Tulane University suspended five students and the school’s chapter of Students for Democratic Society on Tuesday after pro-Palestinian protestors marched to Gibson Hall Monday night and pitched a tent encampment, the university said Tuesday afternoon.
Six people were arrested Monday evening, including one student, Tulane administrators said.
The school warned more suspensions are forthcoming.
The tent encampment persisted Tuesday afternoon with little police crackdown even as the university warned those involved are trespassing and subject to arrest.
About ten tents remained on the grass lawn outside of Gibson Tuesday afternoon. Police placed barricades after 2 p.m. to separate the encampment from the building.
The group had shrunk since Monday night, when about 200 protesters marched to Gibson Hall.
But organizers who remained demanded Tulane and Loyola Universities disclose any investments in Israeli corporations and divest from them.
“We feel we’re entitled to know,” said Carson Cruse, a member of Loyola Students for Democratic Society. “We’re here to cooperate.”
The group will stay on Gibson until their demands are met, Cruse said. It is unclear how many on the lawn are Tulane students, but Tulane Students for Democratic Society has advertised the encampment on social media. Tulane has said the group is mostly outsiders, but protesters on the lawn say those inside are affiliated with Tulane and Loyola.
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Tulane leaders said they suspended the Students for Democratic Society group “because of their involvement in this illegal protest.”
The university also warned any employee who joins the protest is subject to discipline and termination.
“TUPD moved in immediately to attempt to stop the encampment Monday afternoon,” Kirk Bouyelas, Tulane’s associate vice president of public safety & community engagement, and Dean of Students Erica Woodley said in a statement. “However, at the direction of NOPD and Louisiana State Police, we are now focused on containing and ending the protest. Our overarching goal as we move forward remains the safety of all and the resumption of all normal operations on our campus.”
The school has not answered questions about how it plans to end the protest on Tuesday or why it is allowing the encampment to remain in place for a second day even as university leaders condemn the group as outsiders who are illegally trespassing on private property.
Several pro-Palestinian protesters declined to speak to The Hullabaloo about why they were protesting on Tuesday. But Vonne Crandell, a Tulane senior and protest spokesperson, told the Times-Picayune the university sent him and at least three other students disciplinary letters Tuesday morning that said they were suspended and banned from campus.
Tulane senior Yasmeen Ohebsion condemned the protesters and said Tulane had been unclear with Jewish groups about whether the protest was allowed.
“If Jewish student leaders are promised swift action,” she said, “then something needs to change.”
She said police told Jewish student leaders they wanted to break up the encampment but were waiting on Tulane’s approval to do so.
At 1:50 p.m., as a few more police arrived on the scene, the protesters locked arms around the encampment and fortified it with wooden crates, tires and folding chairs.
Authorities briefly stopped traffic on St. Charles Avenue Tuesday afternoon while they drove a billboard truck onto the lawn with an electronic sign that warned the group they were trespassing and must leave the area “immediately.”
The group grew smaller and the circle of protesters tightened. They chanted slogans and a protester inside the encampment spoke through a megaphone to condemn Tulane because they said the school “would rather sic cops on unarmed students than meet with them.”
Around 20 police officers faced 30 to 40 protesters at 2:20 p.m. but had taken no action to disband the group.
By 2:30 p.m., police began placing metal barricades between the protesters and Gibson Hall.
By then, a group of pro-Israel students, some draped in Israeli flags, gathered on the sidewalk to watch the protesters in the encampment. The group remained peaceful and mostly did not clash with the encampment group.
Police began blasting upbeat music in the late afternoon from speakers near the electronic billboard warning in an apparent attempt to drown out the protesters’ chants.
Crowds swelled Tuesday evening to about 120 protesters who waved flags, sang “free Palestine” and cheered when passing cars honked approval.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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