University presidents testify as US colleges see more protests | CNN Business (2024)

Demonstrators on the University of California Los Angeles campus staged a sit-in at Dodd Hall Thursday afternoon.

Protesters were also gathered outside the building on the steps and across the street. Many were heard shouting, “Divest now!”

Demonstrators were only letting certain people in and out of the building, a CNN crew observed. At one point a photographer was pushed out of the building and fell to the ground, but the demonstration appears largely peaceful.

The initial law enforcement presence has dwindled and only security guards appear to be on site as of 3:30 p.m. PT.

CNN has reached out to UCLA for comment.

Police officers at UCLA are engaging with pro-Palestinian protesters, who have been directed to disperse immediately, as seen in aerial footage from CNN affiliate KABC.

A group of officers in riot gear and a group of protesters was seen pushing against each other briefly. A large group of protesters could then be seen moving down the street.Other formations of officers were viewed in the vicinity of the protest.

“The Office of the Administrative Vice Chancellor, in partnership with the Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus Safety, has withdrawn consent to remain on campus for the demonstrators on Kerckhoff patio, asking them to disperse immediately,” a statement from UCLA Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael Beck and Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus Safety Rick Braziel said.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block testified during the House hearing on antisemitism on campus earlier today.

From left: Michael Schill, president of Northwestern University, Jonathan Holloway, president of Rutgers University, Frederick M. Lawrence, secretary and CEO, The Phi Beta Kappa Society, and Gene Block, chancellor of the UCLA, during a House Education and the Workforce Committeehearingon pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 23.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce’shearing on campus antisemitismThursday came with no shortage of fiery exchanges between lawmakers and the heads of Northwestern University, Rutgers University, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

This was the committee’s first hearing since the formation ofpro-Palestinian protest encampments at schools nationwide. Demonstrators calling for an end to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and divestment from Israel-linked entities seriously disrupted campus life at all three of the schools. Lawmakers used the hearing to scrutinize the administrations’ response.

Here’s what happened on Capitol Hill:

University heads can’t win: Northwestern President Michael Schill and Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway negotiated with protesters rather than authorizing police to disband encampments, which UCLA Chancellor Gene Block ultimately did.

Both approaches received considerable rebuke from lawmakers on the Republican-led committee, though some Democratic lawmakers commended the negotiations.

But Block was also criticized by some lawmakers for not authorizing police to step in sooner, and he faced particular rebuke from Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who focused on an April 30 incident in which a group of people attacked the school’s pro-Palestinian encampment for hours without intervention by law enforcement. Omar referenced a CNN report on the attackers, many of whom expressed pro-Israel sentiments.

Limited consequences so far: In one of the hearing’s tensest exchanges, Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik slammed Schillfor not taking action over allegations that a person told a Jewish student at the school to “go back to Germany and get gassed.”

Schill said he heard about that happening and “it is being investigated.”So far, no students who are being investigated for various alleged acts of antisemitism have been expelled or suspended, he said.

Rutgers’ Holloway and UCLA’s Block similarly said the universities have many active investigations underway. Holloway said his school has suspended four people and 19 others have received additional disciplinary actions.

A bounty of lawyerly responses: If you tuned in to Thursday’s hearing and thought the responses university heads gave were pre-rehearsed, it’s because they likely were.

The three university heads at the hearing had the advantage of learning from the prior campus hearings. They leaned into giving lawyerly responses, especially in tense lines of questioning, to avoid being cornered into taking a stance on divisive issues.

Schill also declined multiple times to discuss specific staff members or students raised by committee members.

Graduating students walk out of the he 373rd Commencement Exercises atHarvardUniversity in support of 13 students not able to graduate because of their participation in pro-Palestinian protests in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 23.

As the House hearing was still happening, over a thousand people walked out of Harvard’s commencement ceremony on Thursday in protest of the university’s decision to bar 13 senior undergraduates from participating over their pro-Palestinian activities, according to the school newspaper.

Those who left the ceremony also chanted “let them walk,” according to the Harvard Crimson.

Video and photos from the commencement show people in caps and gowns walking in a street holding signs and chanting pro-Palestinians slogans. Several flew Palestinian flags, and someone beat a drum in time with the chants.

Harvard’s interim president, Alan Garber, acknowledged the recent turmoil on campus at the start of his remarks.

“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. It is their right to do so. But it is their responsibility to do so with our community — and this occasion — in mind,” he said.

A screengrab from a video shows a barricade set up by protesters today on UCLA’s campus in Los Angeles, CA.

A pro-Palestinian protest encampment has resurfaced on the campus of the University of California Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Police Department is on tactical alert, meaning all officers in the city are on standby, but they have not been called to respond to campus, according to Officer Drake Madison.

Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA want others to join the protest, according to the group’sInstagram story.

Aerial footage from CNN affiliate KABC shows about two dozen protesters marching with signs outside the encampment.

Protesters have set up barricades, according to footage from CNN affiliate KCAL and KCBS, which also show people in yellow vests. A sign with “end police terror” could also be seen.

Some context: Thursday’s demonstration comes about three weeks after violent clashes led to a largeencampment being disbandedby the law enforcement.

CNN’s Chris Boyette contributed to this reporting.

The post has been updated with more details from the scene at UCLA.

Committee chairwoman Rep. VirginiaFoxx(R-NC) speaks during a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing on pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, on Capitol Hill in Washington, today.

Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx, the chair of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, closed today’s hearing by vowing the lawmakers would take further action to investigate antisemitism on college campuses.

Today’s hearing was characterized by at-times rough questioning from the Republican majority on the committee, with members accusing the university leaders of failing to protect Jewish students. Some of the committee’s Democratic members painted the Republican questioning as political grandstanding, and highlighted instances in which the schools successfully engaged with student protesters — or failed to protect them from violent counterprotesters.

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Dr. Jonathan Holloway, the President of Rutgers University, testifies at today's hearing called "Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos" before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Capitol Hill. University leaders are being asked to testify by House Republicans about how colleges have responded to pro-Palestinian protests and allegations of antisemitism on their campuses.

Wisconsin Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman hammered the president of Rutgers University on an agreement the school made with protesters to allow admission to displaced Palestinians.

Grothman said that in the school’s agreement with demonstrators who set up an encampment on campus, the university agreed to set aside 10 spaces for displaced Palestinian students to finish their education at Rutgers.

The Republican lawmaker asked Rutgers President Dr. Jonathan Holloway if he considered that a violation of anti-discrimination law.

Grothman, cutting Holloway off, said the agreement appeared to reward Palestinians for the “trouble they are causing and the hate they are encouraging.” He accused Rutgers of giving support to Palestinian students that isn’t being given to others.

“Rutgers is one of the most diverse campuses, universities in the country,” Holloway said, reiterating that there are already programs in place to help refugee students.

Rep Ilhan Omar speaks during the House Education Committee on Education & the Workforce in Washington, DC,today.

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar has taken aim at University of California, Los Angeles, President Gene Block, asking him why he didn’t take action sooner to stop violence against protesters on the campus.

Omar noted that external agitators were present at UCLA protests, who were not students.

“Why have the violent agitators, who you know have been identified, not been held accountable for assaulting over 150 of your students?” she asked.

Some background: Law enforcement stood by for hours without intervening as a group of people, many of whom expressed pro-Israel sentiments at the time or on social media, attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA on April 30.

Many of the assailants hid their faces behind masks and scarves, but posts on social media and a CNN investigation earlier this month unmasked some of the violent counterprotesters.

Omar referenced the CNN report in questioning Block on why further action hadn’t been taken against the attackers.

Rep. Haley Stevens speaks during the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing on antisemitism on college campuses today on Capitol Hill.

Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens blasted Republican members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce for “pretending” to care about equity during today’s hearing.

Stevens brought up a legislation that failed during the 2022 term of Congress that would have excluded LGBTQ+ students from receiving mental health care on campuses.

Stevens added that she hoped those members would not vote to exclude other students from minority groups as well.

“We have tons of issues before us in this country, and frankly those who pretend to care about equity, as we have seen time and time again in this committee, is an outrage. It is an absolute outrage,” Stevens said.

She added:

Northwestern University president Michael Schill testifies during aHouseEducation and the WorkforceCommitteehearing on pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on May 23.

Northwestern President Michael Schill, Rutgers President Dr Jonathan Holloway, and Dr. Gene Block, from UCLA are appearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing to address antisemitism on university campuses.

In it, the university presidents have been asked about their responses to the pro-Palestinian encampments on campus, and how they have responded to antisemitism on campus.

At times exchanges between the university presidents and lawmakers have been tense.

If you’re just joining us, let us break it down for you.

Here are some of the key things we’ve learned from the hearing so far:

Student suspensions across campus: At Northwestern, no students have been suspended or expelled yet as the university investigates allegations of antisemitism. At Rutgers University, investigations are underway which have led to the suspension of four students, with 19 others receiving disciplinary actions. At UCLA, over 100 investigations are still underway – so few students have been disciplined yet.

Fiery exchanges between Republicans and Schill: Schill has endured the brunt of much of the questioning this morning. He declined multiple times to discuss specific staff members or students when questioned about what Republican Rep. Tim Walberg described as antisemitic rhetoric. Schill said the university is creating a task force with faculty, staff and administrators who are “committed to fighting antisemitism, and as committed to fighting antisemitism as I am.”

Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik took aim at Schill about allegations of abuse toward Jewish students on Northwestern campus.

Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana also called Schill’s testimony “embarrassing.”

Police not called: Schill told the Committee that bringing in police as an option to de-escalate the protests on campus was not possible because it would not have ensured safety.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal speaks during the House Education Committee on Education & the Workforce in Washington, DC,today.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington, criticized Republicans on the committee for using the antisemitism hearing for what she called “political bullying” rather than addressing core issues regarding campus protests.

Jayapal said she recognizes the difficult balance university presidents must strike between upholding the right to free speech and protest while not allowing them to be “twisted into weapons of hate.” She said antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hate have no place on college campuses.

But Jayapal said the fiery questioning from Republicans on the committee, including Rep. Jim Banks, who preceded Jayapal and called the Northwestern University president’s testimony “embarrassing,” was more geared toward political grandstanding than exploring the issues.

Jayapal asked Northwestern President Michael Schill about other forms of hate on campus, including against Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students at the university.

Schill said the school is investigating complaints about this form of hatred. He referenced meetings he’s held with both Jewish and Muslim students, and said the school’s top priority is the safety of all students.

Schill also walked through the decision to negotiate with pro-Palestinian students rather than have police clear out an encampment that formed on campus, and credited the protesters for being willing to negotiate and make concessions to their demands.

Northwestern President Michael Schill said asking law enforcement to intervene “may not be the wise solution” given what has happened at other universities.

The Northwestern president defended the decision to instead reach an agreement with pro-Palestinian protesters.

“We were fortunate to have students who were willing to negotiate and willing to give up the demands they came to us with,” Schill said. “Their No. 1 demand was divestment. We said, ‘No.’ We said, ‘Absolutely not. Nothing that singles out Israel.’”

Schiller said that over time, the university was able to reach a deal with protesters, and he would take a similar approach in the future.

“I would listen to the needs of any community,” he said.

Rutgers University President Dr. Jonathan Holloway testifying before the House Education Committee on Education & the Workforce in Washington, DC,today.

Republican Rep. Bob Good pressed Rutgers University President Dr. Jonathan Holloway on whether he believes if Israel’s government is genocidal.

Good brought up a social post by Rutgers-Newark’s Center for Security,Race and Rights (CSRR), which according to the Good, called Israel’s government “genocidal.”

He then asked Holloway if he thinks Israel’s government is genocidal.

Holloway answered, “Sir, I don’t have an opinion on Israel’s — in terms of that phrase.”

Good again asked, “You do not have an opinion as to whether Israel’s government is genocidal?”

Holloway then said, “I think Israel has a right exist and to protect itself.”

Later on in the hearing, Republican Rep. Eric Burlison asked Holloway, Northwestern University President Michael Schill and Chancellor of University of California, Los Angeles Gene Block:

“No, I do not,” Schill responded.

“I do not,” Holloway said.

“Same, I do not,” Block said.

This post has been updated with Burlison’s question.

Rep. Jim Banks addresses Northwestern University President Michael Schill at the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing on antisemitism on college campuses today.

Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana, continued the grilling of Northwestern University President Michael Schill by highlighting a different case in which Schill took full responsibility for a controversial decision on campus.

Banks raised the firing of the school’s football coach over an alleged hazing incident, which is now the subject of a lawsuit. Schill said at the time the decision about how to discipline the coach was his alone, the congressman said.

As Banks recounted the coaching controversy, Schill expressed some resistance to discussing an ongoing legal issue and said, “Your premise is inaccurate.”

Banks jumped back in, telling Schill, “Don’t accuse me of that, that’s outrageous.”

The Republican congressman said his point was that, while Schill took full responsibility for acting in response to the coaching controversy, he was not doing so regarding journalism professor Steven Thrasher, who participated in protests at the school. Banks asked Schill whether Thrasher should still be employed at the school.

Schill repeated his earlier insistence that he would not comment on individual students and faculty members in the hearing. He said he believes in due process regarding a fair investigation for any faculty member at the school, and that the university followed its guidelines in addressing the football coach, just as it would with any other employee.

Banks repeatedly poked at Schill during the exchange, saying, “Your performance here has been very embarrassing to your school,” and at one point remarking on the “joke that your university has become.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik during an exchange with Northwestern University President Michael Schill at the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing on antisemitism on college campuses today on Capitol Hill.

Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik took aim at Northwestern President Michael Schill about allegations of abuse toward Jewish students on Northwestern campus.

First, she asked about the university’s recent grade of a F by the Anti-Defamation League for its failure to respond in combating antisemitism, with the ADL calling for Schill to resign.

When Schill does not directly answer her question, she responds: “But it’s true, you got an F. Moving on.”

She then lists allegations of other antisemitic hate on campus, including Jewish students being assaulted, harassed and spat on.

Schill responds that all allegations are currently being investigated. No students have been expelled or suspended yet, pending the investigations’ outcome.

Some background: Stefanik’s line of enquiry of university presidents at other House Committee hearings has attracted attention in recent weeks. Her exchangeswent viral when University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill and other presidents at Harvard and MIT failed to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews as explicitly against campusrules onharassment and bullying.Magill and Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned after the hearing.

Northwestern President Michael Schill during an exchange with Rep. Elise Stefanik today.

GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik asked Northwestern President Michael Schill if he asked the university’s Hillel director whether it was possible to hire an “anti-Zionist head of Hillel, rabbi.”

Schill replied:

The Republican from New York claimed his answer was not true, according to whistleblowers who approached the committee.

Demonstrators gather at an encampment where students are protesting in support of Palestinians atNorthwesternUniversitycampus in Evanston, Illinois, on April 25.

Northwestern University President Michael Schill said that bringing in police as an option to de-escalate the protests on campus was not possible because it would not have ensured safety.

He added that their method of speaking with students modeled the behavior we want to be engaged in — dialogue, not force. “And we had a de-escalation,” he noted.

“The tents went down right after the agreement was struck. The entire protest is now in conformity with university rules,” Schiller said.

In a tense exchange with Republican Rep. Tim Walberg, Northwestern University President Michael Schill declined multiple times to discuss specific staff members or students when questioned about what Walberg described as antisemitic rhetoric.

Schill said the university is creating a task force with faculty, staff and administrators who are “committed to fighting antisemitism, and as committed to fighting antisemitism as I am.”

But when faced with specific questioning about controversial remarks made by members of the university community, Schill declined to discuss the statements, instead repeating his commitment to addressing antisemitism.

Schill said he does not support the movement calling for boycotts, divestments and economic sanctions against Israel, but when asked about faculty members who Walberg said expressed support for the movement, Schill said, “I will not be discussing individual faculty members.”

When asked about a student-led organization at the university that Walberg said had expressed support for Hamas’ October 7 attacks in Israel, Schill said again, “I will not be commenting — certainly not commenting — on any student and what students said.”

Walberg, who at times cut off Schill’s answers, said, “I think we’re hearing that there’s no change going to take place at Northwestern University, relative to antisemitism.”

Some background: Walberg has voiced staunch support for Israel throughout its military campaign in Gaza.

He sparked controversy in March when he appeared to suggest bombs should be dropped on Gaza“like Nagasaki and Hiroshima”to “get it over quick.” Walberg has insisted he was speaking metaphorically.

Northwestern President Michael Schill says he would not recommend to the university’s board of trustees divestment from Israel.

House Education Committee Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx asked the university president if he would make it clear “that Northwestern will categorically reject any divestment or academic boycott of Israel?”

On an advisory committee on investment responsibility, Schill said he did not agree to create a new committee, rather it already existed.

He also noted that it was not a board committee, rather it was an advisory committee.

L to R: Northwestern University President Mr. Michael Schill, Rutgers University President Dr. Jonathan Holloway, Mr. Frederick M. Lawrence, Secretary and CEO, The Phi Beta Kappa Society, and Dr. Gene Block, Chancellor, University of California, Los Angeles, are testifying before the House Education Committeetoday.

Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx questioned university presidents about the disciplinary actions taken at schools for antisemitic conduct since October 7, 2023.

Northwestern University President Michael Schill said that to his knowledge, no students have been suspended or expelled, but there are ongoing investigations and there has been termination of staff.

Rutgers University President Dr. Jonathan Holloway said that there are investigations underway. The school has suspended four people and 19 others have had additional disciplinary actions, he said.

Chancellor of the University of California Los Angeles Dr. Gene Block said that his school has over 100 active investigations since October 7 of both antisemitism and Islamophobia.

“So, very few students have received any kind of disciplinary action,” Foxx said.

Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway continued his opening remarks by addressing the impact the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and the ongoing war in Gaza have had on both the Jewish and Palestinian communities on campus.

“At Rutgers, this war has been a tragedy for our Jewish and Palestinian communities,” he said.

He said the university chose to respond to the protests with three priorities: “To ensure the safety of our community, to affirm and uphold our policies, and to promote dialogue and education.”

Holloway reiterated the importance of education, saying:

He outlined ways the university had done that, including through lectures and films, establishing an advisory council on antisemitism at the New Brunswick campus, and by bringing Israeli and Palestinian students together in classrooms.

Northwestern University President Michael Schill during his opening remarks today.

In his opening statement, Northwestern University President Michael Schill defended the school’s actions in handling protesters and the on-campus encampments.

Schill, who is Jewish himself, and reflected that his family members were Holocaust survivors and that “the committee is right to focus on what is a profoundly troubling reality facing the nation today: antisemitism is rising on campuses across the country, including at Northwestern. I am determined to confront this head-on. This fight could not be more personal for me.”

Schill outlined four points he plans on addressing during the hearing:

“Where there is conduct that threatens the Northwestern community we must impose discipline and we have done so,” Schill said. He added that the current policies have fallen short and that new policies will be implemented before the new school term.

Schill went on to address the encampments and said he watched them pop up on his campus as well as campuses across the country.

He defended the tactic of dialogues the university used to help takedown the encampments and said “We did not give into any of the protesters demands,” he said the commitments made were consistent with university values.

California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers clear a pro-Palestinian encampment as a police helicopter flies after dispersal orders were given at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, on May 2, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. The camp was declared ‘unlawful’ by the university and more than 100 protestors who refused to leave were detained during the operation.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block acknowledged in his prepared remarks that the university should have been ready to move faster to shut down the pro-Palestinian on campus.

Block told lawmakers he decided on April 28 to remove the encampment after violence broke out and two days later, UCLA gave protesters written notice.

Yet before police could be assembled, the encampment was attacked by counterprotesters.

“Tragically, it took several hours before law enforcement could quell the violence,” Block said.

The UCLA chancellor, who is retiring in July after 17 years at the helm, noted that many Jewish students have had to confront “repugnant” rhetoric and images on campus.

“Trust me, I understand their pain. I’ve lived it myself,” Block said, noting he grew up Jewish in the Catskills in a family with relatives who were Holocaust victims and survivors and as a former provost of the University of Virginia when neo-Nazis rioted outside his family’s synagogue.

Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott, ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, questioned the impact of another hearing on antisemitism at college campuses within six months in his opening remarks.

“Complaining about a problem is not a solution,” Scott said.

Scott went on to defend peaceful protesters by citing the First Amendment and recalling the impact of the Civil Rights movement on public opinion.

Rutgers University President Dr. Jonathan Holloway during his opening remarks today.

Rutgers University President Dr. Jonathan Holloway opened his testimony before the House committee by reiterating how proud the university is to have “one of the largest Jewish student populations in America.”

“We do so today, we did so long before October 7, and we will always do so,” Holloway said.

Holloway referenced his own family’s background as he opened his speech, referencing his father who he said became the first Black person to teach at the Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama, and his grandfather, who was dean of education at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina.

A student displays the Palestinian flag on his mortar board as graduates take their seats in Harvard Yard during commencement at Harvard University, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Harvard University has banned 13 senior undergraduate students from taking part in Thursday’s commencement, according to a statement from a group called Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP) coalition.

“On Wednesday afternoon, the Harvard Corporation notified 13 senior undergraduate students that the administration would not allow the students to graduate as a result of their alleged participation in the Gaza solidarity encampment in Harvard Yard,” according to the statement.

A group of pro-Palestinian protesterswho maintained anencampment atHarvard Universityreached an agreement with the university to end their encampment last week.

Pro-Palestinian encampments roiled many US universities for weeks this spring, with sometimes-violent clashes among students, school administrators, outside protestors and law enforcement; charges of antisemitism and antisemitic acts; and chaos that disrupted commencement activities across the country.

Rep. Virginia Foxx during her opening statements at the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing on antisemitism on college campuses today on Capitol Hill.

In her opening address to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx is taking aim at leaders of universities across the US, evoking Ernest Hemingway to illustrate what she describes as their “decline.”

She began her opening remarks claiming universities have “nurtured a campus culture of radicalism, in which antisemitism grew and become tolerated by administrators.”

She said the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel “ignited a powder keg of pro-terror campus fervor.”

In the months that followed, she said, Jewish students were “harassed, assaulted and intimidated” which led to “hijacking buildings, erecting unlawful encampments, disrupting classrooms and canceling commencements.”

Foxx continued her opening statement by demanding accountability from leaders of the universities who she said allowed encampments to take place, saying they should be “ashamed” of their actions.

Foxx also said she believed the university conceded to those who broke the rules on campus by constructing encampments, and she wanted to look into it further in today’s hearing.

Summarizing her opening, the congresswoman said she wanted to make it clear that the hearings were not intended to “enact right-wing cancel culture as purported by the left.”

“The purpose is to end antisemitic violence and harassment on campus, full stop,” she said.

Police use a special vehicle to enterHamiltonHallwhich protesters occupied, as other officers enter the campus of Columbia University in New York City, on April 30.

As pro-Palestinian protests erupted across the United States,many universities relied on the police to bring an end to the demonstrations, a strategy that brought a wave of criticism for administrators.

Since April 18, more than 2,400 students have been arrested amid protests on more than 50 campuses, according to authorities.

Here’s a look at some of the campuses:

Columbia University: On April 30, dozens of protestersentered Hamilton Halland barricaded themselves inside before the university asked for the NYPD’s assistance. Police officers moved onto the campus that night and arrested 112 people, according to the New York Police Department.

University of Pennsylvania: Police broke up an encampment on campus on May 10 and arrested nearly three dozen people. The student newspaperThe Daily Pennsylvanian reportedthat protesters received a two-minute warning to disperse shortly before 6 a.m. The encampment had been up for 16 days. At least 33 people werearrestedwithout incidentand cited for defiant trespass.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Law enforcement cleared an encampment at MIT on May 10, days after theuniversity announceda “set of disciplinary consequences” for students who remained following a deadline to leave. Demonstrators chanted “Free Palestine” as police took apart the encampment on the Cambridge, Massachusetts, video fromCNN affiliate WFXTshowed.

University of Wisconsin-Madison: At least 12 people were arrested on May 1 as law enforcement officials took down tents and disassembled an encampment. Several people resisted arrest, according to the university, which said the encampment violated school policy and a state law enacted by the legislature limiting certain types of activities on campus.

University of California Los Angeles: Video footage from April 30 shows that some counterprotesters instigated the fighting.Many appeared dedicated to the pro-Israel cause. Police didlittle to intervene and law enforcement did not track injuries from the attack. But according to the encampment’s organizers, more than 150 students “were assaulted with pepper spray and bear mace,” and at least 25 ended up being transported to local emergency rooms to receive treatment for injuries including fractures, severe lacerations and chemical-induced injuries.

A snapshot of where arrests were made between April 18 and May 10:

Students protest at Columbia University on April 8, 1985. The protests were against the university's South African investments.

Students established encampments andoccupied campus buildings to protest Israel’s war in Gaza, roiling college campuses across America. Many say they’re inspired by the long – if often turbulent – history of university activism in the United States.

Here’s a look back:

Civil Rights protests and sit-ins: While student protests for racial equality gained the most traction during the 1960s, some of the first demonstrations took place decades before the height of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1960, a group of four Black students from the university now known as North Carolina A&T,made historywhen they went to a Woolworth’s department store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and sat at a lunch counter that was reserved for White people,according to the North Carolina Museum of History.They became known as the “Greensboro Four.”

In 1968, the Black Student Union at San Francisco State Universityled a strikethat shut down the university and forced the administration to cancel classesover three months,according to theuniversity’s Special Collections and Archiveswebsite.

The Vietnam anti-war protests: The Vietnam War that began in 1955 and saw an increased presence of US troopsa decade laterprompted widespread protests by the mid-1960s. College students demanded the war’s end and spoke out against the military draft that put them at risk of being sent to fight after graduation. Thousands of students went on to protest the war in whichmore than 58,000American troops were killed. On May 2, 1964, around 400 students from Columbia University, New York University and other colleges protested US involvement during a march through New York City, calling for the withdrawal of troops from South Vietnam and theend of military aid, the New York Times reported.

The South African apartheid divestment movement: Between the 1960s and 1980s, US student activists led a nationwide movement to pressure their universities to cut financial ties with companies that supported South Africa’s apartheid regime. The US anti-apartheid movement gained momentum through student-led protests on campuses where students demanded their universities divest from all South Africa-related investments. Students successfully pressured multiple universities nationwide, including in New York, California, and North Carolina to sever financial ties.

Read more on this history of protests at US universities here.

CNN’s Clint Alwahab and Harmeet Kaur contributed to this report.

The Committee on Education and the Workforce will hold ahearingtoday on antisemitism on college campuses after a wave of pro-Palestinian protests erupted at universities across America.

Witnesses will include presidents of Northwestern University, Rutgers University and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), according to Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx, who chairs the committee.

The hearing will begin at 9:45 a.m. ET.

The dome of the U.S. Capitol building is seen on April 30 in Washington, DC.

In recent years, universities across the United States have come under increasing pressure from conservative politicians and donors criticizing them as liberal bastions of “wokeness.” That pressure has heightened following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli civilians and the subsequent Israeli war on Hamas.

Many conservative politicians and donors have accused campuses of tolerating or abetting antisemitism by allowing protests against the war, even as student protesters accuse the universities of ignoring what they call genocide. While university administrations uniformly say they are trying to allow free speech on campus while maintaining order and keeping students safe, critics say many schools too quickly turned to police action, suspensions, and other disciplinary measures to shut down protests.

Dr. Isaac Kamola, the director of the American Association of University Professors’ Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, said professors being hauled off in handcuffs are “the viral moments” that garner attention, but that the threats to academic freedom on college campuses are more nuanced and run much deeper.

Increasingly, Kamola said, university administrators are calling in law enforcement to sort out what should be internal debates about the parameters of academic freedom.

Officials from several universities where professors were arrested declined to comment on individual cases. Broadly speaking, officials have said they are committed to free speech on campus, but that there are limits when it comes to safety and when it encroaches on the rights of others on campus.

Some faculties have pushed back against leadership:

Gene Block, the current and 6th chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) since August 2007, on the campus of UCLA on Monday, July 31, 2023.

UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block has written to students ahead of his appearance at the House Education and Workforce Committee hearing Thursday, pledging an external review into how the protests unfolded across campus.

In the email, Block writes that the university will use an external firm to “address reports of antisemitic and anti-Arab or Islamophobic discrimination and harassment that may have interfered with students’ abilities to access the university’s educational programs and activities.”

He also said staff will review and update UCLA campus policies to make them easier to enforce.