MIT suspends dozens of anti-Israel student protesters for refusing to clear the camp

Workers erected fences around the MIT camp after they were torn down on Monday. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)

Dozens of MIT students who refused to clear an anti-Israel camp on campus on Monday will be suspended and referred to the disciplinary committee, Chancellor Melissa Nobles wrote in an update Tuesday.

Nobles did not disclose the exact number of students sanctioned, nor did she disclose the institute’s plan to dismantle the camp.

Her update comes after President Sally Kornbluth warned student protesters in a letter that they will either be suspended or face other sanctions if they do not leave the Kresge Lawn, where tents are set up, by 2:30 p.m. Monday for both .

About a handful of students remained at the camp shortly after 3 p.m., with tents left standing while the site was fenced off and cordoned off with tarps. Dozens of police surrounded the entrances and monitored the area.

But in the evening, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters returned, broke through the barriers and continued to demand the institute end all research contracts funded by the Israeli Defense Ministry.

“In light of yesterday’s actions, we write to remind students of the disciplinary consequences of disrupting our campus,” Nobles wrote in the Tuesday update. “Due to the events that have already occurred, dozens of interim suspensions and referrals to the Disciplinary Committee are currently underway, according to President Kornbluth’s letter yesterday. As we have said, these measures are necessary to ensure the safety of our community.”

On Tuesday, a makeshift fence continued to divide Kresge’s lawn, with tents on one side and hundreds of small Israeli flags in the grass on the other, where Israeli and Jewish students gathered in the afternoon for an Israeli Independence Day celebration.

In her letter Monday, Kornbluth raised concerns about students’ “physical safety” as well as “outside interference and potential violence.” The letter cited reports of “widespread literature advocating escalation, with very clear instructions and recommended means.”

“Without our 24-hour staffing, students sleeping outside in tents would be at risk,” Kornbluth wrote. “And no matter how peaceful student behavior may be, it is not right to unilaterally take over a central part of our campus for one side of a hotly contested issue and exclude its use by other members of our community. This situation is inherently extremely unstable.”

The letter outlined a series of sanctions student protesters could face if they did or did not voluntarily leave the camp by Monday afternoon. These included a written warning, an immediate interim academic suspension for the remainder of the semester and exclusion from participation in commencement and extracurricular activities, as well as an academic suspension and immediate expulsion from the Cambridge campus.

At Harvard, Interim President Alan Garber has warned of possible suspensions and sanctions over an encampment in Harvard Yard.

In a letter Monday, Garber emphasized how the camp’s disruptions were numerous, including moving exams to another location and severely restricting access to Harvard Yard. Launch preparations were also affected, he said.

“Those who participate in or sustain the continuation (of the camp) will be placed on involuntary leave of absence from their schools,” Garber wrote. “Among other things, students who are placed on involuntary leave of absence may not be able to take exams, may no longer live in Harvard housing, and may no longer be allowed to be on campus until they are reintegrated.

In response, more than 300 professors signed a letter by Tuesday afternoon calling on Garber and Interim Provost John F. Manning to “engage with students on the substance of their demands and criticized the administration for failing to do so.” “I have to speak to peaceful student protesters other than negotiate escalating disciplinary threats.”

“I think so many of us signed this letter because as faculty we have a duty of care to our students,” creative writing professor Teju Cole said in a statement. “The severity and extent of the proposed punishment is unprecedented and, frankly, alarming; These are activities that should be addressed with dialogue, not punishment.”