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Protesters removed from University of Michigan commencement
FromCNN’s Whitney Wild, Andi Babineau and Amanda Musa
Pro-Palestinian protesters were removed from University of Michigan's main commencement ceremony after briefly interrupting the proceedings Saturday.
No one was arrested, according to Melissa Overton, the university's deputy police chief and public information officer.
Carlos Del Toro, the 78th US secretaryofthe Navy, was addressing the crowd at the time of the interruption and emphasized the importance of the right to protest peacefully.
"I’m extremely proud as a Cuban-American who came to this country as an immigrant and who also chose to serve for 26 years inuniform to again protect the libertiesofall Americans to protest peacefully in this country," Del Toro said.
Theprotesterswereremovedshortly after.
Photos from the commencement show that planes also flew banners with opposing messages over the ceremony.One read, "Divest from Israel," while the other said, "Stand with Israel."
Some context:Commencementsat the University of Michigan are ongoing with programs hosting separate ceremonies with distinguished speakers. Saturday's massive event at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor was the spring graduation ceremony for the whole university.
There will be designated areas for protests outside ceremony venues throughout the weekend, the University of Michigan said on its website, noting all commencement events will include security screenings, prohibit banners and flags, and be monitored by volunteers who will immediately “respond to disruptions, beginning with warnings.”
A ceremony for the university's School of Music, Theatre and Dance was also interrupted Friday.
This post has been updated to reflect information from the university's police department.
UC Irvine Chancellor: "I remain optimistic" that we can find a resolution
From CNN's Cheri Mossburg and Eva Rothenberg
In a statement to the University of California, Irvine campus community on Friday, Chancellor Howard Gillman said the university will continue to negotiate with pro-Palestinians on campus over issues of divestment.
Gillman said discussions were ongoing last week, with the university presenting a proposal to student leaders on Wednesday and receiving a counterproposal Thursday. He expressed his concern over some of the requests included in the counterproposal, "which were not part of (the students') initial demands."
"The counterproposal calls for ending numerous external partnerships that support our students through scholarships and facilitate long-standing research collaborations," Gillman said. "It also demands an end to a wide-range of academic and research collaborations with Israeli organizations and individuals. This would violate fundamental principles of academic freedom and would require us to discriminate based on a person’s nationality, which goes against our commitment to anti-discrimination and our principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion."
The majority of student protesters who oppose Israel’s military action in Gaza have demanded their universities sell investments in companies with financial ties to Israel, although the scope of the demands varies by school.
Gillman added that negotiations will continue on Monday, and thanked student protesters for ensuring that their encampment "remains peaceful and minimally disruptive of university activities."
Young Democrats face Gaza blowback as they try to mobilize students for Biden
From CNN'sGregory KriegandMichelle Shen
President Joe Biden’s support for the Israeli military offensive in Gaza mixed with student anger over police crackdowns onanti-war campus protestsare complicating the work of Democratic youth groups trying to engage young voters ahead of this year's election.
Last week, the College Democrats of America released a statement accusing the White House of employing a "cold shoulder strategy for its own base and all Americans who want to see an end to this war.”
Only 18% of young voters approved of Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, according to a Harvard/Institute of Politics poll conducted in March.
On Thursday, Biden condemned what he referred to as “disorder” in the anti-war demonstrations on college campuses across the United States. He said he supported “the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos.”
Asked if the protests had led him to change his thinking on the conflict, Biden answered, “No.”
Analysis: Columbia officials threw out the playbook for managing protests
From CNN's Allison Morrow
To understand why so many colleges suddenly have students occupying parts of their campuses, you have to go back to two weeks ago, on April 18, when Columbia University called in the police to bust up an encampment that pro-Palestinian protesters had set up just a day earlier.
In doing so, Columbia’s leadership threw out the playbook for managing protests that universities have honed for decades to keep students safe.
“There is a particular set of tactics that many of us in academia thought was an understood logic that university administrators have used to manage and control protesters,” said Sarah J. Jackson, a professor who studies the role of media and technology in movements for justice at the University of Pennsylvania.
Chief among those tactics: delaying and distracting.
Academics are accustomed to seeing those tactics deployed, especially when students are days away from the end of the semester — a natural time for demonstrations to lose steam. But that didn’t happen at Columbia.
The shockingly aggressive intervention by police is also why, overnight, dozens of campuses across the country saw students stage their own encampments in solidarity.
When non-violent protesters are met with intense physical suppression, “that tends to create a kind ofoutrage effect that then generates more protests,” Jackson said.
Continue reading for the full analysis of Columbia's response to protests.
Universities across the US will be holding graduation ceremonies after weeks of protest. Here's the latest
From CNN staff
Graduation ceremonies are set to take place at colleges and universities in the US this weekend after weeks of protests that saw more than 2,100 people arrested on more than 40 campuses across at least 25 states.
The wave of pro-Palestinian protests and college officials' concern for safety have already started affecting commencements. In Michigan, protesters interrupted the University of MichiganSchool of Music, Theatre & Dance commencement ceremony Friday, according to a video from a reporter with CNN affiliate Richmond Times-Dispatch.
And, theUniversity of Vermont's president announced Friday that Linda Thomas-Greenfield, theUS ambassador to the United Nations, will no longer deliver the commencementaddress. Some of the protesters on the campus had called on the university to rescind its invitation to Thomas-Greenfield.
All this comes weeks after the University of Southern California decided to rescindvaledictorian Asna Tabassum's invitationto speak at its ceremony. USC now plans hold a “family graduate celebration” on May 9,the school announcedFriday, just over a week after canceling the main graduation ceremony.
Here are the latest headlines:
Updates from New York
- Columbia University PresidentMinoucheShafiksaid in a video messageFriday that the protesters who occupied Hamilton Hall "crossed a new line." Columbia trustee Jeh Johnsonvoiced supportfor Shafik's message in which she called thepast two weeks on campus "among the most difficult inColumbia'shistory."
- The New York City Police Departmentarrested 43 peopleat The New School, a private university in the city, after the school requested assistance in dispersing illegal encampments, according to a NYPD spokesperson who spoke Friday to CNN affiliate WABC.
- Additionally, The New Schoolswitched to online learningFriday.
- The Council on American-Islamic Relations New York chapter on Fridaydenounced school administrationsatNew York University,The New School,University of BuffaloandStony Brook Universityover the arrestsof student protesters.
- Also, of the44 people arrested in Hamilton Hall at Columbia University this week, 13 were adults not affiliated with Columbia, six were students affiliated with other educational institutions, 23 were Columbia students and two were school employees, the universitysaid.
Updates from California
- USC started a disciplinary process for campus members "who have violated both our policies and the law," President Carol L. Folt said Friday.The university will take any further action needed to keep the campus safe and maintain legal obligations, Folt said.
- UCLA's campus operations are expected to resume fully on Monday, the school said, after classes were canceled and then held remotely following violence at a protest encampment last week.
- Stanford University officials have sent the FBIa photoof a person at a campus encampment location who they say appears to be wearing a headband similar to those worn by Hamas members, school officialssaidthis week.
- The University of California, Riverside, administration and protesters reachedan agreementFriday regarding investment transparency and study abroad programs. The protest encampment on campus was due to disband by midnight Friday.
Universities around the world
- Students at Trinity College Dublinset up an encampment on campus grounds Friday evening as part of a pro-Palestinian protest.This comes not long after college authorities imposed a $230,000 (€214,000) fine on the students union for disruption caused by previous pro-Palestinian protests.
Updates in Illinois and Georgia
- The University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatossaidthe school has “reached that point” and would intervene because of disruptions and safety to the campus community.
- Emory University's College of Arts and Sciencesfaculty senateoverwhelmingly approveda vote of no confidence against university President Gregory L. Fenves on Friday. The vote is a condemnation of the decision to call in outside law enforcement officerswho arrested both students and facultyduring a pro-Palestinian protest on campuslast week.
Protests impact on the 2024 election
- US Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina,expressed concern about how the college campus protests could impact President Joe Biden's second-term presidential run, agreeing with Sen. Bernie Sanders, who warned that Biden's stance over Israel's war in Gaza may have alienated young voters.
UCLA campus operations to resume fully Monday with law enforcement present, university says
From CNN’s Paradise Afshar
Campus operationsare expected to resume "in full" on Monday at the University of California, Los Angeles, according toa university release.
"A law enforcement presence continues to be stationed around campus to help promote safety," the release said.
Campus operations will remain limited — and classes will be remote — through the weekend, the university said.
"Work, events and research activities are encouraged to remain remote or be rescheduled wherever possible during that period," the release said.
Student affairs staff will be on campus "to support our students," the school said, adding that people should avoid the Royce Quad area.The quad was the location of violence this week when several dozen men repeatedly attacked UCLA's pro-Palestinian protest encampment late Tuesday with crude weapons, according to video provided to CNN.
More than 200 people were arrested Thursday on suspicion of resisting orders to disperse from the now-dismantled encampment on the campus, UCLA Chancellor Gene BlocksaidThursday.
UCLA classes werecanceled Wednesday, and classes were remote starting Thursday.
Campus protesters are calling for divestment. It's happened before
From CNN's Samantha Delouya
Nearly all pro-Palestinian protests rocking college campuses across the US have called for universities to divest from Israel in some form.
What would divestment look like?
Divestment is the opposite of investment.
Many universities have an endowment, which is donated funds generally invested in stocks, bonds and other financial instruments to help the university earn money.
At Columbia, a group of students wants the college to divestits $13.6 billion endowment from any company linked to Israel, including Microsoft and Amazon.
Protesters at other schools, such as Cornell and Yale, want their universities to stop investing in weapons manufacturers.
What are university officials saying?
On Monday, Columbia’s administration reiterated that it would not divest from Israel. Last week, the University of California also said divestment wouldn’t happen.
But some colleges are willing to talk with protesters.
Christina Paxson, president of Brown University, sent a letter to demonstrators saying she would agree to hear a divestment proposal if the school’s encampment were disbanded, according to the student-run newspaper, theBrown Daily Herald.
They've been here before.
Columbia students protesting South Africa's apartheid racial segregation policy in the 1980s called on the school to sever its financial ties withcompanies doing business in the country.
Columbia eventually voted to sell most of its stock in South Africa-connected companies. Other colleges followed suit.
Read more here.
Student protesters at Columbia University have a history of pushing for divestment
From CNN'sClare DuffyandRamishah Maruf
A core demand over by thepro-Palestinianstudent groupsat Columbia University was for the school to withdraw investment funds from what they describe as companies profiting from Israel’s war in Gaza.
Columbia’s endowment is worth $13.6 billion and is managed by a university-owned investment firm.
The request from a coalition of student groups behind the movement includesdivesting endowment fundsfrom several weapons manufacturers and tech companies that do business with Israel’s government.
The group has described those companies as profiting “from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and military occupation of Palestine.” Israeldenies accusations of genocide.
This is not the first time such demands have been made.
In 2000, the university established an advisory committee on socially responsible investing, made up of students, faculty and alumni, to provide feedback to the managers of its endowment investments.
Columbia nowlists five areaswhere it refrains from investing: tobacco, private prison operations, thermal coal, Sudan and fossil fuels — all decisions made in the past decade.
Columbia was also the first Ivy League university to divest from South Africa, and variousother colleges followed suit.
In 2015, Columbia became thefirst US universityto divest from private prison companies after a student campaign raising concerns about human rights abuses.
A fossil fuel divestment proposal wasapprovedby Columbia’s Board of Trustees in early 2021. The policy includes a commitment not to invest in “companies whose primary business is the exploration and production of fossil fuels.” Columbia’s announcement was followed bysimilar commitmentsat other Ivy League universities.
Protesters interrupt University of MichiganSchool of Music, Theatre & Dance commencement ceremony
From CNN’s Whitney Wild, Andi Babineau, Michelle Watson and Aaron Eggleston
Protesters interrupted the University of MichiganSchool of Music, Theatre & Dance commencement ceremony Friday, according to a video from a reporter with CNN affiliate Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Several protesters entered the Hill Auditorium with pro-Palestinian signs and flags.A person was heard yelling "get out" as the protesters walked through theauditorium.
Police arrived soon after the incident, according to the Times-Dispatch.
CNN has reached out to the University of Michigan and its School of Music, Theatre & Dance for comment.
Later Friday evening, a large group of protesters were met with police on the University of Michigan’s campus on Friday evening. The group was outside the Museum of Art on campus and was heard chanting while interacting with police.
Some context: Commencements at the University of Michigan are ongoing with programs hosting separate ceremonies with distinguished speakers. Spring graduation is scheduled for the whole university on Saturday at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. There will be a designated area for protests outside ceremony venues, the University of Michigan said on its website, noting all commencement events will include security screenings, prohibit banners and flags, and be monitored by volunteers who will immediately “respond to disruptions, beginning with warnings.”
