Columbia University sent an email alerting students and faculty and staff members of enhanced security measures ahead of a counterprotest, the United for Israel march, scheduled for tonight outside of the school.

Gate access is still restricted to Columbia University ID holders, and patrols will be increased for enhanced security on the campus perimeter. Members of the university the community may call to request escorts if they feel unsafe.

"The safety and security of our Columbia community and Morningside neighbors are paramount," the email said. "Please take care of yourselves and each other."

Dozens of cases have been dropped against protesters who were arrested yesterday during the University of Texas at Austin demonstration, a spokesperson for the Travis County prosecutor confirmed in an email.

"Legal concerns were raised by defense counsel," the spokesperson said. "We individually reviewed each case that was presented and agreed there were deficiencies in the probable cause affidavits."

A vast majority of the 57 arrests that were made when Texas state troopers were brought in to break up the pro-Palestinian demonstration have been dismissed.

Additional details were not provided. The spokesperson said the office would review all cases "to determine whether prosecution is factually and legally appropriate."

A group of students at the University of Pennsylvania has set up tents on the College Green, the student-run newspaper reported today.

According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, in addition to demands that Penn divest from Israel and companies they say are benefiting from the war, student activists demanded that "Penn defend Palestinian students." That includes reinstating the student group Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine, whose status was revoked.

Penn's interim president, Larry Jameson, said in a statement today that the school held a panel of Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students earlier this semester. Officials heard "loud and clear" that those students felt unacknowledged by the university's anti-hate statements as they experience Islamophobic slurs and see trucks near campus with anti-Islamic imagery.

"I want to make clear that all Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian members of our community are welcome and belong at Penn. It has been a painful and difficult time for many students, faculty, and staff," Jameson wrote.

"For some, the tragic loss of life in the Middle East has included family and friends," the statement continued. "And the growing unrest in cities and on other college and university campuses across the country is deeply unsettling."

Student organizers at Columbia University are working with administrators on a "timeline" for negotiations, but no police action is threatened at this time, student Mahmoud Khalil told reporters today.

Columbia officials initially told students they would have to leave the encampment at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday before the school would look into alternative options. The deadline was then extended as students were told they would have 48 hours to continue conversations.

"There's no deadline; it's a timeline for negotiation," Khalil said. "It's not a deadline to bring police enforcement or any other law enforcement."

Khalil, who is Palestinian, is an international student who is not a part of the encampment protest but is participating in the negotiations. The talks were suspended for roughly 30 hours after the ultimatum was first given to clear out, Khalil said, and students are working to gain more clarity about what the university means.

Violent clashes between police and protesters opposed to the Israel-Hamas war have taken place at campuses across the country, along with multiple arrests.

AUSTIN, Texas — A large crowd of protesters has gathered again at Main Plaza in front of the UT Tower on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, where chants of “Free, Free Palestine” were heard.

About a dozen school police officers were visible at the base of the tower.

The South Lawn, where arrests took place at yesterday’s protest, was largely empty save for students walking to class. 

One protester, who didn’t want her name used because she is employed at UT, held a sign that called for occupying all campuses. She was at yesterday's protest.

“I wasn’t afraid to come back out, because at the end of the day, this is something that’s important, and they say what starts here changes the world. So we are starting here,” she told NBC News.

She said her presence was also in protest of the university’s ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs and firing dozens of faculty and staff members, which she said she saw as connected, adding, “It’s a fight for simple civil liberties.”

The University of Southern California canceled its main graduation commencement ceremony today, citing new safety measures involving those who come to campus.

In a commencement update posted this afternoon, USC said that "we will not be able to host the main stage ceremony that traditionally brings 65,000 students, families, and friends to our campus all at the same time and during a short window from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m." for the event originally scheduled for May 10.

The new safety measures include issuing tickets for all commencement events and allowing campus access only through specific points of entry, the school said. It said it canceled the main ceremony because it would take too long to process the large number of guests who would come to campus for the event.

The school acknowledged that the decision is "disappointing" but added that "we are adding many new activities and celebrations to make this commencement academically meaningful, memorable, and uniquely USC, including places to gather with family, friends, faculty, and staff, the celebratory releasing of the doves, and performances by the Trojan Marching Band." It did not offer more detail about those events.

The release said the school will still host the dozens of smaller individual school commencement ceremonies, "where students cross the stage, have their names announced, are photographed, and receive their diplomas."

Doctoral hooding ceremonies, special celebrations and departmental activities and receptions will all still be held, the school said.

Student organizers at Columbia University told reporters today that negotiations with university officials about clearing out the campus protest encampment have resumed after a 30-hour pause.

Students said they left the table Monday evening. Negotiations resumed this morning and are currently ongoing.

Student organizers said at a news conference the 48-hour deadline issued earlier this week from the university is unclear and they are seeking clarification.

One organizer who spoke at the news conference also said she was attacked by someone posing as a member of the press yesterday. She did not elaborate further on the nature of the attack.

Activists behind the Gaza solidarity encampment at Emory University in Atlanta said in a news release that demonstrators were “attacked” with “pepper bullets, tear gas, and tasers for the simple act of camping out on a school lawn.”

The encampment was established on the Emory Quad at 7:30 a.m. today in a protest launched by Emory Students for Justice in Palestine and local activist group Stop Cop City.

Footage from the protest taken by NBC affiliate cameras showed uniformed officers on campus, some in helmets and gas masks and holding guns that appeared to hold pellet bullets.

One video shared on social media showed a demonstrator handcuffed on the ground by multiple officers, one of whom deployed a stun gun on the protester's leg.

The person who filmed the video, who did not share their name, said police officers flooded in the peaceful protest with tear gas, pellets and what appeared to be stun guns. The individual who was hit with the stun gun was already pinned down by officers when the weapon was deployed.