Student protests and encampments spread over the weekend from Columbia University to other top American colleges, where demonstrators called for their schools to divest from companies with ties to Israel. At Yale, police arrested protesters on Monday morning at Beinecke Plaza on campus in New Haven, where an estimated 350 protesters had gathered to call for the Ivy to break its financial ties to Israel and to U.S. military contractors.
According to the Yale Daily News, Yale University Police officers issued summons to 47 students shortly after 7 a.m. Students had set up tents in the plaza in front of the Schwarzman Center, the school’s student center, since Friday night to call for divestment. According to New Haven mayor Justin Elicker, the Yale Police Department requested NHPD officers to help clear the encampment on Monday morning. When officers arrived, maintenance workers began removing tents as police worked to disperse the crowds.
Despite the police presence, students continued to gather at the plaza as of mid-morning on Monday:
While university protests for divestment have been happening for some time now, the arrest of Columbia protesters last week resulted in a new wave of demonstrations organized by the National Students for Justice in Palestine, an anti-occupation group. In Boston and Cambridge, students at Emerson College, MIT, and Tufts set up encampments on Sunday night, while Harvard Yard remains closed in anticipation of a tent protest. At the New School in Manhattan, a number of tents have been set up indoors in a university lobby. A large number of tents have also been pitched on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor:
Tensions remain high at Columbia after the arrest of more than 100 students on Thursday. Demonstrations on campus remain peaceful — and tents remain on campus after temporary removal on Thursday. But protesters unaffiliated with the school have reportedly become more aggressive on Broadway, where counterprotesters are also gathering. All classes are being held remotely this week as the university administration meets with protest leaders. “We need a reset,” Columbia president Minouche Shafik said in a statement.
This story has been updated to reflect that Yale University Police, not the New Haven Police Department, arrested students on Monday.
