College protests live: NYPD reveals cop ‘unintentionally’ fired gun while breaching locked office at Columbia

Students protested the University of Michigan’s commencement ceremony on Saturday, the latest manifestation of the wave of demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war taking place across the country.

The group comprised about 75 people, and featured students wearing grad caps and kaffiyehs.

One demonstrator carried a banner reading, “No universities left in Gaza,” a refence to Israel’s destruction of every university in the Gaza Strip in the course of the ongoing conflict. Others held Palestinian flags.

Colleen Mastony, a university spokesperson, told The Associated Press that public safety personnel escorted the activists to the back of the stadium where the ceremony was taking place.

“Peaceful protests like this have taken place at U-M commencement ceremonies for decades,” she added.

No arrests took place, and the demonstration didn’t seriously delay the multi-hour ceremony.

Before police officers poured into Columbia University on Tuesday night, arresting more than 100 people as they cleared an occupied school building and tent encampment, New York City Mayor Eric Adams received a piece of intelligence he said shifted his thinking about the campus demonstrations over the war in Gaza.

“Outside agitators” working to “radicalize our children” were leading students into more extreme tactics, the mayor claimed. And one of them, Adams said repeatedly in media appearances Wednesday morning, was a woman whose husband was “convicted for terrorism.”

But the woman referenced by the mayor wasn’t on Columbia’s campus this week, isn’t among the protesters who were arrested and has not been accused of any crime.

The Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organisation that advocates for human rights, weighed in on the pro-Palestinian protests popping up across the country.

Louis Charbonneau, United Nations Director for the organisation, wrote that colleges must protect students’ right to protest.

“There have been troubling reports of antisemitic incidents in and around Columbia University’s campus,” Mr Charbonneau wrote. “Allegations of antisemitic acts and speech by individuals, as well as acts of Islamophobia and other forms of discrimination, should be investigated and addressed on the merits in a case-by-case basis, through fair and transparent processes.”

“As protests spread to campuses across the country, university administrations should be careful not to mislabel criticism of Israeli government policies or advocacy for Palestinian rights as inherently antisemitic or to misuse university authority to quash peaceful protest,” he continued. “Instead, universities should safeguard people’s rights to assembly and free expression.”

The Columbia University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors is calling for a vote of no confidence in President Minouche Shafik and her fellow administrators.

In a statement, the chapter condemned her decision to call the New York Police Department on protesters who had occupied Hamilton Hall Tuesday night.

“This decision was made without consultation with the University Senate, in violation of established procedures, by recourse to so-called emergency powers,” the chapter said in a Thursday statement. “It also flew in the face of efforts by the AAUP and faculty trusted by the student protestors to de-escalate the situation on campus and to serve as observers in negotiations–efforts endorsed by the University Senate chair that continued into the afternoon before the assault.”

More than 100 people were arrested on Columbia’s campus Tuesday evening.

The Pulitzer Prize Board, housed under Columbia University, praised student journalists’ efforts to cover the protests even while facing “risk of arrest.”

“As we gather to consider the nation’s finest and most courageous journalism, the Pulitzer Prize Board would like to recognize the tireless efforts of student journalists across our nation’s college campuses, who are covering protests and unrest in the face of great personal and academic risk,” the board wrote on Thursday, four days ahead of announcing the 2024 prize winners.

“We would also like to acknowledge the extraordinary real-time reporting of student journalists at Columbia University, where the Pulitzer Prizes are housed, as the New York Police Department was called onto campus on Tuesday night,” they continued.

As The Independent’s Alex Woodward reported, student journalists worked round the clock to capture the historic demonstrations on college campuses across the country.

Pro-Palestinian protesters broke back into the Portland State University Library on Thursday evening, leading to police again entering and clearing the building.

Portland Police added that Portland State University’s Campus Safety detained one person.

“We can now confirm that trespassers did pull down the fence and broke back into the library. Police officers moved back into the library and made arrests. Arrests have also been made for people refusing to leave the park block at the library,” Portland Police wrote on X.

Thirty people had been arrested so far as of Thursday afternoon in connection to the pro-Palestinian protests on the campus of Portland State, according to the Portland Police Bureau. At least seven were PSU students, according to Portland Police.