May 3, 2024 - US college protests

Emory University's College of Arts and Sciences faculty senate overwhelmingly approved a vote of no confidence against university President Gregory L. Fenves on Friday. The vote is a condemnation of the choice to call in outside law enforcement officers who violently arrested both students and faculty during a pro-Palestinian protest on campus last week. 

The faculty voted on a motion of no confidence and demand for redress. The result was 358 votes in favor of the motion and 119 votes opposing the motion. About 75% of the College of Arts and Sciences faculty voiced displeasure against Fenves. 

The vote is a symbolic gesture and is not legally binding. The results of the vote will now go to the Board of Trustees, who have the discretion to remove Fenves.

The motion also called for all the charges against faculty and students to be dropped and for the Emory University to pay all legal expenses.

Philosophy Chair Noëlle McAfee, who was among the individuals detained during Thursday's arrests, told CNN in a phone call, that she does not have confidence that the board of trustee will remove Fenves.

In the motion of no confidence, faculty wrote that Fenves’ words and actions “do not represent the values of ECAS Faculty and the College of Arts and Science.” 

“What was disruptive — profoundly so — was the conduct of the University administration that violated multiple College and University policies and is an affront to everything Emory stands for,” the motion said.

On the day of the protest, Fenves said in a statement, saying “several dozen protestors entered our Atlanta campus and set up an encampment on the Quad, These individuals are largely not affiliated with Emory and were disrupting the university,” suggesting the protest was organized by outside agitators.

Fenves later walked back the statement, apologizing for the “mischaracterization” that protesters were not students.

There were 28 individuals arrested during the protest last Thursday. Of those, 20 were Emory community members the university said in a statement from Cheryl Elliott, Vice President for Public Safety. At least two faculty members were detained during the arrests.

As pro-Palestinian protests have erupted on college campuses nationwide, protesters — including students and faculty — continue to be arrested since the first demonstrators were detained at Columbia University two weeks ago. More than 250 protesters were arrested on May 2, after April 30 saw the largest number of arrests in a day since protests began with nearly 400 arrests, according to a CNN review of university and law enforcement statements.

More than 2,100 people have been arrested on college and university campuses since April 18 as schools prepare for spring commencement ceremonies, according to CNN’s review. 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 40 campuses across at least 25 states. Many other schools have experienced protests without arrests.

Protest demands vary from campus to campus, but a major focus is that universities divest from companies with financial ties to Israel amid its war with Hamas. There have also been counter-protests, resulting in clashes at UCLA.

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

The University of Southern California will hold a “family graduate celebration” on May 9, the school announced Friday, just over a week after cancelling the main graduation ceremony.

USC previously announced the cancellation of the main stage graduation, saying it would take too much time to process the expected 65,000 attendees given their new safety measures implemented. The new safety measures follow dozens of arrests on USC’s campus in connection with the ongoing protests and the decision to rescind valedictorian Asna Tabassum's invitation to speak at the ceremony.

The new event will be held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, at 11:30 p.m. ET and is set to include drone shows, fireworks, surprise performances, and the Trojan Marching Band, according to the announcement posted on USC’s website.

“Please join us with your family and loved ones next Thursday to celebrate your accomplishments in a big way – and come together as a Trojan Family,” the announcement states.

Presentation of degrees will take place at commencement ceremonies of individual schools within the university.

The New York City Police Department revised its number of individuals arrested during protests at The New School from 44 to 43, a NYPD spokesperson said Friday.

The number however, is "subject to change because they are not finalized," the spokesperson noted.

The arrests come after university officials asked police to assist after protesters trespassed into the lobby of the University Center building and a residence hall and set up an encampment blocking students from entering their dorms, CNN previously reported.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations New York chapter on Friday denounced school administrations at New York University, The New School, University of Buffalo and Stony Brook University over the arrests of student protesters.

Nasher also called on district attorneys, including Alvin Bragg of Manhattan, to drop all charges against students who were arrested. 

Columbia University released a breakdown of those arrested in Hamilton Hall on Tuesday night. Of the 44 people who were arrested in Hamilton Hall:

The statement was published Thursday evening.  

NYPD officials said onThursday that they arrested 46 people at the university’s then-occupied Hamilton Hall. 

CNN requested additional details regarding individuals unaffiliated with the institution and sought clarification regarding the disparity in arrest figures compared to those provided by the NYPD.

“A significant portion of those who broke the law and occupied Hamilton Hall were outsiders,” a Columbia spokesperson said. “While 14 were Columbia undergraduate students, the majority were a mix of adults, including graduate students, two employees, and outsiders unaffiliated with Columbia University.”

The university said that it is still in the process of doling out disciplinary action saying “the occupiers violated various University policies, but more importantly, they broke the law. Actions have consequences.”

To understand why so many college campuses suddenly have students occupying parts of their campuses, you have to go back to two weeks ago, on April 18, when Columbia University called in the NYPD to bust up an encampment that pro-Palestinian protesters had set up just a day earlier.

In doing so, Columbia’s leadership threw out the playbook for managing protests that universities have honed for decades to keep students safe.

“There is a particular set of tactics that many of us in academia thought was an understood logic that university administrators have used to manage and control protesters,” said Sarah J. Jackson, a professor who studies the role of media and technology in movements for justice at the University of Pennsylvania.

Chief among those tactics: Delaying and distracting.

The administration might tell activists, in good faith, “OK, we hear you and we are going to set up a committee to investigate what it would take to accomplish some of your demands.” Officials might ask the student protest leaders to put together a case to present before the Board of Trustees.

“The protesters don’t necessarily appreciate these tactics, because they’re strategies of control,” Jackson says. “But from my perspective, they’re also strategies that largely have prevented the large-scale violence against protesters on college campuses that we saw in the 1960s.”

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The New School in New York City switched to online learning Friday following protests on campus that resulted in 43 arrests, according to University Spokesperson Amy Malsin in an email to CNN.

School officials requested police assistance after protesters trespassed into the lobby of the University Center building and a residence hall and set up an encampment blocking students from entering their dorms, CNN previously reported.

According to the statement, the move to bring in the New York City Police Department was based on the protesters’ conduct. 

“As offensive as the protesters’ language and posters are to many of us, my decision is about their conduct, not speech. It is also about safety as well as the protesters’ irresponsible conduct,” Shalala wrote.

Stanford University officials have sent the FBI a photo of an individual at a campus encampment location who they say appears to be wearing a headband similar to those worn by Hamas members, school officials said this week.

The individual in the photo is masked and the headband is a variation of those worn by members of the Hamas military wing known as the al-Qassam Brigades. 

CNN is unable to independently verify the photo.

“We find this deeply disturbing, as Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the United States government. We have not been able to identify the individual but have forwarded the photo to the FBI,” the statement from the university said. The FBI field office in San Francisco declined CNN's request to comment.

The university did not provide a photo of the demonstrator in their post but appears to be referencing a photo circulating online and made public by a group called Jews of Stanford, in a letter posted on the Action Network. The Action Network identifies itself as a progressive non-profit tech platform.

Stanford said it is “concerned about the involvement of non-student outsiders in these activities on our campus” but offered no specific information on the photo.

In its letter to the University Jews of Stanford said, “Individuals dressed openly as members of a terrorist organization is unacceptable and must be dealt with swiftly and harshly” warning that not doing so would set “a dangerous standard”