Pro-Palestine protesters break through barricades, reoccupy MIT encampment

Pro-Palestine protesters that had been blocked by police from accessing an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT] have broken through fencing, linked arms and encircled tents that remained there.

Sam Ihns, a graduate student at MIT studying mechanical engineering and a member of MIT Jews for a Ceasefire, said the group had been at the encampment for the past two weeks and that they were calling for an end to the killing of thousands of people in Gaza.

"Specifically, our encampment is protesting MIT's direct research ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defence," he said on Monday.

Protesters also sat in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue, blocking the street during rush hour in the Boston area.

The development came after Columbia University cancelled its graduation ceremony scheduled for May 15th, citing security concerns.

Others, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Northeastern, have pulled off ceremonies with few disruptions.

Columbia had already cancelled in-person classes.

More than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia's green or occupied an academic building were arrested in recent weeks.

Similar encampments sprouted up elsewhere as universities struggled with where to draw the line between allowing free expression while maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.

The University of Southern California earlier cancelled its main graduation ceremony.

Students abandoned their camp at USC on Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest.

Heated graduations, threats

Other universities have held graduation ceremonies with beefed-up security. The University of Michigan's ceremony was interrupted by chanting a few times on Saturday.

In Boston on Sunday, some students waved small Palestinian or Israeli flags at Northeastern University's commencement in Fenway Park.

Emory's ceremonies scheduled for May 13 will be held at the GasSouth Arena and Convocation Center in Duluth, almost 30 kilometres northeast of the university's Atlanta campus, President Gregory Fenves said in an open letter.

At the University of California, San Diego, police cleared an encampment and arrested more than 64 people, including 40 students.

The University of California, Los Angeles, moved all classes online for the entire week due to ongoing disruptions following the dismantling of an encampment last week.

The university police force reported 44 arrests but there were no specific details, UCLA spokesperson Eddie North-Hager said in an email to The Associated Press.

Schools are trying various tactics, from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action, to get protestors to take down encampments or move to campus areas where demonstrations would be less intrusive.

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago said in a Meta post on Sunday that it offered protesters "amnesty from academic sanction and trespassing charges" if they moved.

"Many protesters left the premises of their own accord after being notified by the police that they were trespassing and subject to arrest," the school said.

"Those that remained were arrested after multiple warnings to leave, including some of whom we recognised as SAIC students."

A group of faculty and staff members at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked the administration for amnesty for any students who were arrested and suspended during recent protests.

UNC Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine said in a media advisory that it would deliver a letter on behalf of more than 500 faculty who support the student activists.

Other universities took a different approach.

Harvard University's interim president, Alan Garber, warned students that those participating in a pro-Palestine encampment in Harvard Yard could face "involuntary leave."

That means they would not be allowed on campus, could lose their student housing and may not be able to take exams, Garber said.