College protest live updates: Nearly 300 arrested at Columbia and CUNY, UCLA cancels classes, as campus demonstrations intensify

Over the past 24 hours, police arrested hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters at college campuses across the country. Here's the latest on where things stand as night fell on the East Coast.

• Late Tuesday, nearly 300 protesters at Columbia University and City University in New York City were arrested. Police remained on campus Wednesday at the Ivy League college.

• Violent clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters erupted Tuesday night at the University of California, Los Angeles, leading school officials to cancel classes on Wednesday.

• Protesters entered an undergraduate admissions building at Emory University on Wednesday.

• New York police arrested protesters who were occupying the lobby of a building at Fordham University Wednesday afternoon. They also cleared away a tent encampment.

• Students at Portland State University continued to barricade themselves inside the school’s library, escalating a two-day standoff with officials, who canceled classes Wednesday.

• Universities like Brown and Northwestern have diffused protests after pledging to demonstrators this week to take up votes on whether to divest from companies doing business with Israel.

More: Pro-Palestinian protests intensify across U.S. college campuses. Here's where things stand.

On Wednesday, New York police cleared pro-Palestinian protesters from a building on the Fordham University Lincoln Center campus, making at least 15 arrests and clearing an encampment.

The school also asked the NYPD to remain on the campus until May 22:

"With the utmost regret, we request the NYPD's help to clear all individuals from the encampment. As part of this process, we understand that the NYPD plans to use amplifying devices to inform participants in the encampments they must disperse," a letter from the school to NYPD's deputy commissioner of legal matters stated. "In light of the activities that are currently happening, we further request that you retain a presence on campus through at least May 22, 2024 (when Commencement and diploma ceremonies are completed) to maintain order and ensure encampments are not reestablished."

Police cited 30 pro-Palestinian protesters and arrested "several" more on Wednesday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after moving in to clear a tent encampment on the campus.

"This morning, those present at the encampment were given several warnings during which time they were offered the opportunity to peacefully leave the encampment with their belongings and avoid being either cited or arrested. These warnings followed prior communications, including two messages from campus leaders, that clearly delineated the expectation of consequences if the encampment was not removed," Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin said in a letter to the campus community, according to CNN.

New York City police arrested at least 15 pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the campus of Fordham University Wednesday evening and dismantled a tent encampment, WABC-TV reported.

NYPD arrived at the campus in riot gear Wednesday afternoon, and quickly sought to push the protesters back using barricades.

Video from the scene showed protesters hanging tarps outside a university building as a crowd cheered them on.

Fifteen people were injured during Tuesday's violent clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators at UCLA, according to Los Angeles officials. One of those injured was hospitalized.

The Los Angeles Fire Department told CNN that a man in his 20s suffered a head injury during the incident, which lasted for hours before police cleared the scene. The man was transported to the hospital.

Yahoo News reporter Katie Mather is at Fordham University at Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side of New York City, where protests were unfolding on Wednesday evening.

NYPD officers were seen wearing helmets and walking around with zip-tie handcuffs.

At West 62nd Street near the school, chants were heard: "I don't see no violence here, why are you wearing riot gear?"

University of California President Michael Drake announced Wednesday that he was launching an investigation of the violent clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters on the UCLA campus Tuesday night and the response from university officials and police.

“I believe such a review can address many of my immediate questions but also help guide us for possible future events,” he wrote in a letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Los Angeles police cleared the campus of protesters around 3 a.m., hours after the violence began.

Read more from the Los Angeles Times.

University of Minnesota interim president Jeff Ettinger met with student protest leaders on Wednesday as demonstrations on the Twin Cities campus continued for a third day.

The pro-Palestinian protesters are demanding the school divest from companies that do business in Israel and release a statement that supports Palestinian students.

The 30-minute meeting turned into 90 minutes because it was a “constructive dialogue,” Ettinger said.

“Both those involved with the protest and our university leaders need to go back and discuss possible outcomes from today’s meeting with our colleagues,” he added. “When we have updates to share, we will provide those.”

The undergraduate class of 2024 is the same class that graduated high school during the pandemic in 2020. The Wall Street Journal calls it “the class that missed out on fun.”

UCLA senior Preston, who asked to go only by his first name, told Yahoo News that he hopes his commencement ceremony doesn’t get canceled. Law enforcement was called to UCLA’s campus Tuesday night as violence erupted among pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrators. The university canceled all of its classes on Wednesday out of concern for student safety.

Preston said he would be frustrated with the UCLA administration and the protesters if graduation were canceled. The ceremony is scheduled for June 14.

“I personally hope that commencement doesn’t get canceled considering how my high school graduation went during COVID,” he said.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to pass the bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act.

It comes as pro-Palestinian demonstrations escalate across U.S. university campuses, with great concerns intensifying over antisemitism. The bill would require the Department of Education to use an antisemitism definition put forward by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance when the department enforces federal anti-discrimination laws.

It now heads to the Senate for consideration.

Republican Sen. Tim Scott, who championed the bill with GOP Rep. Mike Lawler, called it a "momentous step towards rooting out antisemitic hate and protecting the rights of Jewish students on college campuses across America."

A huge crowd of protesters gathered in lower Manhattan's Foley Square late Wednesday afternoon in solidarity with Palestinians as part of a May Day event.

New York City's official emergency notification system is warning New Yorkers to prepare for traffic delays near the area.

"Protest Activity: Expect traffic delays & emergency personnel near Foley Square and Broadway, Manhattan. Use alternate routes," emergency officials said in a post on X.

In a Wednesday press conference, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that the estimated 280 arrests occurring Tuesday night at Columbia University and City College were being reviewed by his office.

"We will look carefully at each individual case on our docket and make decisions based on the facts and the law," Bragg said. "That will include a thorough review of body cam footage and interviews with witnesses."

Bragg said the cases included about 170 court summons, while the remaining cases were either desk appearance tickets or cases that are "making their way through the system."

Although negotiations with pro-Palestinian student protesters at Portland State University reportedly fell through, local NBC affiliate KGW reports that around 50 people left the building on their own.

University president Ann Cudd said that negotiators for the students indicated they'd leave the library by 1:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday. In return, Cudd promised to not suspend, expel or press criminal charges against the occupants — as well as agreed to meet with student leaders on May 17. However, this proposed compromise wasn't agreed upon.

"I fervently wish that the students in the library had signed on to our agreement, but, after their negotiators told us they had a deal, they apparently chose not to sign," Cudd said.

Other protesters — including nonstudents — are still at the library, she added.

Shiraz University, located in southern Iran, says it will offer scholarships to students from the United States and Europe who've been expelled due to protests over conflicts in the Middle East, according to CNN.

“Students and even professors who have been expelled or threatened with expulsion can continue their studies in Shiraz University,” Shiraz University President Mohammad Moreno said, per the news channel. “I think that other universities in Shiraz and Fars province are prepared to do the same too.”

Pro-Palestinian student demonstrators who set up a small encampment on Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus say they have been suspended.

The Fordham Observer posted a photo on X of a protester brandishing the notice of suspension through a window of the Lowenstein Building.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is demanding answers to what he called a "limited and delayed" response from UCLA's campus police after violence overnight.

The violence escalated after counterprotesters set up a camp near protesters. Videos circulating on X showed counterprotesters assaulting, using pepper spray and throwing objects at protesters, as well as tearing up their encampment.

Social media users questioned where UCLA's campus police were, as videos appeared to show, notably absent. UCLA had said on Tuesday evening that they had "significantly" increased their security presence, but KABC reported that violence lasted for hours without police intervention.

“As soon as it became clear that state assistance was needed to support a local response, our office immediately deployed CHP personnel to campus," Newsom's office said in a statement posted on X.

"The Governor's Office of Emergency Services has been coordinating law enforcement mutual aid requests statewide, including responding for assistance at UCLA throughout the night and early morning," his office added.

"The state has established a robust Law Enforcement Mutual Aid System to provide law enforcement assistance to college campuses when requested during incidents beyond the capacity of local and campus police."

During her briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked repeatedly why President Biden has yet to comment directly on the arrests and protests at Columbia University and other schools across the country. She said Biden was monitoring the situation, but she quickly pivoted, saying that over the years the president has spoken out strongly against antisemitism.

There could be another reason for Biden's silence, Peter Baker points out in the New York Times: He has never been big on protests. Biden was studying law at Syracuse University in 1968 when the antiwar protests erupted at Columbia and across the country, and he did not join them.

"Now, 56 years to the day after the police stormed Hamilton Hall to evict demonstrators in one of the most iconic moments of the 1960s protest movement, Biden has no more affinity for their modern-day successors rousted by officers from the same university building they had seized to voice outrage over Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip," Baker notes. "As the political far left calls him 'Genocide Joe' and Republicans blame him for the campus chaos, the president has sought to stay personally out of the fray as much as possible."

But Biden "cannot simply shrug off the uproar on American college campuses as he once could," Baker argues. "This time he is not just a disdainful bystander but one of the targets of the discontent, challenging him to navigate the treacherous waters of campus politics better than Lyndon B. Johnson did in 1968."

• Read more from Baker's piece in the Times on Yahoo News: A bystander to ’60s protests, Biden now becomes a target

California Gov. Gavin Newsom denounced the overnight violence between counterprotesters and protesters on UCLA's campus. Newsom called for people engaging in "illegal behavior" to be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution, according to a statement posted on X.

"I condemn the violence at UCLA last night. The law is clear: The right to free speech does not extend to inciting violence, vandalism, or lawlessness on campus. Those who engage in illegal behavior must be held accountable for their actions — including through criminal prosecution, suspension, or expulsion," the statement read.

Protesters are occupying the library at Portland State University, even after the school closed the campus for the day, according to the Washington Post. There have been protests for several days on campus, causing the shutdown.

University president Ann Cudd recorded a video message to the protesters inside the library, telling them that the school had asked the Portland Bureau of Police to help remove them from the building.

"We want you to come out of the library," Cudd said in the video, per the Post. "I'm asking you to please — especially the students — please, voluntarily leave the library."

The current wave of protests on college campuses over the war in Gaza have drawn plenty of comparisons to the protests over the war in Vietnam of 1968.

As the Columbia Spectator noted, the arrests Tuesday night at Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall “came on the 56th anniversary of the 1968 police sweep of the Morningside campus, when the NYPD arrested hundreds of students occupying several buildings on campus.”

Here's the front cover of the April 30, 1968, edition of the Spectator:

Some of the protesters at Columbia this week said they were inspired by the 1968 demonstration at the school.

“Even the idea of a solidarity camp at Columbia was based on the 1968 anti-Vietnam war protests,” Ava Lyon-Sereno, a Columbia student and protester, told the Independent newspaper. “It really feels like we’re continuing a tradition.”

Negotiations appear to be underway at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus where a small encampment was set up by pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the Lowenstein building on Wednesday.

According to one X user, the campus ministry appeared to be speaking with protesters inside the building and the X user later added that an "organizer" said if those inside the encampment don't leave within one hour, arrests and suspensions will follow. Meanwhile, according to CNN, more than 50 protesters outside the building were chanting "free free Palestine" while NYPD set up a barrier around the perimeter of the demonstrations.

A Columbia faculty member who asked to be kept anonymous told Yahoo News that the goal of this afternoon’s Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine protest is to share their frustration with the administration.

“There’s a sense among faculty that the administration is running rogue and has trashed all the norms of governance and due process,” he said. “A good fraction of the [faculty’s] outrage isn’t necessarily about the [Israel-Palestine] conflict, but it’s about [the administration’s] reaction and tone deafness.”

One chant being repeated by faculty is, “Cops off our campus,” in response to the increased New York Police Department presence. Columbia President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik said in a statement on Wednesday that she had “no choice” but to bring more officers to campus.

“That’s exactly a violation of the autonomy of the university — we have our own public safety,” the faculty member told Yahoo News. “The administration should not need the New York City Police Department as its private police force to keep order on campus.”

Last Friday, Columbia’s senate voted for an investigation into the school’s leadership for allegedly violating the due process rights of students and professors. According to the faculty member who spoke to Yahoo News, the school did not check with the faculty senate before bringing in the NYPD.

“There’s a real breakdown of the mechanisms in the way the university is run,” he said. “Regardless of what you think about Israel and Palestine, I think this is really insane.”

After being suspended for participating in a pro-Palestinian demonstration over the weekend at Arizona State University, a group of students filed a lawsuit against the school on Tuesday evening.

The students say they received a notice from the university following last weekend's protests.

“Effective immediately, you are placed on Interim Suspension and are trespassed from all property owned, leased, operated, or under the control of ASU. This status means you may not come to any ASU campus for any reason other than to meet with the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities at pre-arranged times," read letter the students said was sent to them and signed by ASU's associate dean of students.

Read more from The Arizona Republic.

Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday morning, NYPD Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard brought a chain he said was used to secure Hamilton Hall at Columbia University.

"This is not what students bring to school," Sheppard said. "This is what professionals bring to campuses and universities."

Hours later, NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban brought the same chain to a press conference with New York Mayor Eric Adams, dropping it on a table for effect.

But online, cycling enthusiasts were quick to point out that the chain appeared to be a standard bike lock — one that Columbia itself sold to students.

A crowd of Columbia faculty, student workers and staff gathered outside of Kent Hall on Amsterdam Ave. around noon on Wednesday.

Two people in the gathering confirmed to Yahoo News that it was organized by the Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, a group under the UAW which is the union that represents workers in higher education across the U.S.

The Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine represents employees at Columbia, Barnard and the Teachers College. Speakers called for the school to remove the New York Police Department presence on campus and restarted chants for Columbia to disclose divestments.

At her daily briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that President Biden supports peaceful protests, but draws a line when it comes to protesters occupying buildings like they did at Columbia and elsewhere.

"Americans have the right to peacefully protest, as long as it's within the law," Jean-Pierre said. "Forcibly taking over a building is not peaceful. It's just not.

"Students have the right to feel safe, they have the right to learn, they have the right to do this without disruption," she added. "They have the right to attend their commencement without feeling unsafe."

CUNY for Palestine, the organizers of the protest at the City College of New York, put out a press release on Wednesday alleging that demonstrators were "viciously attacked" during the overnight arrests, contradicting NYPD officials who said earlier that no one was injured during its operation on the Harlem campus.

"Police broke the ankle of an undergraduate student, broke the teeth of two protestors, attacked and burned many students, faculty and at least one journalist with pepper spray at close range, and beat many more with batons," CUNY for Palestine said in its release. "We will not be intimidated by these brutal and spineless tactics. We realize they express the university’s fear of our commitment to the Palestinian national liberation struggle. We take our lead from the steadfast resistance of the Palestinian people, who face far greater threats and challenges than we do here."

The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Demonstators and administrators at Northwestern University reached an agreement late Monday to rein in protests by removing tents, sound systems and participants who do not attend or are not faculty and staff at the University.

Protesters will have to end their demonstrations by June 1.

In exchange, this fall the university will reestablish its "Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility," which will include representation from students, faculty and staff. Administrators will also immediately provide temporary space for Muslim and Middle Eastern and North African students.

However, critics of the deal, like the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League Midwest, said that the agreement didn't do enough to protect Jewish students on campus, according to the Associated Press.

One of the protest organizers spoke to the AP in response to the criticism.

UCLA has canceled all Wednesday classes citing the overnight "distress caused by the violence that took place on Royce Quad," according to a campus activity update. Royce Hall and Powell Library are also closed, and students are encouraged to avoid that specific area.

"We have law enforcement presence stationed throughout campus to help promote safety. Student Affairs will have essential staff on campus to support our students who have been impacted by this tragedy," the campus update states.

The hospital and health system, PreK-12 schools, and the campus's conference center will remain open.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik released a statement Wednesday morning after the NYPD was called in late Tuesday to clear the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus as well as the occupation of Hamilton Hall.

Yahoo News spoke to Ben Solomon, a 22-year-old senior at Columbia University, who described the environment on campus recently as “very discomforting.”

“I think it’s scary when you have students who are fully disguised, who cover themselves to hide behind anonymity, who then engage in these acts of violence, who told us to go back to Europe,” he said. “It’s a very discomforting environment.” In a statement released Monday, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik blamed “external actors” for contributing to a “hostile environment in violation of Title VI, especially around our gates, that is unsafe for everyone — including our neighbors.”

While many have condemned the university’s decision to call in the NYPD to clear protesters who had barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall, Solomon said he thought last night’s actions by the police were “necessary as a law enforcement matter.”

Solomon said he’s “very much” concerned about final exams and his upcoming graduation in light of all the recent chaos on campus, noting that libraries and even dining halls have been been shut down.

“It’s a very uncertain time,” he said.

Students at Fordham College at Lincoln Center set up an encampment in the lobby of the Lowenstein Center on Wednesday.

According to its college newspaper, the Fordham Ram, the demonstration was organized by the Fordham Students for Justice in Palestine "to urge Fordham to divest from Israel."

NYPD officers have gathered outside of the building, according to an X user.

At least 12 people have been arrested at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, campus police said in a statement.

The encampment on campus has been disassembled, there is no threat to safety and the school is operating normally, the statement said, though campus police may remain on the scene to make sure any remaining protests are "safe and lawful."

Palestinian students in Gaza say they are following the demonstrations on U.S. college campuses closely and have gained renewed strength from their student peers in the United States.

Reem Musa Suleiman Abu Shinar, who was studying law before Oct. 7, told NBC News: "I feel proud that there is a group of students who feel what we feel now — and are helping and supporting us."

NBC also spoke with Ezz Lulu, a 22-year-old medical student in the north of Gaza who urged students to "keep fighting for what's right [...] You are making a difference."

Read more from NBC News.

Yahoo News is reporting from Columbia University this morning, where the campus is quiet after a tense operation last night by the NYPD to clear protesters led to dozens of arrests.

Campus security told Yahoo News that only students with IDs are allowed back on the campus. They confirmed that the encampment, which demonstrators had set up with flags and tents in the middle of campus, is now gone. No protesting is currently taking place on the campus.

New York Police Department officers also remain on the scene outside the campus gates.

Los Angeles Times reporters Teresa Watanabe and Safi Nazzal captured the violence that broke out on UCLA's campus overnight, sharing a video on X of counterprotesters attacking a protester standing outside of the encampment.

Another video showed counterprotesters tearing down a pro-Palestinian encampment and throwing objects at protesters.

Here's how the L.A. Times reporters detailed the violent incidents:

Protesters and counterprotesters clashed at a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA on Wednesday. Photos from the scene show people physically attacking one another: fistfights, kicking, shoving — and using sticks to hit others.

Read more from the Associated Press here.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations have erupted across campuses nationwide, with Columbia University being the epicenter. Since April 18, when more than 100 protesters were arrested at the Manhattan campus, more than 1,000 people have been arrested on more than 25 campuses spanning at least 21 states, according to a CNN analysis of university and law enforcement statements.

At the press conference with New York Mayor Eric Adams, NYPD Patrol Chief John Chell said that police arrested 282 demonstrators overnight — 173 at City College and 109 at Columbia University.

The charges for those arrested included trespassing, criminal mischief and burglary.

Chell said that law enforcement officials were working to determine how many of them were students.

Law enforcement started detaining and escorting protesters away from Library Mall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Amid the pushing between demonstrators and the police, it is unclear how many people have been detained.

Tyler Katzenberger, a former managing editor at the Daily Cardinal — the student newspaper at the school — reported that three tents appear to be left after police cleared the area.

School administrators at the University of California, Los Angeles, have beefed up law enforcement on campus following escalating violence between protesters and counter-protesters overnight. However, UCLA's college newspaper called out its chancellor, Gene Block, for doing "little" to protect students.

Here's what the Daily Bruin said in an editorial published this morning:

At a press conference on Wednesday morning, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that approximately 300 people were arrested at Columbia University and the City College of New York overnight, and that police were in the process of determining how many of those arrested were students.

Adams said that at the written request of both schools, the NYPD conducted operations to "remove those who have turned the peaceful protest into a place where antisemitism and anti-Israel attitudes were pervasive.”

The mayor said "outside agitators" were to blame for turning the student-led protests into something more sinister.

“There is a movement to radicalize young people, and I’m not going to wait until it is done and all of a sudden acknowledge the existence of it,” he said.

Asked for proof that there were outside influences at play, Adams said: "We saw evidence of training, we saw a shift in tactics being used, and when start using the intelligence that intel agencies were able to supply, we knew it was time to communicate directly with the schools to say you have more than a peaceful protest on your hands."

At Tulane University in New Orleans, six people have been arrested, and seven students who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations there have been suspended, according to a message the school sent to the university community early Wednesday.

“We value free speech and have supported numerous lawful demonstrations throughout this year,” the university said in the statement. “But we remain opposed to trespassing, hate speech, antisemitism and bias against religious or ethnic groups.”

Officials said four buildings on campus remain closed Wednesday as the protests continued. Classes held in those building were going remote.

Early Wednesday morning, University of Arizona police said that they were spraying "chemical irritant munitions" to get "an unlawful assembly" of crowds to leave the campus, according to the school’s campus announcement system, UAlert.

Brown University President Christina Paxson announced a deal Tuesday between the school and protesters that will bring an end to an encampment on campus in exchange for concessions on a divestment vote.

“The school agreed to let five students meet with the Corporation of Brown University in May to argue why they should vote to divest from companies associated with Israel or its war in Gaza. The Advisory Committee on University Resources Management will also provide recommendations related to divestment by the end of September, and the board will vote on the policy in October,” The Hill reported.

Law enforcement broke through a chain of protesters at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this morning after giving a “final warning,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The local paper reported that there was a crowd of over 200 people on the campus, with some being hit on the head with police riot shields.

Tim Elliott, an anchor at WMTV, Madison's NBC affiliate, posted several videos about what he described as “absolute chaos taking place on campus.”

After arresting dozens of protesters who tried to take over an administration building at City College of New York overnight, NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry posted a video on social media that appeared to show officers removing a Palestinian flag from a flagpole on the school's campus and replacing it with an American flag.

Police were called to break up protests on the Manhattan campuses of Columbia University and the City College of New York last night.

See more photos from the protests on Yahoo News.

NYPD officers made dozens of arrests at the City College of New York overnight after protesters tried to take over an administration building on its Harlem campus, police and school officials said. The arrests came after city police cleared a building that had been occupied by protesters at nearby Columbia University.

In an emergency notice posted to the school's website, City College said that all in-person classes have been canceled and will be conducted virtually until further notice.

"This is obviously a wrenching moment for the CCNY community and for me personally," City College's President Vincent Boudreau said in a letter to students and staff. "I know that you all join me in the fervent hope that this encampment can be brought to a peaceful conclusion."