A large number of New York City police officers began to enter Columbia University Tuesday night, while dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on campus.
Shortly before officers entered the campus, the New York Police Department received a notice from Columbia authorizing police to take action, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
After entering the campus, a contingent of police officers approached Hamilton Hall, the administration building that students began occupying in the morning.
The students had returned to setting up tents after police broke up an encampment at the university on April 18 and detained more than 100 people. Students had been protesting on the Manhattan campus from the day before, to express their opposition to the Israeli offensive in Gaza and to demand that the university divest from companies they claim are profiting from the conflict.
The protests have spread to campuses in various parts of the country as May graduation ceremonies approach, which has increased pressure on schools to clear protesters.
More than a thousand protesters have been arrested in the last two weeks on campuses in states such as Texas, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Connecticut, Louisiana, California and New Jerseysome after violent clashes with riot police.
“Step away from this situation now and continue your activism through other means,” New York Mayor Eric Adams told protesters in Columbia on Tuesday afternoon. “This must end now.”
The White House condemned the clashes in Columbia and at California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt campus, where protesters had occupied two buildings until baton-wielding officers intervened overnight and arrested 25 people. Authorities estimated total damage to the Northern California campus at more than $1 million.
President Joe Biden believes that the student occupation of academic buildings is “absolutely the wrong approach” and “not an example of peaceful protest,” he declared. John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council.
Other universities have attempted to negotiate agreements with protesters in hopes of holding peaceful graduation ceremonies.
