LOS ANGELES — The end of encampments on some American college campuses this spring was not the end of pro-Palestinian protests at Harvard and UCLA.
Some attendees of Harvard College’s annual commencement on Thursday went on strike to condemn the institution’s disqualification of 13 students involved in previous protests.
On Thursday at the University of California Los Angeles, administrators and the Los Angeles Police Department faced the return of pro-Palestinian protesters to the center of the campus.
On Wednesday, Harvard said faculty members who voted to reinvite 13 student protesters who were excluded from graduation were overruled by one of the institution’s two boards of trustees.
The omission awakened some of the guests to the graduation, and a walkout was held just before 11 a.m. Thursday, with some participants shouting “Let them walk” and other slogans for about 10 minutes, according to video of the event.
Acting President Alan M. Garber spoke at the opening and was prepared for action.
“As our ceremony progresses, some of us may choose to take the liberty of expressing ourselves to draw attention to events unfolding in the wider world,” he said, according to Harvard Public Affairs and Communications. “It’s their right to do so.”
Garber observed a moment of silence in the name of “sympathy and empathy.”
Some protesters were unhappy because they were under the impression that Harvard would allow participants to graduate under an agreement between Garber and the Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine Coalition, according to NBCBoston.
A representative for the Harvard University Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for more information about the walkout.
Protesters at universities in the US and other countries set up camps this spring to condemn the civilian deaths and displacement in Gaza during the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, and to call on schools to divest themselves of financial support for Israel. The Harvard camp was voluntarily dismantled. The university said it would meet with protesters to discuss disclosure and divestment.
In its statement released Wednesday, Harvard said it planned to confer 1,539 degrees on Harvard College students. The school said it would fast-track diplomas for the 13 excluded on Thursday if they lodged successful appeals.
“We understand that the inability to graduate has consequences for students and their families,” stated the institution.
In addition to the 13, five students were suspended and more than 20 face probation, according to NBC Boston.
Harvard student Margaret Mano said the exclusion clouded what should have been a joyous occasion. “It’s bittersweet, people in my house, my friends, can’t graduate with me,” she told NBC Boston.
On the West Coast Thursday, the LAPD was placed on high readiness — a citywide tactical alert that authorizes overtime so the force can be at full strength — after protesters returned to the heart of the UCLA campus. , in the city’s Westwood community.
Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in Kerckhoff’s courtyard before dozens of people heeded a protester’s megaphone-amplified call for a “takeover” of nearby Dodd Hall.
Police in riot gear parked nearby. A police cruiser’s tire appeared to have been slashed.
By mid-afternoon, a Palestinian flag stretched from an upstairs window of Dodd Hall. Downstairs, it appeared that students were able to exit the building, but several media outlets, including NBC News, were not invited inside.
Scrawled outside the academic building were the words “Hall of the Intifada,” using the Arabic word meaning “revolt.”
A UCLA statement attributed to two of its top leaders said the university will not tolerate a camp this time.
“Protesters have been informed that if they do not disperse, they will face arrest and possible disciplinary action, as well as an order to stay away from campus for 7 days,” he said.
On April 30, a mob attacked pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA for a few hours before police intervened. Authorities dismantled the week-long camp and arrested more than 200 people two days later.
The inaction of campus and Los Angeles police during the early hours of the April 30 confrontation has been the subject of multiple investigations, and UCLA Police Chief John Thomas has been reassigned pending the outcome of an investigation into campus.
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, one of three university leaders who spoke about the campus uprisings to the House Education and Workforce Committee on Thursday, said he regretted waiting days to clear the April encampment on campus.
“We should be prepared to immediately remove the camp,” Block said.
Asked about Thursday’s protest, he said: “There is no encampment and we have no demonstrations that are problematic.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
