Pro-Palestinian Protests Mount at College Campuses Across the U.S.

NEW YORK—Pro-Palestinian protests took root on university campuses across the country Wednesday, as tensions remained high between students and administrators at Columbia University.

Columbia gave demonstrators until Thursday night to disassemble an encampment there, following almost a week of protests the university has struggled to contain. It initially set a deadline of midnight Wednesday before extending it. The university said discussions between the school and protesters are continuing and the student demonstrators have agreed to take down some of their tents.

The protests began in response to Columbia president Minouche Shafik’s congressional testimony last week over whether the school has done enough to protect Jewish students.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and a delegation of GOP lawmakers appeared Wednesday on the Columbia campus, where the Louisiana Republican condemned antisemitic hate and mob mentality. He also called for Shafik to resign “if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos.”

Johnson’s speech was met with chants and jeers from the gathered crowd. Johnson responded by telling the crowd to enjoy their free speech.

Meanwhile, students at other schools, including Brown University, Emerson College, Harvard University, the University of Southern California and the University of Texas, are holding protests and establishing encampments.

Administrators at Emerson College, which has an urban campus in Boston abutting public property, said they were concerned that the protesters are risking legal consequences beyond Emerson’s control when they don’t abide by city and state laws.

“Of additional concern, Emerson has received credible reports that some protestors are engaging in targeted harassment and intimidation of Jewish supporters of Israel and students, staff, faculty, and neighbors seeking to pass through the alley,” a statement from President Jay Bernhardt and other school officials said. “This type of behavior is unacceptable on our campus.”

At Harvard, hundreds of protesters assembled Wednesday in Harvard Yard, the heart of the school’s Cambridge, Mass., campus, according to the Harvard Crimson. They included organizers of the Palestine Solidarity Committee, which the university suspended on Tuesday, and some protesters had tents, the paper said. The university early in the week had restricted access to the Yard to Harvard affiliates with ID cards. The school on posted signs said that structures including tents were prohibited without prior permission.

At the University of Texas, in Austin, police clashed with protesters after the administration attempted to cancel a planned demonstration. Videos from students and local media showed state troopers in riot gear heading off marchers, clashing with them and appearing to arrest or detain several protesters.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on X Wednesday that arrests are being made and would continue until the crowd disperses. “These protesters belong in jail,” said Abbott, a Republican, who added that students joining in what he called antisemitic protests at public universities should be expelled. “Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period,” he said.

A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman said state troopers had arrested more than 20 people. He said state police had been dispatched at the request of both the university and Abbott.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations chapter in Austin said the right to peacefully protest and express dissenting opinions are fundamental rights, and urged police to exercise restraint. “The recent arrests of student activists advocating for a cease-fire in Gaza represent a troubling suppression of these rights,” the group said in a statement.

At Columbia, Shafik has faced growing discontent over her handling of the campus crisis. She said in a letter that she supported the protesters’ free-speech rights but the encampment raised safety concerns.

Columbia said the university would consider alternative options to clear out protesters if they didn’t leave by the initial midnight deadline. Columbia’s Students for Justice in Palestine organization said the university threatened to call in the National Guard. Columbia said Wednesday “deploying the National Guard was never on the table.” The school last week summoned the New York City Police Department to control protesters.

Columbia University spokesman Ben Chang said on Wednesday a rumor that the university threatened to bring in the National Guard was “baseless,” calling it “an untrue and unsubstantiated claim.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters have called on the university to divest from companies with business ties to Israel and for a cease-fire in Gaza.

More than 100 people were arrested at Columbia last Thursday, the day the demonstrations kicked off.

Daily campus life has largely come to a halt. Jewish students have said they don’t feel safe s because of an uptick in antisemitism since the war began. Columbia said students could attend class online or in-person for the rest of the semester, indicating it doesn’t see the protests ending soon. Students will soon have to focus on studying for final exams, which begin at Columbia on May 3.

Columbia said it has been in discussions for several days with the student protesters. The students have agreed to prohibit discriminatory language at their encampment and make sure non-student protesters leave, Columbia said.

Tahia Islam, with the Shut It Down for Palestine Coalition, was among the crowd early Wednesday gathered outside Columbia. She led them in a chant: “In our millions in our billions, we are all Palestinians…resistance is justified when people are occupied.”

Noting the police presence nearby and the recent arrests of students at Columbia and NYU, Islam said, “I’m not very surprised by how the U.S. treats its protesters, historically.”

Above the crowd, people inside Columbia looked over a stone ledge, where a cardboard sign had been hung—“Free Palestine—and joined in, raising their fists and clapping as they echoed the crowd below, chanting, “Say it clear and say it loud, students you make us proud.”

Jon Kamp, Elizabeth Findell and Melissa Korn contributed to this article.

Write to Alyssa Lukpat at [email protected] and Erin Ailworth at [email protected]