Where College Students Have Set Up Pro-Palestinian Protest Encampments

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Updated on September 12, 2024

Edited by

• Fact-checked by Marley Rose

Students at more than 100 colleges across the U.S. have set up protest encampments to demand their schools divest from companies supporting Israel.

Demonstrators occupy a makeshift protest camp on Parish Beach at Swarthmore College on April 24, 2024 in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. The encampment protesting Israel's treatment of Palestinians was erected by students in solidarity with similar encampments that sprung up at universities across the US in spring of 2024.

Credit: Demonstrators occupy a makeshift protest camp in solidarity with Gaza at Swarthmore College on April 24, 2024. Image Credit: Matthew Hatcher / Stringer / Getty Images News

Data Summary

During the spring 2024 academic term, college students set up roughly 121 protest encampments at 117 universities.
Approximately 18% of these encampments ended with the university agreeing to at least some of the protesting students’ demands.
Half (51%) were forcibly disbanded by local or campus authorities.
Student protestors have primarily asked schools to divest from companies that support Israel and disclose financial ties to the country.
They have also sought amnesty for protestors and funding for Palestinian students and scholars.

For college students in the U.S., the spring semester typically promises excitement for commencement ceremonies, job offers, and summer plans. But this year’s academic term closed with thousands of students setting up protest encampments in opposition to the Israel-Hamas war.

These student protest encampments first emerged on college campuses in late March but gained national attention after students at Columbia University set up tents on the campus’s south lawn on April 17.

Since then, hundreds of students across the country have been arrested, had degrees withheld, and faced suspension or even expulsion from their institutions.^{Note Reference [1], Note Reference [2]}

Students at these encampments primarily demanded that their schools divest from companies that support Israel. Of the approximately 121 college protest encampments that were created last academic term, at least 18% ended with the institution reaching an agreement with students to explore divesting and end partnerships with schools in Israel.

Much larger percentages, however, were either forcibly (51%) or voluntarily disbanded (28%).

Still, at least four encampments continued through the end of the spring semester and into the summer.

In this report, we define what makes a demonstration a protest encampment and share a full list of colleges where students built protest encampments.

What Is a Protest Encampment?

A college protest encampment refers to campus property where individuals affiliated with the university have established temporary dwellings and intend to reside overnight in protest.

Encampments don’t necessarily need to be outside but typically include temporary accommodations, such as tents, tarps, and/or sleeping bags.

Protest encampments on college campuses are nothing new. In just the last two decades, students have participated in these types of demonstrations to oppose U.S. involvement in the Iraq War^{Note Reference [3]} and police brutality following the murder of George Floyd.

Today’s student protests most closely resemble the historic campus demonstrations where students pressured their institutions to divest from South African apartheid.

In April 1985, students at the University of California, Berkeley, started a sit-in at Sproul Hall, demanding that the school divest billions of dollars from companies associated with the South African government.^{Note Reference [4]}

The encampment continued until nearly the end of the school year, attracting thousands of supporters, even as over 150 protestors were arrested by police.^{Note Reference [5]}

Almost 40 years later, the UC Berkeley Free Palestine Camp was established at the very same Hall, as students asked the university to financially and academically divest from Israel.

Full List of Student Protest Encampments in the U.S.

The following list displays U.S. colleges and universities where students set up protest encampments on campus in 2024. This list does not include schools that held other types of student protests or temporary demonstrations in opposition to the Israel-Hamas war.

California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt

Start Date: 4/22/24
End Date: 4/30/24
How Did It End?: Forcibly disbanded

California State University, Los Angeles

Start Date: 5/1/24
End Date: 6/17/24
How Did It End?: Forcibly disbanded

California State University, Sacramento

Start Date: 4/29/24
End Date: 5/8/24
How Did It End?: Reached an agreement

Chapman University

Start Date: 5/2/24
End Date: 5/16/24
How Did It End?: Reached an agreement

Occidental College

Start Date: 4/29/24
End Date: 5/7/24
How Did It End?: Reached an agreement

Pitzer College

Start Date: 4/26/24
End Date: 5/5/24
How Did It End?: Voluntarily disbanded

Pomona College, Claremont

Note: Institution had two separate encampments, sometimes operating simultaneously.

Encampment 1
- Start Date: 3/28/24
- End Date: 4/5/24
- How Did It End?: Voluntarily disbanded
Encampment 2
- Start Date: 5/6/24
- End Date: 5/12/24
- How Did It End?: Voluntarily disbanded

San Francisco State University

Start Date: 4/29/24
End Date: 5/14/24
How Did It End?: Reached an agreement

San Jose State University

Start Date: 5/14/24
End Date: 5/22/24
How Did It End?: Voluntarily disbanded

Sonoma State University

Start Date: 4/26/24
End Date: 5/14/24
How Did It End?: Reached an agreement

Stanford University

Start Date: 4/25/24
End Date: 6/5/24
How Did It End?: Forcibly disbanded

University of California, Berkeley

Start Date: 4/22/24
End Date: 5/14/24
How Did It End?: Reached an agreement

University of California, Davis

Start Date: 5/6/24
How Did It End?: 6/19/24
How Did It End?: Voluntarily disbanded

University of California, Irvine

Start Date: 4/29/24
End Date: 5/15/24
How Did It End?: Forcibly disbanded

University of California, Los Angeles

Start Date: 4/25/24
End Date: 5/2/24
How Did It End?: Forcibly disbanded

University of California, Merced

Start Date: 5/12/24
End Date: 5/21/24
How Did It End?: Voluntarily disbanded

University of California, Riverside

Start Date: 4/29/24
End Date: 5/3/24
How Did It End?: Reached an agreement

University of California, San Diego

Start Date: 5/1/24
End Date: 5/6/24
How Did It End?: Forcibly disbanded

University of California, San Francisco

Start Date: 5/13/24
End Date: 5/18/24
How Did It End?: Forcibly disbanded

University of California, Santa Barbara

Start Date: 5/1/24
How Did It End?: 6/23/24
How Did It End?: Forcibly disbanded

University of California, Santa Cruz

Start Date: 5/1/24
End Date: 5/31/24
How Did It End?: Forcibly disbanded

University of San Francisco

Start Date: 4/29/24
End Date: 5/20/24
How Did It End?: Forcibly disbanded

University of Southern California

Start Date: 4/24/24
End Date: 4/24/24; 5/5/24
How Did It End?: Forcibly disbanded

References

Columbia begins to suspend students in ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment,’ University spokesperson says. Columbia Spectator. April 2024. (back to footnote 1 in content ⤶)
UCLA declares Palestine encampment unlawful, USC president in talks with protesters. The Mercury News. May 2024. (back to footnote 2 in content ⤶)
Tent-city protesters stand firm against war (PDF). The Denver Post. April 2003. (back to footnote 3 in content ⤶)
Free Palestine Encampment mirrors 1980s protests against South African apartheid. The Daily Californian. April 2024. (back to footnote 4 in content ⤶)
How students helped end apartheid | University of California. The University of California. May 2018. (back to footnote 5 in content ⤶)

Where College Students Have Set Up Pro-Palestinian Protest Encampments

Data Summary

What Is a Protest Encampment?

Full List of Student Protest Encampments in the U.S.

Arizona

Arizona State University

Northern Arizona University

University of Arizona

Encampment 1

Encampment 2

California

California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt

California State University, Los Angeles

California State University, Sacramento

Chapman University

Occidental College

Pitzer College

Pomona College, Claremont

Encampment 1

Encampment 2

San Francisco State University

San Jose State University

Sonoma State University

Stanford University

University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Davis

University of California, Irvine

University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Merced

University of California, Riverside

University of California, San Diego

University of California, San Francisco

University of California, Santa Barbara

University of California, Santa Cruz

University of San Francisco

University of Southern California

Colorado

Metropolitan State University of Denver

Connecticut

University of Connecticut

Yale University

Encampment 1

Encampment 2

Wesleyan University

District of Columbia

George Washington University

Florida

Florida State University

University of Central Florida

University of Florida

University of South Florida

Georgia

Emory University

University of Georgia

Illinois

DePaul University

Northwestern University

School of the Art Institute of Chicago/Columbia College Chicago

University of Chicago

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Indiana

Indiana University Bloomington

Indiana University Indianapolis

Purdue University

University of Notre Dame

Iowa

University of Iowa

Kansas

University of Kansas

Louisiana

Tulane University

Maine

College of the Atlantic

Maryland

Goucher College

Johns Hopkins University

Massachusetts

Emerson College

Harvard University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)