbia’s Jewish students to receive the education they were promised.”

The complaint, filed against Columbia’s board of trustees in the Southern District of New York, alleges that a subset of protesters have committed acts of violence, harassed Jewish students and faculty members and incited hate speech and acts of violence. 

The lawsuit includes numerous redacted sections to protect the identity of the plaintiff, who is described as a “Jewish student in her second year” and whose education has been disrupted by the hostile environment on campus.

The lawsuit takes particular issue with the decision by Columbia to go to a hybrid learning model last week amid the unrest on campus.

“Jewish students…get a second-class education where they are relegated to their homes to attend classes virtually and stripped of the opportunity to interact meaningfully with other students and faculty and sit for examinations with their peers,” the lawsuit said. “The segregation of Jewish students is a dangerous development that can quickly escalate into more severe acts of violence and discrimination.”

Columbia declined to comment on the lawsuit. 

The university’s president Minouche Shafik acknowledged in a statement Monday that many Jewish students and other students have “found the atmosphere intolerable in recent weeks.”

“Many have left campus, and that is a tragedy. To those students and their families, I want to say to you clearly: You are a valued part of the Columbia community,” Shafik said.

At least 200 student protesters at Columbia University have barricaded the entrance to Hamilton Hall and about a dozen are inside the campus building.  

CNN’s John Towfighi —​ a Columbia University student — said there is no visible law enforcement at the scene.

Overnight, protesters on campus made their way from the West Lawn encampment to Hamilton Hall. The hall is one of the university’s main academic buildings for undergraduates and is where the dean’s office is located.

Aerial footage from Freedom News TV overnight showed several dozen people crowded onto the steps of Hamilton Hall. Several people could be seen inside the building and a Palestinian flag was draped out of one window.

The building is symbolic for the university. In 1968, students occupied the building while protesting the school’s ties to the war in Vietnam. It was again occupied by student protesters in the 1980s as part of the South Africa Apartheid Divestment Movement.

See the aerial footage showing outside Hamilton Hall here:

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Dozens of Columbia University students are occupying Hamilton Hall, one of the campus buildings occupied during 1968 student protests, according to a social media post early Tuesday from Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine. 

Overnight, protesters on campus made their way from the West Lawn encampment to Hamilton Hall, one of the main academic buildings for undergraduates.

Hours earlier, the university announced it had begun suspending students who refused to leave the encampment before a 2 p.m. Monday deadline set by the administration.

A large group of protesters rallied in front of Hamilton Hall early Tuesday, chanting the call-and-response, “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now.”

Aerial footage from Freedom News TV showed several dozen people crowded onto the steps of the building. Several people can be seen inside the building and a Palestinian flag is draped out of one window.

At the nearby encampment, a line of marching protesters encircles the tent-covered lawn, appearing to form a picket line around the encampment, the footage shows.

CNN has reached out to Columbia University and the New York Police Department for more information.   

Hear from Columbia student and CNN freelancer John Towfighi:

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In a conversation with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Monday, the lead negotiator for Columbia students, Mahmoud Khalil, discussed what he called an “anti-Palestinian narrative” at the school amid pro-Palestinian protests.

“Over the past six months, these students, they have witnessed the killing of over 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza and despite all of this the institution, Columbia at least, has only pushed one narrative — an anti-Palestinian narrative on campus,” Khalil said.

Khalil said Jewish students participating in the protests were an “integral” part of the demonstrations.

“I would say that the liberation of Palestine and the Palestinians and the Jewish people are intertwined. They go hand in hand. Antisemitism and any form of racism has no place on campus and in this movement,” Khalil said.

People stand near a flower arrangement that reads "Free Palestine" during a protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, on April 27.

University of Southern California President Carol Folt said she met with student organizers of campus protests Monday, but conceded that no agreement has been reached.

“The students said at the end they wouldn’t have considered this meeting a win from their perspective, and I can fully appreciate that,” Folt said in a statement. “For me, the most important point was that we were starting to talk, and I think that was vital. I felt like they were being honest and telling me how they felt, which was very meaningful.”

The meeting, which also included a faculty member, lasted about 90 minutes, the president said. Folt said she plans to meet with the group again Tuesday.

“I think we need to continue to have those conversations, and I’m pleased we all agree on that. We’ll go day by day,” she said. 

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators hold a short rally after marching around the "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" in the West Lawn of Columbia University on Monday, April 29, in New York.

Columbia University began suspending student protesters who refused to vacate the on-campus encampment by the 2 p.m. ET deadline set by the administration Monday.

These students will not be eligible to complete the semester or graduate and won’t be allowed in university housing and academic buildings, the New York-based university said.

“Once disciplinary action is initiated, adjudication is handled by several different units within the university based on the nature of the offense,” Vice President of Public Affairs Ben Chang said during a briefing Monday evening.  

The two bodies overseeing this disciplinary process are the Office of University Life and the university’s senate, a policy-making group that represents students and faculty.

“Decisions made by the Office of University Life can be appealed to the dean of the student’s school,” said Chang. “Decisions made by the senate can be appealed to a panel of deans and, ultimately, the university’s president.”

Chang added that the university asked student protesters to remove the encampment, in part, to make sure that the university’s commencement ceremony for its 15,000 graduates can continue as planned.

The students at Columbia, the epicenter of the weeklong pro-Palestinian protests, had earlier voted to defy the order and stay.

Some of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who were taken into custody at UT-Austin on Monday were arrested on suspicion of trespassing, while others are accused of disorderly conduct after refusing to disperse, university officials said in a statement. 

Demonstrators set up an encampment that included a “barricade enclosure of tables secured by metal chains, and strategically placed tools, tents, and rocks,” the statement read. 

 Protesters “escalated” the situation, and in response, officials “took swift action to preserve a safe, conducive learning environment for our 53,000 students as they prepare for final exams,” according to the statement. 

“UT Austin requested backup assistance from the Texas Department of Public Safety to protect the safety of the campus community and enforce our Institutional Rules, such as the rule that prohibits encampments on campus,” officials explained. “Because of the encampments and other violations of the University’s Institutional Rules related to protests, protestors were told repeatedly to disperse.”

In a statement to CNN Monday, Travis County Attorney Delia Garza said she was concerned the protests on “could escalate and lead to more disruption and violence.” 

“I have begun discussions with the University administration and am hopeful that a reasonable solution can be reached to ensure everyone involved is kept safe and their constitutional rights protected,” Garza said. “We will continue to collaborate with our partners and individually review each case that is presented to our office.”

A Texas State trooper stands gurad near pro-Palestinian demomstrators at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, on April 29.

Dozens of people were arrested Monday at a protest on the campus of University of Texas at Austin, according to the university’s Defend Palestine Encampment, who also alleged that officers used force to take people into custody.

The encampment was formed on the school’s South Mall Lawn around 12:30 p.m. CT, and around an hour later, officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Austin Police Department and campus police responded wearing riot gear, a news release from organizers said. 

The university is working on compiling information, including the number of people arrested, for a news release later Monday, said Brian Davis, senior manager for issues and crisis communications at the university. 

The Travis County Sheriff’s Office will not have a total number of arrests until Tuesday morning, spokesperson Kristen Dark told CNN. 

CNN has reached out to the Department of Public Safety for comment. 

“We demand that UT divest from the Zionist state of Israel and from all institutions and companies that are enabling the current genocide in Gaza … We demand the resignation of President (Jay) Hartzell for green-lighting the militarized repression of peaceful student protesters on their own campus,” Lenna Nasr, of the Palestinian Youth Movement, said in the news release. 

Hundreds of people have been arrested on college and university campuses from coast to coast as schools prepare for spring commencement ceremonies. The University of Southern California — where nearly 100 protesters were arrested April 24 — canceled its primary commencement event.

Protesters have been arrested on more than 20 campuses across at least 16 states. Many other schools have experienced protests without arrests.

CNN is monitoring campus protests and will continue to update this map with any new arrests.

As Pro-Palestinian protests continue to sweep major US universities, a unifying message has emerged.

At multiple schools, the same chant can be heard: “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!”

What it means: Divestment involves an investor or institution selling off shares of a company to avoid complicity in activities they deem unethical or harmful.

That action is intended not only to reallocate funds to more ethical investments but also to make a public statement that can pressure a company or government to change policies.

Critics argue that while divestment can be an effective expression of disapproval and a call for change, its actual impact on corporate behavior and market trends is more tenuous.

Stock prices remain steady: Research finds that there’s very little correlation between divestment campaigns and stock value or company behavior, Witold Henisz at the University of Pennsylvania told CNN.

When you sell shares, said Henisz, you give someone who cares less about the issue voice and you give up your own voice.

Proponents of divestment counter that its value lies in raising awareness and stigmatizing partnerships with targeted regimes or industries.

Detangling interests: University investments are much more complicated now than they were in the 1980s. Many endowments are managed by asset managers and invested in opaque private equity funds.

Read the full story.

A student secures a Palestinian flag near a protest encampment on the main campus of Columbia University in New York City on April 27.

A core demand over the past week by the pro-Palestinian student groups at Columbia University has been for the school to withdraw investment funds from what they describe as companies profiting from Israel’s war in Gaza.

Columbia’s endowment is worth $13.6 billion and is managed by a university-owned investment firm.

The request from a coalition of student groups behind the movement includes divesting endowment funds from several weapons manufacturers and tech companies that do business with Israel’s government.

The group has described those companies as profiting “from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and military occupation of Palestine.” Israel denies accusations of genocide.

This is not the first time such demands have been made. 

In 2000, the university established an advisory committee on socially responsible investing, made up of students, faculty and alumni, to provide feedback to the managers of its endowment investments.

Columbia now lists five areas where it refrains from investing: tobacco, private prison operations, thermal coal, Sudan and fossil fuels — all decisions made in the past decade.

Columbia was also the first Ivy League university to divest from South Africa, and various other colleges followed suit.

In 2015, Columbia became the first US university to divest from private prison companies after a student campaign raising concerns about human rights abuses.

A fossil fuel divestment proposal was approved by Columbia’s Board of Trustees in early 2021. The policy includes a commitment not to invest in “companies whose primary business is the exploration and production of fossil fuels.” Columbia’s announcement was followed by similar commitments at other Ivy League universities.

Here’s more about student’s pushing for divestment.