NEW ORLEANS — One day after protesters clashed with campus police, Tulane University moved some classes to virtual classrooms, closed some buildings, and said it was issuing some suspensions over what it called "unlawful protest activity."
Protesters set up an encampment on the university's front lawn near several campus buildings.
How it started
The protest started Monday evening as a few hundred people marched down Freret Street and then made their way to St. Charles Avenue. When some of the protesters tried to set up tents on the university lawn, officers from the Tulane and Loyola University police departments and the NOPD intervened with some force, in some cases wrestling some of the protesters to the ground. Six arrests were made for trespassing, battery on an officer, and resisting arrest, but the majority of the crowd then linked arms and began chanting slogans in support of Palestine and condemning Israel's actions in Gaza.
While the police and protesters were only steps apart, most of the protest was uneventful. However, a few dozen students set up tents and spent the night.
Tulane takes action
When the day started Tuesday, Tulane issued another statement:
“Gibson, Tilton-Memorial, and Dinwiddie Halls on Tulane’s uptown campus will be closed today, Tuesday, April 30. This is due to the continued unlawful protest activity taking place on the lawn in front of Gibson Hall, on the St. Charles Avenue side. The overwhelming number of these protestors are unaffiliated with Tulane,” Tulane University President Michael A. Fitts said in a statement released early Tuesday morning.
“Arrests have already been made and suspensions are being issued. We want to be clear: We do not condone and will not allow trespassing, hate speech, antisemitism and bias against religious or ethnic groups, harassment, intimidation, violence, and other criminal acts on any of our campuses.”
Protesters ask for help
Loyola University's Students for a Democratic Society's Instagram page posted a graphic asking for additional people to participate in order to "hold the encampment."
What the protesters want
The protesters issued a list of demands. While similar, there were some differences.
Tulane's student protesters say they demand
- Tulane to divest fully from Israeli corporations and corporations that supply arms, fuel, or technology to Israel.
- Tulane discloses the annual investments of its endowment.
- Tulane cuts all ties with Israeli universities, including cancelling all "birthright" trips to occupied Palestine.
- Tulane states its support for the city council of New Orleans to pass a ceasefire resolution.
- Tulane provides institutional protection for Arab and Palestinian students.
Loyola student protesters are demanding:
- Ensure that all students affected by the genocide, including Palestinian, Muslim and Arab students have spaces to grieve and express their feelings without censorship.
- Release a full statement that acknowledges the genocide of Palestinians and condemns the indiscriminate violence and mass human rights abuses committed by the state of Israel.
- Loyola provide the new director of multicultural affairs with the necessary funds and resources to effectively advocate and protect support for minority students.
- Loyola University New Orleans divest fully from Israeli corporations and corporations that supply arms, fuel or technology to Israel.
- Loyola discloses the annual investments of its endowment beginning with 2023.
“The older generations, our parents’ generations, and the generations that get to make all the laws and decisions about the world have put us in a position where we feel the need to exercise our rights and our voices in order to give light to a situation that we think is really important,” said one Pro-Palestine protester at the scene.
Tulane, which has a large Jewish population, has seen some skirmishes earlier on in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One student said the protests are antisemitism.
“I have a bunch of friends currently serving in the IDF, and a ton of friends in Israel, all across the world, and every college that is facing this terrible antisemitism, that is truly what it is,” said one supporter of Israel also at the Tulane campus protest. “At this point, it is not just Palestinian activism, it is really antisemitism.”
The actions at the Tulane campus are similar to ones being seen around the country, including at Columbia University in New York, where students have started receiving suspensions and at USC in Los Angeles, where the commencement speaker was cancelled and then the large scale graduation was called off.