2nd Yale Encampment Cleared

(Updated 8:12 a.m., Tuesday, April 30, with university comment) Yale and city police cleared another pro-Palestinian tent encampment from the university’s downtown campus early Tuesday morning — but this time, there were no arrests. 

Close to 50 Yale and New Haven police officers descended on Yale’s Cross Campus a little after 6 a.m. to start the process of removing roughly 40 tents that had been standing since Sunday afternoon as part of the latest campus protest over Israel’s war in Gaza.

The police clearing of the Cross Campus tent encampment comes eight days after police cleared a similar tent encampment from Beinecke Plaza early last Monday morning. As part of that earlier clearing, Yale police arrested a total of 48 people — including 44 Yale students — who had refused to move out of the now-cleared encampment, charging them each with criminal trespassing.

On Tuesday morning, no arrests appeared to be made. That’s because, according to the Cross Campus encampment’s organizers, a group called OccupyYale, all protesters had already left the tents.

Yale Police Department (YPD) Chief Anthony Campell issued all three dispersal warnings starting at 6:20 a.m. He also told students they could face emergency suspension per university regulations.

According to YPD Lt. Sabrina Wood, the tents will be taken down by Yale facilities or maintenance workers. Wood also said that Yale police officers are sifting through belongings in the encampment, searching for valuables, phones, computers, and medication, which people will be able to retrieve from the YPD’s headquarters on Ashmun Street later this afternoon.

As of 7 a.m., Yale PD had shut down the entirety of Cross Campus, including Alexander Walk.

As of 7:29 a.m., New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson confirmed that there have not been any arrests made so far.

Soon before 8 a.m., Yale facilities and maintenance workers began physically removing the empty tents.

New Haven Police Department spokesperson Officer Christian Bruckhart told the Independent that there were 26 New Haven police officers and three motorcycles on scene as YPD Chief Campbell had requested assistance from the NHPD.

A little after 6:30 a.m., police then moved students and protesters who had left the encampment over College Street.

“This lawn is still Yale property, you must leave or you will be arrested,” Campbell said to chants of ​“Shame!” from the crowd.

“Chief Campbell, history will remember you with shame,” the crowd chanted.

Soon after 8 a.m., a university spokesperson provided the Independent with a written comment confirming that the Cross Campus protesters were told to end the encampment or face discipline, ​“including suspension for violating university rules and arrest for trespassing. All the protesters chose to leave the encampment, and the university is in the process of clearing tents and other items from the area.”

The university’s statement continued: ​“Over the past several days, administrators communicated to protesters that their encampment and activities violated the university’s policies and were disrupting academic and university operations. Several attempts by Pericles Lewis, Dean of Yale College, to convince the protestors that they had other means besides occupying Cross Campus to get their message heard were unsuccessful. The tent encampment was located near student dorms, libraries, and classrooms, where many students are writing their final papers and studying for final exams.”

The spokesperson stated that Yale ​“fully supports peaceful protests and freedom of speech; however, claiming control of our shared space is inconsistent with our principles and values.” 

Click here and here for details on the university’s guidance around free expression, peaceable assembly, and on-campus outdoor spaces.

Tuesday morning’s tent encampment clearing at Yale took place at the same time that pro-Palestinian protests appeared to escalate dramatically at Columbia University in New York City, where students occupied a campus building after the university’s administration began suspending encampment protesters.

See below for a previous version of this article.

Protest Tents Return To Yale's Campus

Forty tents have popped up on Yale’s Cross Campus as a group of pro-Palestinian protesters have set up another encampment — one week after Yale police made arrests and cleared a previous one that stood on Beinecke Plaza.

That new encampment emerged Sunday afternoon, after more than 1,500 protesters from across the state marched through the Green and the streets of downtown to express their outrage about Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.

On Yale’s campus, more than 250 people formed a human chain around the tents to prevent the university from removing them and the police from arresting the occupants. (As of 6 p.m., the human chain around the new encampment was gone, as protesters moved to occupy the upper courtyard of Cross Campus.)

The new encampment comes roughly a week after 48 people, including 44 Yale students, were arrested by Yale police for refusing to move out of the now-cleared Beinecke encampment.

This new tent encampment at Yale was put up by a group called OccupyYale. Organizers put up a sign with demands for the university. Those demands include that the university ​“disclose all financial investments” in Israel, ​“divest from genocide and war profiteering and reinvest in New Haven.”

Yale Police Chief Anthony Campbell told the Independent as of 5 p.m. that there are currently no plans to clear the encampment or make arrests. Campbell said that he is waiting for a decision from senior administrators on what to do. 

At around 11 p.m. Sunday, a university spokesperson told the Independent that the student protesters have been asked to remove their tents because they ​“violate the university’s policy, and they have been reminded of the university’s policies on the use of outdoor space, postering and chalking, and the use of amplified sound.”

The Yale spokesperson continued: ​“Students who continue to occupy Cross Campus without regard for university policies risk university discipline, arrest, or re-arrest. Discipline could include suspension.”

Click here to read a recent statement from the university about its ​“assault weapon divestment policy,” here for a statement from Yale President Peter Salovey about the police’s clearing of the Beinecke tent encampment last week, and here and here for details on the university’s guidance around free expression, peaceable assembly, and requesting the use of on-campus outdoor spaces.

Craig Birckhead-Morton, a senior at Yale involved with the OccupyYale movement, was one of the 44 students arrested at Beinecke Plaza last Monday. He said this new encampment has been set up because the university is not willing to disclose or divest from investments in Israel, and because it’s unwilling to drop disciplinary action and criminal trespassing charges against the 44 students who were arrested on Monday. 

“They have been taking down our art, they have been preventing us from holding teach-ins, they have prevented us from having speakers,” Birckhead-Morton said. ​“So the encampment is back, and we’re not leaving.” 

All 48 people who were arrested last Monday during the clearing of the Beinecke encampment were released and given summons to appear in state court on May 8 at 9 a.m.

Last Monday night, most of the core organizers of Occupy Beinecke, which was the group that organized the original Beinecke encampment, stepped down from their leadership role and handed the baton to Occupy Yale. 

The core organizers of the Occupy Beinecke movement were largely students at the university. The new group of organizers includes graduate students at the school as well as members of New Haven and Connecticut pro-Palestinian organizing groups. 

“While acknowledging the success of this mobilization, it is important to broaden it — especially in light of the prejudice Yale administration has demonstrated toward New Haven and Connecticut community members. Our movement is bigger than Beinecke Plaza now,” the organizers of Occupy Beinecke wrote to the Independent and posted online.

Protesters had been sleeping throughout the past week week in sleeping bags on Cross Campus. The university had made clear that they would remove anything that resembled a structure, like tents. University officials removed artwork and speakers throughout the week. 

At 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, organizers of the new encampment asked reporters from the New Haven Independent and Yale Daily News to leave the inside of the ​“Liberated Zone” because ​“reporters have made people participating in the new zone feel unsafe.”

Around 8:30 pm, Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis hand-delivered a letter to student marshals asking them to end the encampment on Cross Campus. 

“I expect you to adhere to our university’s policies and expectations,” Lewis wrote in the letter. ​“Many of your fellow students are preparing for finals, and your unauthorized use of Cross Campus impedes their ability to study. Students are also reporting concerns about chants and other behavior of those currently occupying Cross Campus, including the exclusion of students from using parts of Cross Campus, a public space, unless they declare political agreement with the protesters.” 

For a period of time, marshals of the protest had set up checkpoints on the entrances of the ​“Liberated Zone,” preventing people from entering if they did not adhere to the community standards of the protest. Marshals subsequently stopped doing this. 

Also on Sunday evening, Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, the Jewish chaplain at Yale, sent out an email to Yale’s Slifka Center email listserv saying that the center has conveyed its concerns over the protests to university administration. 

“All of us together are confronting the shocking reality that a group of Yale students has declared the center of Yale off-limits to those who do not share their political views — particularly since their intent and effect is to rid parts of Yale of Zionist Jews, among others,” Rubenstein wrote. ​“This is, and ought to be, a concern for every member of our community, regardless of politics or theology regarding Israel or the current war. We have conveyed this strenuously to the administration, and hope that they will act in this moment with a full grasp of its profound implications for our community.”