Pro-Palestinian protesters involved in an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were given a deadline of Monday to “leave” the encampment.
The encampment, which was established at MIT on April 21, is one of several pro-Palestinian encampments that remain on university and college campuses around the nation, as several universities have started removing the encampments.
In a letter sent to students, MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobles described the encampment as “in violation of MIT policies.” She said students who do not leave by 2:30 p.m. would be placed on “immediate interim academic suspension”:
We have frequently communicated to you that the 24/7 encampment on Kresge Oval that began on Sunday, April 21, is in violation of MIT policies. While MIT is committed to freedom of expression, we have been clear that the encampment must end. The leaders of the encampment group have met with Institute academic and administrative leadership many times, but an agreement has not been reached to end the encampment. MIT has a responsibility to keep our community safe.
Nobles added that students were “directed to leave the encampment by 2:30 p.m.” on Monday.
The letter served as a “written warning” for students who voluntarily left by the deadline, had “not been sanctioned” by MIT’s Committee on Discipline (COD), did not have “impending COD cases,” and had not served as a “leader or organizer” of the encampment.
“You must swipe your ID as you leave the encampment, and the written warning, together with the time stamp from your exit swipe showing you departed by 2:30 p.m., will be kept on file with MIT,” Nobles wrote.
Students who voluntarily left the encampment by the deadline and have impending cases by the COD or who had been sanctioned or served as a leader or organizer of the encampment would “be referred to the COD.”
Those who did not voluntarily leave the encampment by the deadline and did not have impending cases against them by the COD or who had not been sanctioned would “be placed on an immediate interim academic suspension lasting at least through Institute commencement activities,” and would also be “referred to the COD.”
In response to the deadline, protesters began chanting, “We are the intifada” outside of the pro-Palestinian encampment at MIT.
Local high school students were reported to have walked out of their schools to attend a protest that was forming at MIT.
In response to the pro-Palestinian protesters who were refusing to leave the encampment, law enforcement officials were seen walking on campus.
Video footage posted to X from inside the encampment at MIT showed protesters chanting, “From water to water, Palestine is Arab,” “From water to water, Israel is destroyed,” and “From water to water, death to the Zionists.”