At least nine people were reportedly arrested by University of Minnesota police Tuesday morning after setting up a pro-Palestinian encampment. The set up happened overnight on campus.
Merlin Van Alstine was among them, telling WCCO's Susie Jones that they started putting up tents about 4:00 in the morning, and put signs up showing solidarity with the people of Palestine.
"We're demanding that our university divest all their investments in any companies that are complicit in Israeli apartheid and genocide," says Van Alstine.
She sat outside the Minneapolis Public Safety Center, with protesters nearby, waiting for her friends to be released from custody after being arrested while trying to set up an encampment outside the Walter Library.
University of Minnesota Police arrived telling them that they had 30 minutes to disperse, and when they did not, nine people were arrested.
"It was very tense," explains Van Alstine. "The cops were kind of making comments at us, kind of threating us saying 'you're next, we're going to arrest you next.'"
The University of Minnesota says the encampment violated both state trespassing law and a university policy that prohibits setting up tents without a permit.
The protest comes at a time when students at other campuses across the country, including Columbia and Yale Universities, are holding similar demonstrations some of them becoming violent.
At Columbia, classes have moved to a hybrid model for the rest of the semester due to unrest caused by student protestors.
Among them is Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's daughter Isra Hirsi who was arrested and suspended from Barnard College last week for taking part in a pro-Palestine demonstration at Columbia University in New York City.
Omar says her daughter is just part of a young generation stepping up against injustice.
"We are now seeing young people stepping up to say no more to sending our dollars to killing children," says Omar. "And I think it is really admirable that they are risking a lot in order to, you know, create that advocacy that says if we're paying our universities money, we want to know where that money is going."
Now, schools are trying to balance student rights with both classes and upcoming graduation ceremonies .
The University of Michigan is informing students of the rules for upcoming graduation ceremonies: Banners and flags are not allowed. Protests are OK but in designated areas away from the cap-and-gown festivities.
The University of Southern California canceled a planned speech by the school’s Muslim valedictorian — and then “released” all its outside commencement speakers.
At Columbia University, where more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested last week, the protests have included a large tent encampment on the Ivy League school’s main lawn, the very place graduating students and families are set to gather next month.
This is commencement season 2024, punctuated by the tension and volatility that has roiled college campuses since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. In response, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry.
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