Protests against the Israel-Hamas war on college campuses and police responses continue to breach new levels of chaos, as Columbia students barreled past their school-mandated deadline Monday afternoon to clear their protest encampment and the University of Texas saw another wave of arrests.

The protest at Columbia University is entering its third week as students defy the school’s deadline. The encampment at the Ivy League school, which is protesting civilian casualties in Gaza and calling for the school to “divest from and disclose” Israel-supporting companies and affiliates, led to over 100 initial arrests in its first week.

A wave of similar ongoing protests followed at college campuses across the U.S. and even reaching Europe, including Harvard, Yale, the University of Southern California and the Sorbonne in Paris. Schools have seen hundreds of arrested students, cancelled graduation and other ceremonies, swellings of counterprotests and debates over antisemitism and hate speech on campus.

At Columbia on Monday, activists were given a 2 p.m. deadline to clear the encampment, sign a form to abide by university policies and “remain in good standing,” or face suspension, a school spokesperson said. Over 300 protestors and 120 tents remained on the campus in defiance of the ultimatum Monday afternoon, along with many counter-protestors demonstrating against antisemitism.

A Columbia spokesperson said university officials were “hopeful, and we were disappointed when the student protesters couldn’t reach consensus on the issues under discussion.”

Protests at the university shut down the Manhattan campus last week, forcing classes to go virtual.

At the University of Texas in Austin, protestors at the school’s encampment were met with dozens of police Monday, the AP reported. Six protestors were arrested and others were taken into custody. Officers reportedly used riot gear, pepper sprayed protestors attempting to block a truck and then used two flash bang explosives to clear a path off campus.

The police action, publicly heralded by Gov. Greg Abbott on social media, follows the arrest of 34 protestors at the Texas university last week when hundreds of police with horse, batons and other gear reportedly swarmed the protest.

Northwestern University became one of few schools to reach an agreement with protestors on Monday. After negotiations, officials at the Illinois school agreed to allow peaceful demonstrations to continue through June 1 and protestors agreed to remove tents and restrict protestors to only Northwestern students and staff.

Protests continued at Harvard on Monday, in spite of the university’s preemptive decision to close the campus to the public last Monday and crack down on any use of tents or tables on campus.

Related Articles

Auchincloss seeks answers after Mass. colleges earn poor grades on antisemitism

After Hamas killed his mother, an Israeli man chooses peace over vengeance

This 5-year-old from Gaza is learning to live with one leg and untold loss

Ahead of visit to Israel, US’s Blinken presses Hamas to accept new proposal for Gaza cease-fire

Columbia University begins suspending Israel-Hamas war protesters after ultimatum to disband camp

Northeastern University released a statement to the school community Monday. Police detained over 100 protestors from a demonstration on the Boston campus on Saturday, releasing students who presented IDs to face internal disciplinary measures and arresting protestors who refused to show ID.

Ninety-eight individuals were ultimately arrested, including 29 Northeastern students and six faculty and staff, the statement Monday said. Protestors were provided with advanced notice the “encampment would be dismantled,” university officials said Monday, and were offered “several” opportunities to leave.

“(G)iven the very public nature in which this weekend’s events unfolded, we are writing to shed light on the full set of circumstances that led the university to disperse an encampment that had overtaken Centennial Common,” wrote Northeastern Chancellor Ken Henderson and Provost David Madigan.

The statement cited three reasons for the decision to call in police: the encampment’s “an unauthorized occupation of university space,” the “increasing presence of protesters not affiliated with the university” and the “persistent use of intolerant and hurtful speech.”

The school officials noted university police believed the rising tensions would “soon present a threat to the safety of all involved.”

Authorities are investigating the identities of individuals who made “reprehensible antisemitic statements,” said Henderson and Madigan. A video provided by Massachusetts Peace Action of the Northeastern protest shows the main group of protestors chanting against hateful remarks made by a small separate group, the Herald previously reported.

“While debate and disagreement are hallmarks of academic discourse, we must never demonize those with whom we disagree,” the Northeastern statement read.