Dozens of MIT students who refused to clear an anti-Israel encampment on campus Monday are being suspended and referred to the Committee on Discipline, Chancellor Melissa Nobles wrote in a Tuesday update.

Nobles did not specify the exact number of students being sanctioned nor disclose the institute’s plan in breaking down the encampment.

Her update comes after President Sally Kornbluth warned student protesters, in a letter, that if they did not leave the Kresge lawn, where tents are set up, by 2:30 p.m. Monday, they’d either be suspended, face other sanctions, or both.

Roughly a handful of students remained at the encampment just after 3 p.m., and tents remained standing while fenced and tarps blocked off the area. Dozens of police surrounded the entrances and monitored the area.

But hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters returned in the evening, breaking through the barriers as they continued to call for the institute to end all research contracts sponsored by the Ministry of Defense of Israel.

“In light of yesterday’s actions, we write to remind students of the disciplinary consequences of disrupting our campus,” Nobles wrote in the Tuesday update. “As a consequence of events that have already occurred, dozens of interim suspensions and referrals to the Committee on Discipline are now in process, in accordance with the outline described in yesterday’s letter from President Kornbluth. As we said previously, these actions are necessary to ensure the safety of our community.”

A temporary fence continued to divide the Kresge lawn on Tuesday, with tents on one side and hundreds of small Israeli flags planted into the grass on the other, where Israeli and Jewish students gathered in the afternoon for an Israeli Independence Day celebration.

In her letter Monday, Kornbluth expressed concerns for the  “physical safety” of students as well as “outside interference and potential violence” in her letter. The letter cited reports of “widely disseminated literature that advocates escalation, with very clear instructions and suggested means.”

“Without our 24-hour staffing, students sleeping outside overnight in tents would be vulnerable,” Kornbluth wrote. “And no matter how peaceful the students’ behavior may be, unilaterally taking over a central portion of our campus for one side of a hotly disputed issue and precluding use by other members of our community is not right. This situation is inherently highly unstable.”

The letter outlined a range of sanctions that student protesters could face if they did or did not leave the encampment voluntarily by Monday afternoon. They included a written warning, immediate interim academic suspension for the remainder of the semester and exclusion of participation in commencement and co-curricular activities, and academic suspension and being kicked off the Cambridge campus immediately.

At Harvard, interim President Alan Garber has warned of potential suspensions and sanctions over an encampment in Harvard Yard.

In a letter Monday, Garber highlighted how the disruptions from the encampment “have been numerous,” including exams being moved elsewhere and access to Harvard Yard being sharply limited.” Commencement preparations are also being impacted, he said.

“Those who participate in or perpetuate the continuation (of the encampment) will be referred for involuntary leave from their Schools,” Garber wrote. “Among other implications, students placed on involuntary leave may not be able to sit for exams, may not continue to reside in Harvard housing, and must cease to be present on campus until reinstated.

In response, more than 300 professors signed a letter by Tuesday afternoon, urging Garber and interim Provost John F. Manning to “engage with students on the substance of their demands and have criticized the administration for failing to speak with peaceful student protestors except to issue escalating threats of discipline.”

“I think so many of us signed this letter because, as faculty, we have a duty of care towards our students,” creative writing professor Teju Cole said in a statement. “The harshness and scale of the proposed punishment is unprecedented and frankly alarming; these are activities that should be met with dialogue, not punishment.”

Workers put fences up around the MIT encampment after they were knocked down Monday. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
Israeli flags are planted outside the MIT encampment as workers put fences up after they were knocked down yesterday. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)