The Israel-Hamas war: campus protests and universities' responses

Campus safety and civil-rights concerns brought other official responses. Florida ordered its state universities to disband a pro-Palestinian student group,^[7] and online antisemitic threats at Cornell led it to cancel classes.^[8][9] In November the Education Department opened investigations of alleged antisemitism and Islamophobia at schools.^[10]

After a House hearing in December 2023, the presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT faced a swift backlash over their answers on campus antisemitism.^[11] Penn's president, Liz Magill, resigned days later,^[2] and Harvard's, Claudine Gay, resigned in January 2024 amid plagiarism claims and the backlash to her testimony.^[3]

In April 2024, police arrested more than 100 demonstrators at Columbia, and encampments spread to campuses across the country.^[13] Arrests also took place at New York University and Yale.^[12] Violence erupted at UCLA, where a man was later arrested on suspicion of attacking the encampment, and police dismantled it,^[14][15][16] while at Columbia police cleared protesters who had occupied Hamilton Hall.^[17] Nearly 2,200 people were arrested at campus protests that spring,^[4] and Columbia canceled its main commencement.^[18]

Institutional and political responses continued after the encampments. The House passed an antisemitism bill amid the campus protests.^[19] Columbia President Minouche Shafik resigned in August 2024 after a tenure marked by the demonstrations.^[20]

Protesters occupied buildings at the University of Washington and Columbia in 2025, leading to further arrests.^[21][22] In September 2026, prosecutors said five Stanford protesters whose trial had ended in a mistrial would have their charges dismissed if they completed community service and paid restitution.^[23]