- Wayne State University dismantled a week-old encampment erected to protest the Israel-Hamas war
- University police arrested 13 people
- Students have moved their protest to a nearby street
Wayne State University police officers moved in early Thursday and dismantled an encampment set up by protestors opposed to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
University spokesperson Matt Lockwood told Bridge Michigan that Wayne State Police made a total of 13 arrests.
Protestors set up the camp one week ago, erecting roughly 30 tents outside of State Hall.
Related:
- Wayne State classes move online as pro-Palestine encampment continues
- Pro-Palestinian protesters set up encampment, make demands at Wayne State
By mid-morning Thursday the camp had been cleared and the site blocked off with caution tape, but students moved their protest to a street nearby, outside the university’s STEM Innovation Learning Center. The protesters were heard chanting “Free, Free Palestine.”
“Since the encampment was established on May 23, it presented legal, health and safety, and operational challenges for our community,” President WSU President Kimberly Andrews Espy said in a letter to the community.
Espy said university leadership had “repeatedly engaged with occupants of the encampment,” and communicated that the protestors were trespassing.
“No individual or group is permitted to claim campus property for their own use and deny others access to that property.”
The university announced it was switching to remote operations Tuesday. Espy said in her Thursday announcement that Thursday would remain remote and she would announce later Thursday what Friday’s operations will be.
The encampment on the Detroit campus was formed two days after the University of Michigan removed an encampment on its Ann Arbor campus nearly a month after it was erected. Police arrested four people at that encampment. Protestors repeatedly called on the university to “divest” any funds that they say are helping support the war.
A leader of the Wayne State protest told Bridge on Tuesday that WSU students set up the camp in solidarity with the U-M encampment and similar ones across the country.