Ohio State University joined the growing list of college protests against Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. Clashes between protesters and police on the campus overnight resulted in over a dozen arrests.
Those who refused to leave after warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, said university spokesperson Benjamin Johnson, citing rules barring overnight events.
As the death toll mounts in the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis worsens, protesters at universities across the country are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling the conflict. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus, partly prompting the calls for police intervention.
Saar Noy Zylberman, a Jewish student at Columbia University in New York City who grew up in Israel, told CBS News correspondent Nancy Chen on Thursday that many students knew people at the music festival that was targeted in Hamas' deadly terror attack last year.
"And adding to that the situation where people scream hateful speech who have harassed and attacked both verbally and physically people, it's just making it impossible to be here," Zylberman told Chen.
Reports from New York City Mayor Eric Adams indicate that police officers faced aggression from protesters this week, with bottles and other objects being thrown at them. Mayor Adams attributed this behavior to outside agitators who joined the genuine protesters. Similarly, Emory University in Atlanta and the University of Texas at Austin have pointed out that not all individuals participating in the protests on their campuses were students, with outside groups instigating or joining the demonstrations.
Emory University experienced a police intervention to dismantle an encampment, during which officers were seen carrying semiautomatic weapons. Video footage also captured officers using a stun gun on a protester who was on the ground. The university later stated that objects were thrown at the officers, leading them to deploy "chemical irritants" for crowd control.
According to jail records, 22 individuals arrested by Emory police were charged with disorderly conduct. Emory University reported that a total of 28 people were arrested, including 20 members of the university community, with some being released.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere at UT Austin campus was notably calmer on Thursday following the arrest of 57 individuals for criminal trespass the day before. State troopers, equipped in riot gear and on horseback, dispersed the protesters.
Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, commented on the situation, noting that both police and protesters have at times overstepped boundaries. Lukianoff emphasized that while individuals do not have a blanket First Amendment right to convert public campus areas into camping grounds, excessive police actions have been observed at institutions like Emory and UT Austin.
At UT Austin, officials have since pulled back barricades and allowed demonstrators onto the main square beneath the school's iconic clock tower. The Travis County Attorney's Office, which prosecutes misdemeanor crimes, dropped 46 cases stemming from Wednesday's protests after finding deficiencies in the probable cause affidavits, a spokesperson said in a statement.
Most detained demonstrators have not been charged with violent offenses, but there have been several instances of threatening and abusive behavior.
After a tent encampment popped up Thursday at Indiana University Bloomington, police with shields and batons shoved into protesters and arrested 33. Hours later at the University of Connecticut, police tore down tents and arrested one person.
The clock is ticking as May commencement ceremonies near, putting added pressure on schools to clear demonstrations. At Columbia, protesters defiantly erected a tent encampment where many are set to graduate in front of families in just a few weeks.
Columbia officials said that negotiations were showing progress as the school's self-imposed early Friday deadline to reach an agreement on dismantling the encampment came and went. Nevertheless, two police buses were parked nearby and there was a noticeable presence of private security and police at entrances to the campus.
"We have our demands; they have theirs," said Ben Chang, a spokesperson for Columbia University, adding that if the talks fail the university will have to consider other options.
Just past midnight, a group of some three dozen pro-Palestinian protesters handed out signs and started chanting outside of the locked Columbia University gates. They then marched away as at least 40 police officers assembled nearby.
On Friday morning, hundreds of counterprotesters gathered on the streets outside Columbia, many holding Israeli flags and chanting for the hostages being held by Hamas and other militants to be released.
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, has been negotiating with students who have been barricaded inside a campus building since Monday, rebuffing an attempt by the police to clear them out. Faculty members met with protesters Thursday to try to negotiate a solution as the campus remains shut down at least through the weekend.
A dean at the school, Jeff Crane, suggested during the meeting that the university form a committee that would include students to do a deep dive into the school's investments. Crane also suggested faculty and students continue meeting every 24 hours to keep an open line of communication. The sides have yet to announce an agreement.
The school's senate of faculty and staff demanded the university's president resign in a vote of no confidence Thursday, citing the decision to call police in to remove some barricaded students Monday.
On the other end of the state, the University of Southern California canceled the school's May 10 graduation ceremony. The announcement was made a day after more than 90 protesters were arrested on campus. The university said it will still host dozens of commencement events, including all the traditional individual school commencement ceremonies.
Tensions were already high after USC canceled a planned commencement speech by the school's pro-Palestinian valedictorian, citing safety concerns.
At the City College of New York on Thursday, hundreds of students who were gathered on the lawn beneath the Harlem campus' famed gothic buildings erupted in cheers after a small contingent of police officers retreated from the scene. In one corner of the quad, a "security training" was held among students.
Elsewhere in the city, around a dozen protesters spent the night in tents and sleeping bags inside a building at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The institute's museum, which is located in the building where the demonstrators set up camp, was closed Friday.
Protesters also stayed overnight at the encampment at George Washington University, according to local news stations. In a statement after the Thursday evening deadline to disperse, the university in Washington said the encampment violated university policies and that the administration and police were figuring out how to address the situation.
At Emerson College in Boston, a total of 108 individuals were taken into custody at a gathering by early Thursday. Footage captures law enforcement initially advising students in an alley to disperse. The students joined arms in defiance of the officers, who subsequently pushed through the crowd with force, resulting in some demonstrators being forcefully brought to the ground.
"As the evening progressed, the atmosphere grew increasingly tense. There seemed to be a growing number of police officers surrounding us from all directions. It felt as though we were being slowly encircled and squeezed," recounted Ocean Muir, a second-year student.
Muir recounted being physically lifted by her arms and legs by the authorities and removed from the scene. Alongside other students, Muir was formally charged on Thursday with allegations of trespassing and disorderly conduct.
The Boston police department reported that four officers sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the altercation.
In the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the U.S. Department of Education has initiated investigations into numerous universities and schools following complaints of antisemitism or Islamophobia. Several of the institutions under scrutiny are universities that have been the site of demonstrations, including Harvard and Columbia.
