DETROIT – Spring semester classes were in person Friday at Wayne State University after the school switched to remote operations earlier in the week due to a student protest.
The Detroit university told students and faculty to carry out classes virtually starting May 28 due to an “ongoing public safety issue.” Officials were referencing a pro-Palestinian encampment that was erected near a library on campus the week prior.
Wayne State classes were held virtually for three days as protesters stayed on campus in an effort to push the institution to divest from Israel and companies that support Israel’s military efforts in Gaza. Students at universities across the U.S., and even in Europe, have established encampments in recent months to protest the war in Gaza.
The encampment at Wayne State University didn’t last as long as others, however. The university forced protesters out of the encampment and off campus on Thursday, May 30 after one week. Crews were hired to clear the tents and other objects from the camp right away.
Regular on-campus classes and activities were set to resume Friday, May 31 after the encampment was cleared.
University officials said they decided to get rid of the encampment after making “many good-faith efforts to reach a different conclusion” with the protesters. Since the encampment was established, school officials had maintained it was a trespass that posed health and safety issues, and told protesters to dismantle it.
At least 13 people were arrested Thursday as police cleared the encampment. Arrests took place throughout the morning as protesters appeared to clash with police.
University officials said they made repeated attempts to work with protest organizers to “find a path to dismantle the encampment.” One of those attempts included offering a meeting with the university president and other officials -- but protesters declined that offer, saying they wanted a public forum.
Organizers told Local 4 on Thursday that they were weren’t prepared to meet with the president when the offer was made. Officials wanted them to meet “right then and there,” but protesters were up all night and tired after being told there would be a raid, according to a protester.
Protesters reportedly waited for a member of the Board of Governors to meet with them Wednesday afternoon, but a protester said the member never showed up. The Wayne State president did not mention any plans for divestment in her statement Thursday.
Authorities similarly broke up a weekslong pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor last week.
Encampments at other universities, like Rutgers and Brown, came to mutual ends after the institutions negotiated with protesters. At Brown, university leaders agreed to vote on divesting from companies that support Israel in exchange for removing the encampment.
The University of Michigan, however, made no such deal. University President Santa Ono instead said that the university will “support multiple opportunities to discuss and debate complicated issues, including the war in the Middle East,” over the next year.
Ann Arbor protesters told Local 4 that the removal of their encampment does not mark the end of their mission.
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Palestinians in Gaza have been subject to incessant Israeli bombing, displacement, and a lack of food and resources since Oct. 7, 2023. The latest fighting between Israel and Hamas, the group that rules the Gaza territory, was trigged by Hamas’ surprise attack in Israel that October day, in which Hamas took about 250 hostages and killed about 1,200 people, according to the Israeli government.
More than 36,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the fighting began in October, the Gaza Health Ministry reports. Tens of thousands more people have been wounded in Gaza.
Israel still has support from the U.S., its largest ally, plus several other Western countries amid the war -- though that support has slightly waned as the number of civilian casualties continues to rise in Gaza.
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In a recent move, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister, and three Hamas leaders of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and in Israel. The International Court of Justice last week ordered Israel to halt its military action in Rafah, but the court can’t enforce that order.