Harvard University again endangered suspensions for pro-Palestinian protesters if they don’t exit a campus encampment, escalating tensions in an impasse that’s left the school as one of the few elite colleges that hasn’t forcibly removed demonstrators.
The Ivy League university has so far resisted calling in the police to clear the encampment, a move that President Alan Garber has said would require a “very, very high bar.”
That’s in contrast to other schools that have cracked down on protesters ahead of commencement ceremonies, a marquee event for graduating students, parents, and powerful donors.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania cleared similar encampments early Friday, resulting in more than 40 arrests at the two schools, following a police sweep at Columbia University last week.
The protesters want the universities to — among other demands — cut their financial and academic ties to Israel, moves that are aimed at pressuring the country to stop its military operation in Gaza.
Israel launched a counterattack that’s killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in the enclave after a deadly Oct. 7 assault on the Jewish state by Hamas.
While some schools such as Brown University and Northwestern have agreed with protesters to hold discussions on divestment in exchange for an end to encampments, other rich institutions like Harvard, Columbia, and Penn have rebuffed such demands. Garber has said he “will not entertain” calls for divestment.
Rich donors from Robert Kraft to Marc Rowan and Barry Sternlicht have expressed furious opposition over the school’s handling of the protests.
Many university administrators have long viewed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, or BDS, movement against Israel as antisemitic because it calls into question the legitimacy of the Jewish state and singles out the policies of one country.
Protesters didn’t resist police action at Penn and MIT on Friday morning, the schools said.
Penn said its officers and the Philadelphia Police Department arrested 33 protesters for defiant trespass. MIT Police arrested 10 protesters.
President Sally Kornbluth said she had “no choice but to remove such a high-risk flashpoint at the very center of our campus.”
Harvard is trying to prepare for upcoming campus events on the Yard, where the encampment currently stands, including the main commencement on May 23, an event that typically draws more than 30,000 people.
The process of placing protesters on involuntary leave continues to move forward, a spokesperson for the school said Friday.
Suspended students wouldn’t be allowed on campus or in Harvard housing, Garber said this week.
“The ongoing protest encampment within Harvard Yard has continued in violation of university policies, creating a significant disruption to the educational environment at a key time in the semester as students are taking finals and preparing for commencement,” the spokesperson said.
The Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance slammed “Harvard’s fecklessness” and urged its members to “encourage bold action” by the school’s leadership. The alumni group said the encampment should be disbanded immediately, “by force if necessary,” and the students behind it expelled.
The student group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine said early Friday that Garber rejected a proposal “that would move Harvard forward on transparency and ethical investment” in exchange for taking down their encampment.
The spokesperson for the school said Garber offered to arrange a meeting between students and a member of a shareholder responsibility committee, but only if the protest came to a voluntary end.
“President Garber has made clear the university’s commitment to reasoned discussion of complex issues, including the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“However, as he said, ‘Initiating these difficult and crucial conversations does not require, or justify, interfering with the educational environment and Harvard’s academic mission.’”
