A day after police broke up a pro-Palestinian tent camp at Emerson College and arrested more than 100 protesters, the school's student government expressed “no confidence” in the president and unanimously voted to resign. requested.
The arrest early Thursday morning thrust the Boston university into a national debate over campus protests over free speech and the Israel-Hamas war.
Emerson protesters and their supporters have denounced heavy-handed actions by police that amounted to “crackdown” on free speech, according to the ACLU. But Boston police and Mayor Michelle Wu said the demonstration threatened public safety and violated several city ordinances.
Emerson President Jay Barnhart acknowledged Thursday the significant impact the arrests have had on the school community and said Emerson administrators are working to support students and return those arrested to campus.
However, in a vote Friday afternoon, Emerson's student government representatives passed a resolution calling for Emerson's resignation by a 17-0 vote.
Students spread out across several campus buildings to watch Friday afternoon's student government meeting.
First-year student Sophia Nunge, 18, called Thursday's arrest “very disappointing.”
She was not at the encampment Thursday, but woke up in a nearby dorm room as protesters fled from police. She said the campus is currently facing a “deep rift between students and administrators.”
“Students see this as an administration against us,” Nanji said.
“Students are exercising their First Amendment rights,” she added. “Managers aren't listening.”
Protesters at Emerson College set up tent camps in public alleys on campus earlier this week, as students called on the university to sever ties with companies involved in Israel's war in Gaza. , part of a growing national trend that in some cases requires universities to make cuts. All cooperation with the Jewish state itself is prohibited.
Similar protests continue at other schools in Massachusetts and across the country.
Emerson officials warned demonstrators that they could face “imminent law enforcement action” if they did not abandon the occupied alleys. They claimed the encampment violated city ordinances, including a ban on tents on public streets, and posed a fire hazard by blocking doors and fire hydrants.
Police entered the alley just before 2 a.m. Thursday.
Body camera footage released by Boston police showed officers issuing multiple warnings to student demonstrators before breaking up their encampment and making arrests.
Wu defended the police response in a statement to the Boston Globe, saying public safety officials were concerned about the fire hazard and the risk that demonstrators' tents could block the building's doors.
“The goal has always been to support and respect safe and peaceful protests in the city,” Wu told the newspaper. “However, there were safety concerns and the safety risks were increasing as obstructions to public roads increased.”
Some city council members, including City Council President Lousie Louiseune, criticized the police response.
“It is our collective responsibility to ensure that students who choose to exercise their right to protest are treated with dignity and respect,” Louiseune said in a statement Thursday.
Emerson's camp was then evacuated. School administrators also banned student protests from the alley where the protest was taking place.
Percy Davis Shaw, a senior at Emerson, was also among those arrested Thursday.
“I saw my comrades being thrown to the ground,” she said, adding that the protests “were nothing but peaceful” before the arrests.
