UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) launched an encampment on the quad outside of Swift Hall at 10 a.m. last Monday, following in the steps of pro-Palestinian groups at numerous other universities that have set up encampments in recent weeks.
This article is being updated as the situation develops.
Coverage from days one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight of the encampment can be read on the Chicago Maroon.
Day 9 Summary
Day nine saw UCPD disbanding UCUP’s encampment on the main quad. At around 4:25 a.m., UCPD officers in riot gear entered the quad and cleared out tents, barricades, and displays that protesters had placed around the encampment. Facilities Services trucks carried these items away in cardboard boxes that were then placed in dumpsters around campus.
UCPD gave protestors just minutes from an initial command to vacate the quad before beginning the raid. Later, once protesters and members of the press—including Maroon staff—had been pushed out of the quad, officers handed protesters slips of paper detailing consequences for remaining on the quad.
UCPD made no arrests during the raid or during the following rally, during which protesters gathered outside the entrance to the quad on South Ellis Avenue and chanted. A video of the raid, posted by SJP on X, shows a UCPD officer throwing a protester to the ground on one of the stone pathways on the Quad.
President Paul Alivisatos sent an email to the University community around 6:55 a.m. explaining his decision to end the encampment. Dean of Students Michele Rasmussen and Associate Vice President for Safety & Security Eric Heath followed with a second similar email. Alivisatos’s email also said that “where appropriate[,] disciplinary action will proceed.”
Although the quad was reopened to students and faculty as of 7:56 a.m., there were disruptions to general campus activity. Some buildings, including the Social Science Research Building, were locked in the morning during class times, forcing professors to cancel classes or move them online.
Facilities Services posted a sign on the flagpole in the middle of the quad announcing that they planned to raise the American flag on Wednesday for the first time since Thursday, May 2.
Later in the day, Alivisatos published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled “Why I Ended the University of Chicago Protest Encampment.” In the piece, Alivisatos detailed his reasoning for clearing the encampment. He said demands that UCUP raised in negotiations with the University could not be fulfilled because of the University’s commitment to “institutional neutrality.”
“When I concluded that the essential goals that animated those demands were incompatible with deep principles of the university, I decided to end the encampment with intervention,” the piece reads. “There is no way I would ever compromise on institutional neutrality.”
The Maroon will continue to report on the encampment and its ramifications, but will no longer continue live updates.
May 7, 12:22 p.m.
University Facilities Services has begun removing duct tape adhered to the flagpole. Protesters used the tape on Thursday afternoon to prevent a Palestinian flag from being lowered. UCPD took the flag down Friday morning, and Facilities Services cut the halyard shortly after.
– Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon, News Reporter
May 7, 11:58 a.m.
A video has been released by UChicago Students for Justice in Palestine showing a UCPD officer throwing a protester onto one of the stone pathways on the Quad.
In an email about the clearing of the encampment, Dean of Students Michelle Rasmussen and Associate Vice President for Safety & Security Eric Heath stated that encampment had been cleared “without incident”.
– Maroon Staff
May 7, 10:15 a.m.
While pieces of the Maroons for Israel quad installation were taken at various points throughout the night, one of the main banners remains this morning. 
– Austin Zeglis, Senior News Reporter; Nikhil Jaiswal, Co-Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
May 7, 9:44 a.m.
“The encampment is not just tents. We’re still here, and this is not the end of it. We are the encampment, and we have plans to do something again. We’re coming back stronger,” a UCUP organizer said in a statement to the Maroon.
— Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Nikhil Jaiswal, Co-Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
May 7, 9:37 a.m.
The quad and South Ellis Avenue are empty of protesters.
— Kayla Rubenstein, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Nikhil Jaiswal, Co-Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
May 7, 9:09 a.m.
The crowd in front of Levi Hall has slightly decreased, though there are still at least 100 protesters present.
A truck with large screens condemning antisemitic speech appears to be making laps around campus. The back of the truck reads “Bring this Chicago hostage home!”
Some protesters have begun looking through the dumpsters around campus, which are filled with discarded encampment materials.
– Maroon Staff
May 7, 8:33 a.m.
Bernardine Dohrn, a former leader of Weather Underground, arrived at the encampment with Bill Ayers, a former militant organizer who co-founded far-left militant group Weather Underground in 1969, at 5:30 a.m., after receiving a call from a student encampment participant.
Dohrn, who has spent several days during the week at the encampment, thinks that “universities should be a place of argument and dispute and conversation and education. And the idea of bringing the police in here is absolutely against everything that the school should stand for.”
As an alumna of the College and UChicago Law, “I’m furious about it. And I’m totally with the students,” she said.
Ayers told the Maroon that a “smart college administrator should first of all, defend the idea of the University. And secondly, congratulate the students for bringing this issue up in the way that they have peacefully, lovingly.”
For him, defending the idea of the university means acknowledging the University is a place of free inquiry and free discussion. “There are no things that are out of bounds to discuss. And rather than shut this down, we should be having professors offering conversations in every classroom, including in the public space, like the public square,” Ayers said.
“We should be having this conversation, just as we had conversations about South Africa, just as we had conversations about Vietnam. This is the moral issue of this moment, and we should seize it rather than suppressing it,” he said.
– Elena Eisenstadt, News Reporter
May 7, 8:25 a.m.
Protesters are now speaking in front of Levi Hall.
“We have been brutalized by the University of Chicago police force,” one protester said. Speakers also told gathered protesters to boo the Israeli Institute and began chants, including “Free, free Palestine.”
Around 8:05 a.m. this morning, two individuals tore down an American and an Israeli flag hanging from lampposts in the center of the quad and ran away.
– Maroon Staff
May 7, 8:08 a.m.
The University has issued a cAlert telling community members that “the Main Quad and adjacent buildings are now open.”
Many participants of the encampment have now filed back into the quad through the entrance on South Ellis Avenue where the crowd control barrier is no longer in place. Protesters are continuing to chant and wave Palestinian flags. UCPD officers with riot gear continue to patrol and watch the group.
The arch entrance on East 57th Street, Cobb Gate, remains closed.
– Maroon Staff
May 7, 8 a.m.
Some entrances of the main quad are now open. The main entrance through the arch on East 57th Street remains closed.
The Maroon observed UCUP attempting to block off South Ellis Street with bikes.
Dismantled tents, barricades, and other encampment materials have been placed into cardboard boxes and disposed of in dumpsters around campus.
The protesters are now forming a line in front of Levi Hall with their arms linked. UCPD officers in riot gear are approaching them.
– Maroon Staff
May 7, 7:40 a.m.
At 7:28 a.m., a man drove by the protest while yelling “Nazis!” at the crowd. Several members of the protest shouted back in response, to which the man opened his car door and continued shouting while remaining seated in his vehicle. After a few seconds, he drove off.
The Maroon estimates that the crowd watching the protest has increased significantly to roughly 200 people, including onlookers and camera crews.
– Maroon Staff
May 7, 7:30 a.m.
Dean of Students Michele Rasmussen and Associate Vice President for Safety & Security Eric Heath sent an email titled “The University’s Intervention Concerning the Encampment” to members of the University community this morning.
“The encampment violated the University’s commitment to free expression by monopolizing the center of campus— entirely obstructing physical access to a large part of the Quad, disrupting classes in nearby buildings, and contributing to an increasingly unsafe environment of confrontation, particularly the events of last Friday,” the email reads.
“All of the protesters left without incident and there have been no arrests,” Rasmussen and Heath wrote.
The email also addresses the timing of the police raid, which occurred at 4:40 a.m. “The overnight action, done when fewer protesters were in the encampment, was a collaborative effort carefully planned to minimize the need for arrests and reduce the impact on others in our campus and in nearby neighborhoods.”
Dean of Students in the College Philip Venticinque also forwarded University President Paul Alivisatos’s earlier communication to families of undergraduate students.
– Maroon Staff
May 7, 7:19 a.m.
South Ellis Avenue has been reopened to cars after being blocked by UCPD and Allied Security cars earlier this morning.
Forklifts carrying hay bales are heading down East 57th Street away from the quad.
UCPD has brought 10 reinforcements and more crowd control barriers to the rally, which is taking place on East 58th Street across from the University bookstore and adjacent to the main quad. There are now a total of around 30 officers maintaining the barrier.
– Maroon Staff
May 7, 7:17 a.m.
A new post on UCUP’s Instagram account calls on supporters to join the group of protesters outside the quad and “flood UChicago for Gaza now,” as well as to call and email President Paul Alivisatos and Provost Katherine Baicker “to demand the cops stand down now.” Like another UCUP post earlier this morning, the new post provides scripts for these calls and emails.
– Maroon Staff
May 7, 7:02 a.m.
The University has issued a cAlert telling community members that “the Main Quad is closed and adjacent buildings are locked until the Quad cleanup is complete.”
– Maroon Staff
May 7, 6:55 a.m.
President Paul Alivisatos has sent an email titled “Ending the Encampment” to members of the University community.
“Protest is a strongly protected form of speech in the UChicago culture, and the demonstrators had multiple opportunities to express their views,” the email reads. “But many aspects of the protests also interfered with the free expression, learning, and work of others. Safety concerns have mounted over the last few days, and the risks were increasing too rapidly for the status quo to hold. This morning, the University intervened to end the encampment.”
The email also reads, “The protesters were given an opportunity to disassemble their structures and depart the encampment, and there have been no arrests.”
The Maroon observed that protesters were given little advance warning to disassemble and exit the encampment prior to the police entering it. One protester said encampment participants were given a ten-minute warning, but only two minutes to actually leave.
Slips of paper informing students of a final notice to leave the encampment were given to protesters at the rally outside the quad but were not handed out in advance of the raid.
Alivisatos’s email also said that “where appropriate disciplinary action will proceed.”
According to the email, the protesters and University administrators “could not come to a resolution” during negotiations because “ultimately a number of the intractable and inflexible aspects of their demands were fundamentally incompatible with the University’s principled dedication to institutional neutrality.”
“The University remains a place where dissenting voices have many avenues to express themselves, but we cannot enable an environment where the expression of some dominates and disrupts the healthy functioning of the community for the rest,” the email concluded.
– Maroon Staff
May 7, 6:46 a.m.
After more UCPD officers arrived at the crowd control barrier, they began pushing the barrier toward protesters. Some members of the crowd have run into the street, while others are physically resisting the officers’ advance.
Protesters are chanting “Shame on you,” and “The whole world is watching.”
– Maroon Staff
May 7, 6:38 a.m.
Multiple UChicago Facilities Services pickup trucks have crossed East 57th Street in front of the main quad. Some of the vehicles were carrying numerous cardboard boxes and what appeared to be dismantled tents and barricades.
– Maroon Staff
May 7, 6:32 a.m.
A video posted on UCUP’s Instagram account shows UCPD officers tearing down barricades and signs at the encampment. An officer can be heard ordering protesters, “move back.” The post’s caption encourages people to join the rally outside the quad “to show them we will not be pushed aside.”
A UCUP organizer confirmed to the Maroon that all protesters were now outside of the quad, and that police had not made any arrests so far. The organizer said they were unsure if anybody had sustained injuries but said that police officers had pushed protesters.
At least 100 protesters are gathered outside of the barricaded entrance to the quad on South Ellis Avenue. Protesters are pushing against barriers and moving forward against the officers.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 6:27 a.m.
Maroon reporters observed legal observers being turned away from the quad after the police officers had begun pushing protesters out.
“[The police officers] ambushed us… destroying the encampment,” a UCUP organizer said. “They said we had ten minutes to leave. They gave us two minutes.”
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 6:19 a.m.
Bill Ayers, a former militant organizer who co-founded far-left militant group Weather Underground in 1969, is present at the encampment with Bernardine Dohrn, a former leader of Weather Underground. Ayers spoke at the encampment during its first day.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 6:15 a.m.
Of the officers, at least two have covered their badge numbers with black tape. Their name tags are still visible.
Editor’s note, May 7, 12:18 p.m.: The original version of this update stated that at least two officers covered their badges with black tape. Officers were wearing a mourning stripe for a fallen Chicago Police Department Officer. Their badge numbers were not concealed by the mourning stripe and, like initially reported, their name tags were still visible.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 6:10 a.m.
Police are now handing out slips of paper with instructions on departing the encampment to protesters gathered near the entrance to the quad on South Ellis Avenue. The slips are entitled “Final Notice to Students Participating in Encampment on Main Quad.”
The papers were not handed to protesters in advance of the raid.
“The Deans on Call and University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) have informed you multiple times that your tents and other items are unauthorized. This is your final warning to leave the encampment.
If you fail to immediately leave, you will be arrested by law enforcement for criminal trespass under the Illinois Criminal Code.
Additionally, failure to immediately leave will result in disciplinary action as outlined in the Student Manual. You will also be immediately placed on emergency interim leave of absence from the University. A student who has been placed on emergency interim leave of absence must promptly vacate University housing, leave campus, cannot participate in student and academic program activities, or use any University facilities, and may not return until the student has been authorized to return from the leave and reenroll.”
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 6:05 a.m.
Trucks are carrying materials protesters had used to barricade the encampment away from the quad.
A video taken by a Maroon reporter shows that at around 5:20 a.m., roughly 30 police officers in riot gear formed a line with plastic shields around the exit from the quad to South Ellis Avenue on the west side of the quad. The officers then pulled yellow barricades in front of them and motioned for protesters, who had been pushed outside of the quad, to stay behind the barricades. Protesters continued chanting at the officers.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 5:48 a.m.
In an interview with the Maroon, Professor Eman Abdelhadi described her reaction to the police raid on the encampment.
“I am shocked by the cruelty of raiding the camp at 4:30 in the morning right after students had fallen asleep,” Abdelhadi said. “The police were watching the camp all night; they knew that people had just left; they knew that people had just gone to sleep, and that’s when they chose to come in and pull the tents from under people who are sleeping. It’s really disgusting.”
“I hope that the University knows that students aren’t going anywhere. This is just the beginning,” Abdelhadi added.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 5:47 a.m.
A video reviewed by the Maroon taken by an onlooker as the police entered the encampment showed many large flashes coming from within the encampment as police entered. Police quickly began tearing down tents, where encampment members had largely gone for the night. As police yelled at protesters inside the encampment to move out of the area, protesters can be heard yelling, “More than 40,000 dead, you’re arresting kids instead.”
Another video taken by encampment members and posted on X shows similar.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 5:31 a.m.
Police have set up a barricade between the line of officers in riot gear and protesters. The number of people arriving at the quad entrance continues to grow.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 5:23 a.m.
Per a video posted on X, the warning given by UCPD prior to entering the encampment was in part:
“You are hereby notified that you are committing criminal trespass by remaining on this private property without permission. You are ordered to disperse immediately. Anyone who fails to comply will be criminally charged. Students who fail to comply with this order are subject to University discipline and immediately placed on leave of absence.”
There were only a few minutes between the start of the warnings and when UCPD began entering the encampment.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 5:18 a.m.
Protesters gathered near the South Ellis Avenue entrance to the quad have begun slowly walking towards the line of police in riot gear. The group continues chants of “Where does our tuition go? Killing children, hell no” and “Paul, Paul, fuck you.”
The officers are equipped with zip ties.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 5:15 a.m.
In a Telegram message, UCUP said that it was encouraging people to demonstrate outside the quad. The number of people gathered near the bookstore has grown in size.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 5:14 a.m.
Another organizer said that the police essentially formed a funnel to force demonstrators out of the quad.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 5:12 a.m.
On the east side of the quad, a line of pickup trucks and construction equipment has entered the quad.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 5:09 a.m.
The raid came as most of the encampment had returned to their tents for the night. Two UCPD cars drove onto the quad and used their lamps to light up the encampment. Over a loudspeaker, UCUP ordered the demonstrators to leave the quad. Then, shortly after their announcements, several dozen officers in riot gear surrounded the encampment to prepare to enter.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor
May 7, 5:06 a.m.
The UCUP organizer said that they were not sure whether people were arrested. They believe that the goal was to push people out of the quad.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 5:03 a.m.
A UCUP organizer described the raid in an interview with the Maroon.
“They pushed me. One person was on the ground. They’ve been pushing people out,” the organizer said.
“They did not give us a clear plan for leaving. They came in maybe two minutes after the warning. It’s clear that they waited until after the rally was over. We were at our most vulnerable,” the organizer added. “I believe we got everybody safely out of [their tents].”
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 4:59 a.m.
Police in riot gear are blocking access to the quad as many people arrive at the quad hoping to enter.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor; Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
May 7, 4:57 a.m.
Staff from the Maroon are reporting from outside of Regenstein Library. Protesters can no longer be heard.
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
May 7, 4:55 a.m.
UCPD have ordered press to leave the quad. It appears that most of the protesters have been removed from the quad. It is unclear whether arrests have been made.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor; Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
May 7, 4:49 a.m.
People could be heard screaming from the encampment as police continued sweeping the quad.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor; Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
May 7, 4:48 a.m.
In addition to UCPD, the Cook County Sheriffs Office was observed on scene.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor; Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
May 7, 4:46 a.m.
Tents were overturned and barriers were largely demolished. Protesters continued their chanting.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor; Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
May 7, 4:45 a.m.
Police have entered the encampment and are clearing out tents. There are several dozen police officers on the quad.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor
May 7, 4:45 a.m.
Protesters could be heard chanting as officers told them to move back in unison. Bright flashes could be seen coming from the quad.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor
May 7, 4:25 a.m.
UCPD OFFICERS HAVE ARRIVED ON THE MAIN QUAD AND TOLD PROTESTERS TO LEAVE OR FACE ARREST.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor; Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
May 7, 4:25 a.m.
There is minimal activity at the encampment, with most demonstrators appearing to have returned to their tents.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor; Emma Janssen, Deputy News Editor
May 7, 3:50 a.m.
Encampment organizers announced that they were ending their rally and told people they could go home. Organizers asked people who had gathered near the encampment to “check [their] phones at 5:30 [a.m.] for any updates.”
After the announcement, many of the individuals that had gathered in recent hours left the quad.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 3:13 a.m.
The number of Allied Security officers on the quad has returned to the usual number. As of 3:13 a.m., a rumored 3 a.m. police action has not materialized.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 2:49 a.m.
After briefly singing “We are the Champions,” protesters have begun chanting “Free, free Palestine” and “The people united will never be defeated.”
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 2:27 a.m.
As the encampment anticipates a potential police action, organizers are preparing for their arrival. An organizer said that faculty would be on the front line.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 2:18 a.m.
Over a dozen Allied Security officers are clustered together by the South University Avenue entrance of the quad. More security officers are arriving.
— Maroon Staff
May 7, 1:35 a.m.
UCUP issued a statement on their Instagram asking people to go “all out to defend our comrades” because of “credible reports” that police will act to remove the encampment tonight.
The Maroon observed groups of people leaving the encampment carrying various belongings.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor
May 7, 12:36 a.m.
A protester spoke over a megaphone asking encampment participants who do not want to be involved in police activity to leave and offered to escort people home. “We also ask that you do outreach and mobilize your network,” they said.
– Elena Eisenstadt, News Reporter
May 7, 12:21 a.m.
A faculty member from Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) at UChicago has reported to the Maroon that they are no longer able to access buildings around the quad which they would normally be able to enter.
— Finn Hartnett, News Reporter
May 7, 12:18 a.m.
UCUP released a statement on Telegram calling for protesters to mobilize to the encampment tonight. “We have received credible information that police WILL be carrying out a raid against the UChicago encampment in the coming hours,” the message read.
The statement comes after multiple reporters and a State Senator posted about the possibility of a 3 a.m. raid.
The number of people at the encampment has slowly grown since UCUP released its statement.
— Maroon Staff
AParent / May 9, 2024 at 4:38 am
The protestors need to lead with the facts.
‘Our lead story in Money & Markets on the Solari Report last week was on the uncovering of mass graves in Gaza. Subscribers can watch last week’s Money & Markets here. Hundreds of bodies have been uncovered. Some had their hands tied behind their back and were shot. Some had organs taken. Watch the disgust of a Sky News reporter as the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem tries to blow off the report and then spin a tale when caught.
Those who consume corporate media know nothing of gruesome mass graves in Gaza. Instead, they are ingesting stories about student protests at American universities. My expectation is that these protests are professionally organized and financed, with scripts written for paid agitators to say things that can then support more “hate crime” charges and legislation. The best defense is a good offense.
This is called a “whiteout.” School protests keep the real story out of the headlines—shocking slaughter and mass atrocity in Gaza as the land grab proceeds and the engineering of mass famine accelerates.’
home(dot)solari(dot)com/netanyahus-mass-atrocity-machinery-what-will-you-do/
Angelo / May 8, 2024 at 10:49 am
I see the Maroon repeated, in its summary of yesterday’s events, the debatable claim that “a video of the raid, posted by SJP on X, shows a UCPD officer throwing a protester to the ground on one of the stone pathways on the Quad.” Several people who have studied the video have commented that the protestor was not thrown but instead fell (perhaps on purpose because the SJP was desperate for some “evidence” of police “brutality.” Maroon: Don’t state something as fact when it isn’t clearly fact!
AnAlum / May 8, 2024 at 9:06 am
I thought this part of Jill Filipovic’s recent essay in The Atlantic hits the nail on the head about the general sense of entitlement from the protestors:
“The protesters’ simple argument is that their cause is righteous and should therefore be supported, and that their schools should enable their protests. These schools are communities, as administrators continuously remind them. Non-righteous causes and individuals, the protesters believe, should not be allowed. A community’s norms are set not only by the law, but by what that community deems acceptable, moral, and desirable.”
Thank you, President Alivisatos, for making clear from the outset that the U of C does not believe in taking sides, that “moral clarity” can delude as much as it can inform.
Sapta / May 8, 2024 at 8:32 am
1- It is so sad that intelligent young people are brainwashed into saying from the river to the sea, which is straight out of the Hamas playbook. Look it up.
2-Young, intelligent people, are Identifying with Hamas as the underdog well, they are terrorists, instigators well funded by Iran and killers.
3- Never forget! Hamas has infiltrated the population, hides behind civilians, builds tunnels with materials that was meant for construction and keeps all the supplies and food, and tortures the hostages.
4-Outside organized protesters are brainwashing our young people. Wars cause innocent casualties. Wars cause border changes. Homegrown terrorism will be on the rise. Fact.
5- Demonstration should be for discussion and learning the true history of the Middle East, protest and open your eyes to Russia is doing in Ukraine
6- What is the goal of Hamas? From birth they are taught to hate Israel. And the goal is the total destruction of the state of Israel. As a protester are you aware of that?
7- The right to free speech and protest does not mean they have the right to take away my right to exist.
A very sad Grandma, second generation Holocaust survivor.
Summa / May 8, 2024 at 6:47 pm
Dear Sapta:
You are not alone. Though Irish American by birth, I have a daughter who identifies as Jewish. My father fought nearly four years in the North Atlantic against Nazi U-boats; one of my uncles was lined up and executed by the Waffen SS outside Bastogne; and another uncle went mad on Guadalcanal as a Marine chaplain. I guarantee you that as long as my family draws breath, we won’t forget what the Jewish people have endured and the debt that we owe as civilized people to their survival.
Stephie / May 8, 2024 at 7:54 pm
Love to you, Sapta. Without sounding too Clintonesque, I feel your pain, anger, and frustration.
Stephie
Student ‘26 / May 7, 2024 at 6:49 pm
Alivisatos posted an opinion piece in the WSJ that is worth mentioning
The Portrait of Hanna Gray / May 7, 2024 at 6:17 pm
For eight days the protestors planned to give the UCPD the Battle of Agincourt, but when push came to shove we got the ending of Monty Python & The Holy Grail.
I guess there’s a reason these kids didn’t get into Harvard after all.
AParent / May 7, 2024 at 8:30 pm
Could you be more ignorant and offensive?
It does not look like you have to try very hard to accomplish both.
The Portrait of Hanna Gray / May 7, 2024 at 9:40 pm
The truth hurts, doesn’t it?
I’m under no obligation to take seriously any of this performative nonsense. The war in Gaza is a grave matter; this encampment was not.
Matt G / May 7, 2024 at 4:50 pm
So the students have continued to protest after their camp was dismantled? I guess that means the university didn’t actually take away their right to free speech when they took away their gloried bouncy house.
Maroon Man / May 7, 2024 at 4:16 pm
High school newspaper quality coverage of the Quad encampments by the Maroon. Try harder to be real journalists.
AParent / May 7, 2024 at 3:37 pm
I was watching a video of the UCPD action to clear the quad it was quite disturbing.
I hope UChicago will proactively provide some forums for students to gather and talk about their experience, preferably with mental health professionals in attendance.
It is absolutely important to recognize that all of this may be too much for some, particularly if they do not have other avenues of support.
At the end of the day, we wish ALL students and faculty well.
Plapi / May 7, 2024 at 2:06 pm
It has been quite clear that the protestors have been very hungry for some “police brutality” content for their social media, I’m glad they didn’t get much. Rarely have I seen a side try to spin the truth so much – immediately off-putting.
Belita Clark / May 7, 2024 at 1:21 pm
The video of a protester “being thrown to the ground”??? Um that protester flopped like they were in the NBA. Babies.
AParent / May 7, 2024 at 12:33 pm
Jonathan Turley 7:06 AM · May 7, 2024
“Police are now clashing with demonstrators at the University of Chicago, my alma mater. Notably, faculty have pledged to be arrested with the students who are refusing to leave the encampment…
…UChicago has made clear that remaining in the encampment will not result in suspension but arrest. UChicago is one of the most protective universities of free speech. However, these disruptive efforts and occupation of campus areas cross the line into criminal conduct.
…The police has cleared away the tents and allowed protesters back into the quad to continue their protests without the encampment. That is a principled line that protects free speech while preventing occupation or disruption.”
CP28 / May 7, 2024 at 12:23 pm
“A video has been released by UChicago Students for Justice in Palestine showing a UCPD officer throwing a protester onto one of the stone pathways on the Quad.”
The fact that the Maroon reports this as fact is disturbing. The link to the video clearly shows that the protester was NOT thrown down. Give me a break Maroon! Do you think we are idiots?
Angelo / May 7, 2024 at 1:11 pm
Totally agree—the protestor fell down either accidentally or on purpose while wriggling away from the police officer. Victim wannabes.
UChicago Dad / May 7, 2024 at 11:44 am
I’m sure many of the protesters are good hearted and genuinely concerned about Gaza and protecting the innocent who never wanted anything to do with Hamas. That said, many quoted in these articles say things like “We have been brutalized by the University of Chicago police force”, betraying their want to have their victimhood, however false, at the center of everyone’s attention.
Summa / May 7, 2024 at 11:18 am
To all those “disclose and divest” protestors huddled along Ellis Avenue this morning, especially those waving your iPhones at the UCPD. “Apple has bought an Israel company for more than $270 million. The telecommunications giant bought PrimeSense, a Tel Aviv-based maker of microchips for 3d technology this week,” according to Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist. [April 26, 2024]. Ooops!
Alum and parent / May 7, 2024 at 9:53 am
I’m all for peace and love, but it is very hard to see this UofC protest, in particular, as being well informed and well intentioned. It is hard not to come across as just pro terrorist and antisemitic when they have US and international terrorists as guests and speakers.
An anti Hamas rally? I could get behind that.
a UC parent / May 7, 2024 at 9:52 am
“a UCUP organizer said in a statement to the Maroon”
The Maroon should no longer remain complicit in shielding the protesters’ identities’. It is past time to identify who these people are.
Summa / May 7, 2024 at 1:36 pm
I hear your frustration, but journalistic ethics forbid divulging a source’s identity, or attributing a quote to a named individual, without their explicit permission.
A / May 7, 2024 at 9:45 am
“”Dig It. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, they even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach! Wild!” -Bernadine Dohrn talking approvingly about the Tate-LaBinaca murders by the Manson Family.
Summa / May 7, 2024 at 10:46 am
Yep, the very same Bernardine Dohrn who proclaimed, within the last few years, that “”the real terrorist is the American government, state terrorism unleashed against the world.” She is reason I dropped out of SDS in ’69. I had had enough of her radical-chic-style Maoism. Glad to see she still is trying to indoctrinate 18-year-olds as a side hustle.
AParent / May 7, 2024 at 9:35 am
Student and faculty protestors, I am sorry the encampment ended this way, but the protest does not have to end. Regroup, review and come back and re-engage the community.
Your cause is, without any doubt, just. Your execution was unsustainable.
Keep ALL outsiders out, individuals and organizations. You don’t need them. They need you and they use you.
Stay safe, all involved.
Now I am probably contradicting myself by this quote, but it is apropos to the larger context in which we the people find ourselves. Your enemy is not the university. The university is merely one tiny cog in the wheel of the enemy.
“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice” – Montesquieu
John Doe / May 7, 2024 at 9:30 am
“We were at our most vulnerable,” No shit!!!
Now these imbeciles know how the Israeli men, women and kids must have felt on Oct 7th when a marauding gang of rapists and murderers invaded from Gaza.
Then again these bigoted clueless ingrates show suicidal empathy towards a Gaza population and government that considers everyone who doesn’t believe in “Allah” and his pedophile prophet, “Worst of creatures”… SO…..
Verily, those who disbelieve (in the religion of Islam, the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad from among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) and Al-Mushrikun (polytheists) will abide in the Fire of Hell. They are the worst of creatures.” (QURAN 98:6)
Narrated Aisha:
The Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death). (SAHIH AL-BUKHARI 5133)
Their support for the Gazans is like “Chickens for KFC” and “Feminists for pedophiles”
To spend even a second of one’s precious life defending followers of this culture against the only democracy in the ME while damaging private property and trying to shame hard working law enforcement officers just doing their jobs is DESPICABLE
What these ingrates should be doing if they truly cared about civilian casualties is holding up signs that demand
1) Hamas return all the hostages
2) Hamas fighters wear military fatigue
3) Hamas flight the IDF in the open desert and away from civilian areas
4) Hamas survivors stand trial for murder and rape at the ICJ
How about UChicago have a compulsory essay that future applicants have to write on this conflict and deny admission to anyone who says they support Hamas and the Gazans who elected and kept them in power for decades and still support their murderous raid as “resistance”
AAlum / May 7, 2024 at 9:25 am
Cowardly decision by University Admin. If the encampment is violating rules and the University refuses to budge, than do it. Raid the encampment, identify the protestors, and arrest/academically sanction them. If, on the other hand, it’s a legitimate exercise of free speech, than leave the encampment be and either negotiate or ignore them. Raiding the encampment at night and then saying “Alright, you rascals got away with it this time but don’t try that again or you’ll be in a big trouble” just really smacks of trying to please everyone, or perhaps an awareness that any attempts to censor protestors now wouldn’t hold up to scrutiny. UChicago is acting like these issues will just go away-they won’t.
AParent / May 7, 2024 at 9:55 am
MIT removed its encampment after an advance (few hours) statement to its community, providing specific processes, schedules and consequences. However, it also required the swiping of all encampment student IDs, which would be kept on record. I am glad that UChicago did not do the latter.
( MIT President’s statement can be found here: orgchart(dot)mit(dot)edu/letters/actions-being-taken-regarding-encampment )
Summa / May 7, 2024 at 9:04 am
Bernardine Dohrn? Really? Talk about the Hyde Park version of a bad penny.
John Doe / May 7, 2024 at 8:58 am
FINALLY!!!
Enough of this charade and nonsense. I sure hope suspensions and expulsions follow.
A dog / May 7, 2024 at 8:38 am
The protesters are so disappointed they didn’t get arrested or beaten lol
John Welch / May 7, 2024 at 8:35 am
Police cleared the protest encampment this morning.
At the same time, the Israeli military began its conquest of Rafah, where a million Palestinian refugees have sought safety after the IDF obliterated the rest of Gaza. Israelis have killed 35,000 people in Gaza, of which the Israeli government claims 10,000 were Hamas soldiers. Do the arithmetic: the IDF has killed at least 25,000 civilians.
According to Haaretz, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich threatened to bring down the Netanyahu government of the Israeli military does not conquer Rafah. Netanyahu expected that Hamas would reject an agreement to free the hostages in return for a cease-fire. He trapped himself when Hamas returned to negotiations.
The Washington Post report that the IDF has taken control of a section of Rafah at the border crossing. Yesterday, the Israeli military ordered a Rafah neighborhood to evacuate. That neighborhood has 100,000 people, and, of course, there is no where else to go.
This is what the encampment was about. It hoped to focus people at UC, Hyde Park, and the rest of Chicago on a world outside. It said “wake up!” The Maroon has done a superb job reporting the Chicago protests. I’m proud — I wrote for the Maroon from 1966 until 1969, and was co-Managing Editor in the summer of 1967.
Way back, Dean Booth (is the Business School named after the great author of “The Fiction of Rhetoric”?) told us that we should enjoy our “psycho-social moratorium” while the US fire-bombed Viet Nam. Yes, students in The College had chosen the Life of the Mind over all the get-ahead-careerist Ivy-League schools.
Most of the howling complaints, in Maroon letters, seem to be from anonymous MAGAs following the Life of the Mindless.
Old and disappointed / May 7, 2024 at 10:07 am
At the same time, the encampment story (and American academia’s handling of it) is now in the news everywhere – not Rafah. And that’s sad.
Bob Michaelson / May 7, 2024 at 11:11 am
I clicked “Recommend” beneath your comment, but that caused the number listed to decrease from 3 to 2. Maybe a glitch, or maybe someone has hacked the Maroon web site?
Angelo / May 7, 2024 at 8:03 am
I’m glad the University finally intervened. The administration was more than patient with these protestors. Probably everyone who grew up in the US learned that there are limits to free speech—for example, you can’t shout “fire!“ in a crowded theater lest you cause injury to others. Freedom of speech here means freedom to express your opinion without being silenced. We did not see that here—the protesters damaged private property, hit people with opposing views over the head with boards, and tore down counter demonstrations. Good riddance to them.
TW / May 7, 2024 at 7:53 am
Why doesn’t the Maroon publish the list of demands from UCUP? Let the world decide for themselves if they are acting out of good faith with actionable and reasonable demands.
Alum / May 7, 2024 at 7:49 am
Lo! They come with clouds descending! Thank you, UCPD. Please arrest and expel these unwashed hordes and let’s resume normality, please. I hear the local Shakespeare society will be performing soon at the Quad, a much more salubrious act of cosplay.
EightiesAlum / May 7, 2024 at 7:45 am
UCPD, thanks for taking out the trash.
Sorry you had to start your day so early.
The campers had to start their day early too but, who cares. They have been disrupting things for over a week so they deserve an early reveille.
Cp28 / May 7, 2024 at 7:15 am
“The Maroon observed that protesters were given little advance warning to disassemble and exit the encampment prior to the police entering it. One protester said encampment participants were given a ten-minute warning, but only two minutes to actually leave.”
The president literally told the protesters on the first day that they should not start an encampment and have told them every day since then to disassemble it and depart voluntarily. Pretending otherwise is pure nonsense.
Plapi / May 7, 2024 at 6:48 am
Peak comedy of the protestors to call for UCPD to get a real job.
Tom / May 7, 2024 at 6:12 am
Why are you only interviewing the protestors and presenting one side of the story? What about the perspectives of the students and faculty members who chose not to participate in the protest?
REEE / May 7, 2024 at 7:03 am
Because they’re asleep?
Plapi / May 7, 2024 at 7:10 am
Maroon has been a biased megaphone for this protest since the beginning.
Galen / May 7, 2024 at 7:58 am
Because this is a live coverage specifically of the protest / encampment, not an article about how individuals feel about it. This is the only live coverage anywhere – if you are looking for opinions, read op-eds or news articles.
Richard / May 7, 2024 at 8:57 am
Good point. But when reporting what protesters say about timing — only 2 minutes warning — you might mention your own timeline, which appears to show 20.
I want breakfast / May 7, 2024 at 5:53 am
That was underwhelming.
Anyways, back to regularly scheduled programming.