Emerson, MIT, Tufts students camp out in solidarity with Columbia pro-Palestinian protest - The Boston Globe (2024)

At Yale University, dozens of students were arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest Monday morning, according to the Hartford Courant. Later in the day, New York University students and faculty established an encampment at the nearby Gould Plaza.

The NYU encampment was cleared by police Monday evening and some protesters arrested, with officers cuffing their wrists with zip-ties before loading them into transport vans, according to The New York Times. NYU officials said some of the protesters breached barricades and behaved in a “disorderly, disruptive and antagonizing manner,” the Times reported.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators also hunkered down at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley.

Students said they were following the lead of protesters at Columbia University, where more than 100 people were arrested last week as police cleared an encampment on campus.

The rising tension on campuses is the latest challenge faced by universities since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the bombardment of Gaza that has followed, as administrators struggle to strike a balance between supporting free speech and maintaining campus safety. Some Jewish students in the Boston area — themselves torn in whether to support Israel — expressed safety concerns as the protests gained momentum on the first day of Passover.

Students in Greater Boston said they were rallying in solidarity with those in Gaza and with students at Columbia University. Columbia cancelled in-person classes Monday, and Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and a Columbia graduate, said he was pulling support to his alma mater “until corrective action is taken” to combat antisemitism.

The Harvard Crimson reported Sunday that the school posted signs notifying students that Harvard Yard is closed and “structures, including tents and tables, are not permitted.” A Harvard spokesperson confirmed that Harvard Yard is closed to people without a university ID until the end of the week.

The restriction on access was imposed “to stay ahead of potential issues with non-Harvard recognized groups,” the spokesperson said.

Harvard has also suspended a student group, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, a university spokesperson said. The group set off a series of cascading crises for the university when it posted a controversial statement on Oct. 7 that many around the world read as justifying the Hamas-led attack on Israel that left more than 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, while about 250 others were kidnapped.

Since the October attack, Israeli forces have responded with a bombardment of Gaza, where the death toll climbed to more than 34,000 over the weekend, at least two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

In their protests, Emerson and MIT students allege their schools have financial ties with Israel; Emerson, MIT, and Tufts declined to address those claims.

At MIT, about 15 tents sat on the lawn of the Kresge Auditorium at 9:30 a.m., as a little more than a dozen students, some wearing keffiyehs, tidied tables, hung string lights, and inspected a chain of extension cords carrying power from the nearby Stratton Student Center. A white banner proclaimed the lawn a “LIBERATED ZONE” in red lettering.

By 3:20 p.m., the crowd had grown to more than 100 students, and MIT workers had set up barricades separating the lawn from some of the sidewalks that surround it. Music rang from speakers, and protesters banged on Home Depot buckets like drums.

Hannah Didehbani, who said she joined around 30 students who stayed in the tents overnight, said Monday morning that the protesters had not had any negative encounters with police or been asked to leave the lawn. She said the students were “here peacefully protesting. That’s all.”

In a statement Monday morning, MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen said administrators would determine “the next steps with a focus on ensuring campus is physically safe and fully functioning.”

Around 5 p.m., at least two dozen students from Harvard — barred from establishing their own encampment — joined the MIT protesters. Shortly thereafter, the crowd fell nearly silent as one organizer began calls for evening prayer.

The MIT Israel Alliance issued a statement Sunday calling for administrators to clear the encampment, enhance campus security, discipline students involved in the protest, and offer remote learning options to students who fear for their safety because of the “anti-Jewish tent encampment that has been set up on campus.” But the encampment remained into Monday evening.

Talia Khan, co-president of the Israel Alliance, said in a text message that the group had received confirmation that the university received the letter, but had no details about implementing any of the requests.

Speaking near the encampment, Khan said its centrality and proximity to the Hillel Center for Jewish students, on the other side of the MIT Chapel, makes her and other Jews on campus anxious for their safety.

Khan noted that Monday evening marked the start of Passover, a Jewish holiday that celebrates the Hebrew people’s liberation from Egyptian slavery. Khan said she planned to attend a Monday evening Seder at the Chabad Center, which is off campus. Other Jews she knows, who were originally planning to attend a Seder at Hillel, are now planning to join her, she said.

“It’s infuriating, it’s traumatizing, it’s sad,” said Khan, a graduate student who also completed her undergraduate degree at MIT. “This has been my home for eight years, and this is not what it’s supposed to be.”

Meanwhile, up to 150 Emerson students gathered in the Boylston Place alley late Sunday night into the early hours of Monday morning, chanting, singing, and supporting those camping out, said Owen Buxton, an Emerson College senior.

“We were definitely inspired by what’s going on at Columbia,” Buxton said as he stood in the campus’s main alley across from Boston Common. “They put out the call for universities across the country, and we answered.”

Boston police officers stood across Boylston Street, monitoring the situation. Emerson senior Amun Prophet said police told protesters not to occupy the main sidewalk, but they haven’t had further engagement with police.

“Emerson officials are on site and are working with the Boston Police Department to closely monitor the situation, ensure safe passage through the alley, maintain campus operations, and support all members of the Emerson community,” Emerson College spokesperson Michelle Gaseau said in an email Sunday evening.

On Monday afternoon, seven tents were set up in a circle on the lawn of Tufts University’s academic quad. In the middle, around a half-dozen students sat in Adirondack chairs, reading and chatting.

Though the students declined to be interviewed, their demands were posted on signs hung from tents: an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, that the university disclose investments and “end all ties to Israeli institutions,” and that president Sunil Kumar release a “statement condemning the genocide in Palestine.”

Patrick Collins, a Tufts spokesperson, said administration was closely monitoring the protest Monday afternoon.

”While students are permitted to express their views, including demonstrating on campus, we will hold accountable any community members who engage in conduct that violates university policy,” Collins said in a statement. “Regarding the students’ demands, our position on this has been clear and consistent for several years: We do not support the BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] movement.”

Nick Stoico of the Globe staff contributed to this report, and material from the Associated Press was used.

Daniel Kool can be reached at daniel.kool@globe.com. Follow him @dekool01. Madeline Khaw can be reached at maddie.khaw@globe.com. Follow her @maddiekhaw. Hilary Burns can be reached at hilary.burns@globe.com. Follow her @Hilarysburns.