LOS ANGELES — The end of encampments at some American college campuses this spring was not the end of pro-Palestinian protests at Harvard and UCLA.
Some attendees at Harvard College’s annual graduation Thursday staged a walkout to decry the institution’s disqualification of 13 students involved in earlier protests.
At the University of California Los Angeles on Thursday, administrators and the Los Angeles Police Department faced the return of pro-Palestinian protesters to the heart of campus.
On Wednesday, Harvard said faculty members who voted to re-invite 13 student protesters omitted from commencement were overruled by one of the institution’s two governing boards.
The omission set off some of those invited to commencement, and a walkout was staged shortly before 11 a.m. Thursday, with some participants chanting, “Let them walk,” and other slogans, for about 10 minutes, according to video from the event.
Interim president Alan M. Garber spoke at commencement and was prepared for the action.
“As our ceremony proceeds, some among us may choose to take the liberty of expressing themselves to draw attention to events unfolding in the wider world,” he said, according to Harvard Public Affairs and Communications. “It is 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 Harvard would allow participants to graduate under an agreement between Garber and the Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine Coalition, according to NBC Boston.
A representative for the Harvard University Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for more information on the walkout.
Protesters at colleges across the U.S. and in other countries set up encampments this spring to decry civilian deaths and displacement in Gaza during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, and to call for schools to divest from financial support of Israel. Harvard’s encampment was voluntarily dismantled. The university said it would meet with protesters to discuss disclosure and divestment.
In its statement on Wednesday, Harvard said it planned to confer 1,539 degrees to Harvard College students. The school said it would fast-track degrees for the 13 excluded on Thursday if they mount successful appeals.
“We understand that the inability to graduate is consequential for students and their families,” the institution said.
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 has clouded what should be a joyous occasion. “It is bittersweet, people in my house, my friends they 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 on duty is at full strength — after protesters returned to the heart of the UCLA campus in the city’s Westwood community.
Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at Kerckhoff patio before dozens heeded a protester’s megaphone-amplified call for a “takeover” of nearby Dodd Hall.
Police in riot gear staged nearby. The tire of one police cruiser appeared to have been slashed.
By mid-afternoon, a Palestinian flag extended from an upstairs window at Dodd Hall. Downstairs it appeared students were able to leave the building, but multiple news outlets, including NBC News were not invited inside.
Scrawled on the outside of the academic building were the words “Intifada Hall” — using the Arabic word meaning “uprising.”
A UCLA statement attributed to two of its top leaders said the university will not tolerate an encampment this time.
“Demonstrators 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,” it said.
On April 30, a mob attacked pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA for a few hours before police intervened. Authorities broke up the weeklong encampment and arrested more than 200 people two days later.
Inaction by campus and Los Angeles city police during the first hours of the April 30 clash was the subject of multiple investigations, and UCLA’s chief of police, John Thomas, has been reassigned pending the outcome of a campus inquiry.
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 dislodge April’s encampment on campus.
“We should have been prepared to immediately remove the encampment,” Block said.
Asked about Thursday’s protest, he said, “There is no encampment, and we have no demonstrations that are problematic.”
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