Across the country, pro-Palestinian activists at colleges and universities were mounting encampments, modeled after one at Columbia University. More than 50 tents went up at UC Berkeley, while Cal Poly Humboldt closed its campus after pro-Palestinian activists barricaded themselves in university buildings.

USC activists, newly energized and angered over Tabassum, raised tents before sunrise on Wednesday. By morning, they hung “Free Palestine” and “Liberated Zone” banners and posters across Alumni Park, the traditional site of the “main stage” graduation ceremony.

Campus security told the growing crowd that tents and signs on trees were not allowed and that microphones were banned. Some scuffles ensued as USC security officers attempted to dismantle the encampment before relenting under pressure from crowds chanting “shame.”

LAPD helicopters circled above. USC shut off public access to campus. Guzman, the provost, told academic deans that professors could move classes online.

LAPD officers in riot gear staged outside the gates. Shortly after 5 p.m., dozens of officers marched onto campus, and an hourslong standoff with protesters began. By the evening, police had arrested 93 people, many of them students, and moved the remaining crowd off campus.

Nguyen, the professor, was among the protesters. “These were students with direct demands. They want the divestment from ties to a genocide,” he said — a reference to investments in weapons companies with ties to the war in Gaza.

USC has not said whether it has those kinds of investments. Experts on endowments say that universities typically have such financial ties through endowment portfolios. In a statement last year on academic boycotts of Israel, another demand of protesters, USC said it rejected them “on the grounds that a robust intellectual environment requires the free and civil exchange of ideas.”

Many Jewish groups have called the divestment movement antisemitic, saying it aims to isolate and de-legitimatize the Jewish homeland.

By Thursday morning, the USC campus was calm. Staff cleared remaining tents from Alumni Park and installed white fencing for an annual graduate brunch.

In another area, Jewish students set up long tables for a Passover Seder that featured photos of hostages who are believed to still remain in Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and took roughly 240 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and the United Nations says roughly 2 million Gazans are living in near-famine conditions.

Folt tried privately to cool the tensions.

Following an earlier call with a member of the Advisory Committee on Muslim Life, she wrote back to the resigned members, saying she hoped they’d reconsider but respected their decision, the members said this week at a news conference. The same day, she called the campus Chabad Rabbi, Dov Wagner, offering her support for the Jewish community, the rabbi said in an interview.

Midday Thursday, a message went up on the USC website. The “main stage” commencement was canceled entirely, because new security measures would not allow for the processing of a large number of guests, the message said. More than two dozen satellite commencements for individual colleges and schools would continue. But there would be new security checks — X-rays and metal detectors — and an eight-ticket maximum per graduating student.

A graduating senior went viral on TikTok with her displeasure. Parents called, worried that they wouldn’t be able to bring large families to celebrate.

“What they did was rob these students, many who did not have a traditional graduation in 2020 because of COVID, of yet another graduation,” said Devin Griffiths, an associate professor of English and comparative literature. “We have brought up students to believe they should be forthright, engaged citizens who talk openly about their beliefs and disagreements. Instead, we close commencement and send them to jail.”

Student activists were not deterred. They staged a die-in at Founders Park.

“Disclose! Divest! We will not stop! We will not rest,” students shouted.

The Founders Park protest continued through Friday afternoon, when Folt released her campus letter to students, faculty, staff and alumni.

“This week, Alumni Park became unsafe. No one wants to have people arrested on their campus. Ever,” she wrote. “But, when long-standing safety policies are flagrantly violated, buildings vandalized, [Department of Public Safety] directives repeatedly ignored, threatening language shouted, people assaulted, and access to critical academic buildings blocked, we must act immediately to protect our community.”

A university-wide email then went out, announcing that unregistered guests would remain blocked from entering the typically open campus through May 8.

It also said that “no social events” were allowed during the period that included the end-of-year “study days” and final exams. The rule is written in the student handbook but rarely enforced. The email suggested that additional protesting would not be tolerated, saying that no “disruptive activities may take place.”

On Friday evening, the LAPD and campus security were present at the protest. And the tents, cleared out earlier, had returned.

———

(L.A. Times staff writer Jenna Peterson contributed to this report.)

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.