On April 17, 2024, a group of students attending Columbia University established the Gaza Solidarity Encampment—a site consisting of approximately fifty tents—demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and asking Columbia University to disclose its financial information and divest from corporations profiting from the conflict. Over the past weeks, encampments have appeared on dozens of other college campuses across the United States with the same message: disclose, divest.
Like other students, Haverford alumni pursuing their education at the collegiate level have been living, learning, and adapting amidst the tension. Owen Yu ’23 described the encampments at Princeton University as a “huge presence” on campus.
“Thursday [April 25th] was when the encampments began for us,” Yu said. “When classes ended, you would walk by [McCosh courtyard] and you would see the protests. There’s definitely like this huge sort of gravity towards it, in which a lot of students were kind of stopped by.”
The Israel-Hamas war, which began after the Hamas attack on Israel last October, has been a source of controversy and tension in the world of higher education. On numerous college campuses, many of which have seen both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protests in recent weeks, the tension is palpable. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Haverford alumnus Mitav Nayak ’22 has noticed the tension between students both online and in-person.
“There’s an email list that goes out to the whole school, and there has been sort of spamming back and forth between Israel and Palestine supporters,” Nayak said. “I don’t think it’s gotten violent yet, and I haven’t seen any physical violence, but there’s definitely been some pretty harsh words exchanged.”
At the University of Pennsylvania, Haverford alumnus Austin Zhuang ’22 echoed Nayak’s observations.
“I haven’t noticed any outright conflict,” Zhuang said.
Zhuang, however, still felt as though the encampments were meant to be physically intimidating.
“They have a lot of tents and they have a lot of signs and they’re making their presence very known without actually saying anything, so there’s definitely a noticeable tension between the Palestine encampments and Israel protests.”
Austin Zhuang ’22
“They’re just there,” Zhuang said. “They have a lot of tents and they have a lot of signs and they’re making their presence very known without actually saying anything, so there’s definitely a noticeable tension between the Palestine encampments and Israel protests.”
At Columbia University, protests have impeded Harvey Pennington ’23’s ability to move freely about the college campus.
“I was walking on [1200 Amsterdam Ave], which is one of the streets that sandwiches Columbia, and I couldn’t even really get past the protest,” Pennington said. “There were those in support of Israel on one side of the street, and those in support of Palestine on the other side of Amsterdam.”
Despite the existence of opposing viewpoints, Pennington feels that there has been a lack of discourse between students in disagreement.
“I mean, just naturally, each side of the protest is in disagreement with each other,” Pennington said. “I guess the main problem in my eyes is just the lack of conversation. With all these protests going on, it’s not really a space where it’s easy to share dialogue with one another.”
According to Yu and Zhuang, the majority of protests have been peaceful. Haverford alumnus James Wang ’21, who is currently enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC), says that students in the encampments spend most of their time studying.
“Every time I see it on the news, [the encampments] just seem like the most rowdy things. It feels like people are just chilling on campus. It literally feels like people having a picnic on a lawn at times.”
James Wang ’11
“Every time I see it on the news, [the encampments] just seem like the most rowdy things,” Wang said. “It feels like people are just chilling on campus. It literally feels like people having a picnic on a lawn at times.”
Zhuang also noticed students spending the majority of their time doing academic work in the encampments.
“Most of the time, it’s just people doing their homework or something,” Zhuang said. “Like I said before, the encampments are more of a show of protests rather than any active or aggressive shouting.”
Zhuang also agreed that media coverage of the protests seemed to sensationalize the nature of protests on Penn’s campus.
“It hasn’t been as rowdy or as shouty as the news has made it out to be,” Zhuang said. “I guess it’s a limited frame of view, and [the media are] obviously only broadcasting interesting things.”
Different colleges have seen different reactions to the protests. Administrators at USC chose to temporarily close the campus and cancel traditional commencement and graduation ceremonies, citing safety concerns. In an announcement, USC declared that due to the “new safety measures,” the “time needed to process the large number of guests coming to campus will increase substantially,” and, as a result, they were unable to host the traditional ceremony.
Wang said that many of the senior class have been “upset” over the announcement.
“Since they are the COVID generation, they didn’t have a high school graduation, and now they’re not having a college graduation,” Wang said.
Wang noted that USC’s decision to deny their Muslim valedictorian the opportunity to speak at commencement because of safety concerns also sparked intense discussions.
“The general sentiment [at campus] has been that USC hasn’t handled the whole situation amazingly well, because they chose a valedictorian whose minor is literally centered around conflicts in the Middle East,” Wang said.
Instead of closing campus, many colleges have opted instead to use police enforcement to clear encampments on campus grounds. According to Associated Press News, over 2,100 students have been arrested at more than thirty schools, which has generated even more debate about the ethical and moral ramifications of using physical force to clear out the protests.
Zhuang, who witnessed police clear out encampments after demonstrators refused to move at Penn, worries about suppression of free speech.
“I think on the surface, if you’re not prohibiting their right to protest, it’s not wrong [to use police to move encampments]; it becomes an issue when you call the police in an obvious attempt to intimidate the students and remove their message,” Zhuang said. “In my opinion, it’s their right to protest and the right to display their opinions through peaceful protest.”
At Princeton, police were called in to sort out encampments. According to the Daily Princetonian, fifteen students were arrested and barred from campus following short occupations of university buildings. Following the arrests, the University wrote a letter that condemned “police heavy-handedness” used on students.
“I think physical force in general is just a difficult thing to do,” Yu said. “One, because it’s contentious, and two, people can get hurt, which obviously I don’t like.”
“I think physical force in general is just a difficult thing to do. One, because it’s contentious, and two, people can get hurt, which obviously I don’t like.”
Owen Yu ’23
Yu also commented on the situation at Columbia, based on what he had read in the news.
“I remember hearing about a group of students getting hurt at Columbia, so I honestly don’t think physical force is a great thing to do, especially for these types of peaceful protests,” Yu said.
In a major escalation on April 30th, protesters broke into a Columbia University building—Hamilton Hall—and set up an encampment inside. During the takeover, university property was vandalized, windows and doors were broken, and entrances were blockaded. Two days following the takeover of Hamilton Hall, Columbia University once more called on the New York Police Department to clear the building, arresting one-hundred-twelve of the encamped protesters.
“Some people believe that Columbia militarized the police because of what the protests are protesting for,” Pennington said. “I don’t think this is the case. Laws were broken. That is why police were brought onto campus. Whether it is a good thing or bad thing to bring three hundred-plus police officers to campus is not for me to say. But I believe that was the thought process behind the decision.”
In a letter addressed to the student body, the Columbia University administration wrote, “We regret that protesters have chosen to escalate the situation through their actions. Our top priority is safety and order on campus. We made it very clear yesterday that the work of the University cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules.”
In addition to the protesters’ increased physical presence, Pennington also noticed an increased sense of antisemitism on campus.
“Protests claim to be anti-war, but when language like this is used, it does not present itself as entirely anti-war.”
Harvey Pennington ’23
“There’s been rhetoric and signage that consists of ‘globalize the intifada’, ‘from the river to the sea,’ among others,” Pennington said. “This is militant language. Protests claim to be anti-war, but when language like this is used, it does not present itself as entirely anti-war. I think anti-war protest is a good thing and is valid, but some language used has crossed the line.”
Pennington feels that the protests have begun to impact his education.
“[Columbia University] has closed down all libraries, all dining halls, and some of the buildings,” Pennington said. “It’s actually been pretty wild. It’s definitely hindered my ability to prepare for finals.”
According to New York Police Department Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner, the protests had been infiltrated by thirty-two individuals not affiliated with Columbia University.
“The university’s just become this epicenter of protesting and it just makes me kind of nervous because you’re not really sure who’s affiliated with Columbia and who’s not,” Pennington said. “I guess some of the anxiety comes from just being unsure of what some people may do because people have super strong feelings about the conversation surrounding Israel and Palestine.”
The presence of outside individuals in encampments has not been isolated to the protests at Columbia University. At Princeton University, Yu has noticed that outsiders have been playing a role in the encampments.
“I know there’s been some outsiders coming into the encampments to be speakers,” Yu said. “They’re here to talk to the protesters about their mission.”
Nayak also noticed outsiders at the encampments at MIT.
“It’s kind of hard to regulate the presence of outsiders,” Nayak said. “Just because of how big [the encampments] are.”
The protests have caused nervousness in Sixth Formers preparing to graduate and about to move on to college.
Sixth Former Justin Fan is nervous about the social aspect of college changing because of the protests.
“Instead of fearing the protesters, I’m more concerned about the attack on students’ right to free speech,” Fan said. “I think the current conflict in Gaza will create a lot of continuous tension between students with divergent opinions and religious affinities.”
Sixth Former Daniel Kaiser, who will be matriculating to USC, is worried about the physical presence of the protests.
“Being blocked from walking on your own campus, for which you pay tuition simply because you’re Jewish—and Zionist by association in their eyes—makes me nervous,” Kaiser said.
However, Wang feels as though incoming students have nothing to worry about.
“I don’t think [the protests] will heavily affect, when it’s limited to students, the way the school is run,” Wang said. “It’s really not that different from a large crowd in a city.”
Kaiser is still worried.
“I’ve felt extremely privileged in my time at Haverford to not really have to deal with people who I think are going to give me problems simply for believing in what I believe in, which is being myself, being a Jewish person, being a Zionist,” Kaiser said. “So I fear coming face-to-face with things that I haven’t had to face at Haverford, to be quite honest.”
Note: This is an ongoing story and things may have changed on college campuses across the US as demonstrators and colleges seek compromise by the time of publishing.
