College protests: What to know as student anti-war movement spreads across US campuses

The students are calling for universities to separate themselves from companies that are advancing Israel’s military efforts in Gaza — and in some cases from Israel itself. The number of arrests nationwide has approached 1,000 since New York police arrested demonstrators at Columbia on April 18.

Protests on many campuses have been orchestrated by coalitions of student groups. The groups largely act independently, though students say they’re inspired by peers at other universities. Some universities say outsiders have joined student protesters and caused trouble.

The protests have even spread to Canada and Europe, with French police removing dozens of students from the Sorbonne university after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the main courtyard.

Officials are trying to resolve the protests as the academic year winds down, but students have dug in at several high-profile universities.

A look at protests on campuses:

Columbia University

Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said the university was beginning to suspend student protesters who defied an ultimatum to leave the encampment there by an afternoon deadline. The university had said protesters who signed a form committing to abide by university policies through June 2025 or an earlier graduation could finish the semester in good standing. If not, the letter said, they would be suspended, pending further investigation. Protest organizers said they were not aware of any suspensions as of Monday evening.

Pro-Palestinian student protesters set up the tent encampment at the Ivy League university in New York this month. Police first tried to clear the encampment April 18, when they arrested more than 100 protesters. But the move inspired students across the country and motivated Columbia protesters to regroup.

Columbia activists defied the deadline with chants, clapping and drumming from the encampment of more than 300 people. No officials appeared to enter the encampment, with at least 120 tents staying up as the deadline passed.

Commencement is set for May 15. The demonstrations led Columbia to hold remote classes and set a series of deadlines for protesters to leave the encampment.

Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, faced a significant, but largely symbolic, rebuke from faculty Friday but retains the support of trustees, who have the power to hire or fire the president.

The protest is the latest in a Columbia tradition that dates back more than five decades — one that also helped provide inspiration for the anti-apartheid protest of the 1980s, the Iraq war protests, and more.

The University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin on Monday was again the scene of clashing protesters and police, many of whom showed up in riot gear.

About 150 protesters packed into a tight group and sat on the ground as they were encircled by state troopers and police while hundreds of other students and protesters shouted at police every time officers dragged someone away.

After police cleared the original group of demonstrators, hundreds of students and protesters ran to block officers from leaving campus. The officers were caught between buildings and protesters pushed in on them, creating a mass of shoving bodies before police used pepper spray on the crowd and set off flash-bang devices to clear a path for a van to take those arrested off campus.

An attorney said at least 40 people were arrested.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott reposted on social media video of the troopers arriving on the 50,000-student campus. “No encampments will be allowed,” Abbott said.

Just last week, hundreds of police — including some on horseback and holding batons — pushed into protesters at the university, sending some tumbling into the street. Officers made 34 arrests at the behest of the university and Abbott, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

Virginia Tech

A protest at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, resulted in 82 arrests, including 53 students, a university spokesperson said Monday.

Police late Sunday night and early Monday cleared from the lawn of the Virginia Tech Graduate Life Center after a three-day protest, the Roanoke Times reported.

Police approached protesters in the so-called Gaza Liberation Encampment at 10:15 p.m. and told them they would be subject to arrest if they did not disperse within five minutes. The university had said since Friday that the encampment “was not a registered event consistent with university policy.”

The crowd of protesters at the encampment had grown to more than 300 people by Sunday afternoon.

After protesters took further steps to occupy the lawn and outdoor spaces next to a nearby student center Sunday, the university said the situation “had the increasing potential to become unsafe” and advised those gathered to disperse. Those who failed to comply were warned they would be charged with trespassing, the university said.

Virginia Commonwealth University

Hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters gathered Monday and Tuesday outside the James Branch Cabell Library on VCU’s Monroe Park campus in Richmond, Virginia, pitching tents and establishing a makeshift camp at what they called a “liberation zone,” where they demanded an immediate end to Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

VCU student and protest organizer Sereen Haddad, 19, said the group was taking cues from demonstrators on college campuses across the country, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

Haddad, who is Palestinian, said she has lost more than 100 family members in Israel’s operations in Gaza since Oct. 7. She said members of her father’s family living in Gaza had reached out to express their appreciation for her activism. 

Washington University

Washington University officials confirmed Sunday that police arrested 100 people “who refused to leave after being asked multiple times,” and several Washington University students who participated in a demonstration Saturday were suspended and not allowed on campus as they enter final exams and graduation, according to activist groups representing students at the St. Louis, Missouri, campus.

The group Resist WashU reported more than 100 arrests, including students, alumni, faculty, employees and community members, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

This number included 23 Washington University students and four university employees, the release stated.

Students were scrambling for a place to live and professors were wondering if they'd teach again after they were barred from Washington University's campus following an anti-war protest that ended in mass arrests, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Texas A&M University

Less than a week after some 50 students held a pro-Palestinian protest on Texas A&M University’s College Station campus, nearly 300 students returned Monday to rally against the United States’ continued support of Israel and against Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent response to similar protests at the University of Texas at Austin.

The protest in Academic Plaza was organized by Aggie Against Apartheid, a self-described coalition of Texas A&M students focused on protecting free speech on campus, The Eagle in Bryan, Texas, reported.

Akkad Ajam, the organizer of the protest, spoke to the crowd of students detailing their demands and their displeasure with the reception of other protests around the county.

Protesters are demanding that Texas A&M divest any and all involvement with Israel; condemn the police response to similar pro-Palestinian protests on Texas University campuses; and denounce Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

Northeastern University

Police in riot gear cleared an encampment at Boston's Northeastern University on Saturday. State police said about 100 protesters were arrested and would be charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct.

Northeastern said in a statement that the demonstration was “infiltrated by professional organizers” with no affiliation to the university and that antisemitic slurs, including “kill the Jews,” had been used. The Huskies for a Free Palestine student group said that counter-protesters were to blame for the slurs and that no student protesters “repeated the disgusting hate speech.”

University of Mary Washington

A dozen people, including nine students, were arrested Saturday after a protest at University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, according to a statement from the university’s president.

Attendees were told Friday that they could stay if they followed university policies, and additional safety guidelines were communicated to organizers, according to the statement. The encampment was prohibited, and tents were not permitted. Tents were taken down Friday night, and the protest continued into Saturday, when they were put back up.

On Saturday evening, attendees were told to leave, according to the president’s statement. After some time, 12 people remaining in Jefferson Square were arrested for trespassing.

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California said Saturday it had temporarily closed its University Park Campus to nonresidents, without providing details of the closure or possible enforcement measures. Joel Curran, senior vice president of communications, said in a statement that USC property was vandalized by members of a group “that has continued to illegally camp on our campus,” as well as disrupting operations and harassing students and others.

Students declined attempts by university President Carol Folt to meet, and the administration hopes for “a more reasonable response Sunday before we are forced to take further action,” Curran said.

The university canceled its main stage graduation ceremony, set for May 10. It already canceled a commencement speech by the school’s pro-Palestinian valedictorian, citing safety concerns. The Los Angeles Police Department said more than 90 people were arrested Wednesday during a protest at the university.

University of California, Los Angeles

A few dozen University of California, Los Angeles, faculty members staged a walkout on Monday, joining pro-Palestinian protesters who have been camping around-the-clock on campus. The teachers and other employees said they came out to amplify the demands of demonstrators.

The scene was less tense than on Sunday, when protesters shouted and shoved each other during dueling demonstrations.

Police set up barricades before hundreds of people on both sides joined a growing crowd at UCLA’s Dickson court, near where pro-Palestinian students have been staying round-the-clock in tents. Counter-protesters who organized a “Stand in Support of Jewish Students” rally said their goal was to “stand up against hatred and antisemitism.”

George Washington University

About 50 students at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., set up a tent encampment on the school’s University Yard on Thursday. A group of students and professors staged their own protest walkout and marched to campus to join them. The protesters are demanding that the university divest from Israel and lift a suspension against a prominent pro-Palestinian student group.

Before dawn Monday, demonstrators tore down the metal barricades confining them to the school’s University Yard and set up more than a dozen tents in the middle of a one-block stretch of H street. By midday, there were no signs of conflict and the mood at University Yard was borderline festive. The protest site has evolved into a tightly organized community, with plentiful supplies, volunteers collecting garbage and a detailed list of community guidelines.

The Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement it will continue monitoring the situation and that the protest activity remained peaceful.

The university's last day of classes before final exams was set for Monday, and commencement is scheduled for May 19. Because of the noise generated by the protests, the university said it would move law school finals to another building from the one where they had originally been scheduled.

California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt

University officials extended the closure of the campus until May 10 — the end of the semester — saying instruction would continue to be remote, after protesters at the university in Northern California used furniture, tents, chains and zip ties to block entrances to an academic and administrative building April 22. Commencement is scheduled for May 11.

In a statement Sunday night, the university urged people occupying the buildings and camping near them to “leave the campus peacefully now” and said it “continues to talk to anyone willing to have productive and respectful dialogue.”

Case Western Reserve University

More than 20 people were detained and released shortly after an encampment sprang up Monday at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

The protesters had set up tents on the public green and erected a small sign that read, “Welcome to the People’s University for Palestine” as they called on the school’s administration to divest from Israel.

Police soon moved in and dismantled the tents. Those detained at the protest were released a short time later, and it wasn’t clear if they would face any charges or disciplinary action.

Yale University

Protesters at Yale set up a new encampment with dozens of tents Sunday afternoon, nearly a week after police arrested nearly 50 and cleared a similar camp nearby. They were notified by a Yale official that they could face discipline, including suspension, and possible arrest, protesters and school officials said. No deadline to leave was set.

Yale said in a statement Monday that it supports peaceful protests and freedom of speech but does not tolerate policy violations. School officials said the protest is near residential colleges where students are studying for final exams, and permission must be granted for groups to hold events and put up structures on campus.

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill

Dozens of people idled at an encampment protest at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Monday. Students and other community members sat on blankets chatting while another small group sat around a woman dancing with a keffiyeh, a traditional Arab headscarf. The tents were set up Sunday after a march urging the university to divest from Israel.

University of Washington

Students at the University of Washington in Seattle set up an encampment Monday morning. About six tents were visible on the grassy area despite a sign that said “no camping allowed” in large letters. The few dozen protesters pinned banners to their tents in support of Gaza under a light drizzle. They are demanding the university cut ties with Boeing, which was founded in Seattle and makes products used by the Israel Defense Forces, and cut ties with study abroad programs that operate in Israel. 

University of Georgia

Police arrested protesters on Monday who tried to set up an encampment at the University of Georgia.

A spokesperson wouldn’t say how many people were arrested on the final day of classes before spring exams at the university northeast of Atlanta. Athens-Clarke County jail records showed 12 people had been booked into the jail by mid-afternoon by University of Georgia police on criminal trespassing charges. State troopers aided university police.

The Red and Black student newspaper reported 16 people were detained at the site.

University President Jere Morehead said in a statement that students were given the chance to make a reservation for a designated protest area and that university police “were left with no choice but to arrest those who refused to comply.” He said any students, faculty or employees who were arrested could face university discipline in addition to criminal penalties.

Emory University

After 28 people were apprehended last week at the private Emory University in Atlanta, university President Gregory Fenves on Monday apologized for officials initially claiming that the protesters were from outside the university. Officials determined 22 were Emory students or employees. Fenves said he was ordering a review of when the university should turn to outside police agencies after photos and videos showed people being tackled to the ground and shocked with electric stun guns.

Northwestern University

Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said Monday that the school had reached an agreement with students and faculty who represent the majority of protesters on its campus since Thursday.

“This agreement was forged by the hard work of students and faculty working closely with members of the administration," said a letter posted on the school’s website and featuring the names of school President Michael Schill, Provost Kathleen Hagerty and Student Affairs Vice President Susan Davis.

Northwestern says it will permit peaceful demonstrations that comply with university policies through June 1, which is the end of spring quarter classes. The university says it will allow one aid tent to remain and that all other tents must be removed.

“Acts of antisemitism, anti-Muslim/Arab racism, and hate will not be tolerated, and community members who can be identified participating in such acts will face disciplinary action,” the letter said.

In an Instagram post Monday, the Northwestern University Divestment Coalition said elected representatives of the group approved the deal by a vote of 17-1 and see it as “the floor for our progress going forward, not the ceiling.” The group also said it has much work ahead and that it will not stop now.

The Roanoake Times, Richmond Times-Dispatch, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Associated Press contributed to this report.