Tensions around the Israel-Hamas war, student protests in support of Palestinians, and police crackdowns on demonstrators are dominating the conversation and throwing end-of-semester routines into disarray.
Students at Emerson College established an encampment off Boylston Street, in what two students and a faculty member described as an act of solidarity with pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at Columbia University, while a similar camp arose at MIT.
The student demonstrations at Emerson College, MIT and Tufts University, which began Sunday night, come after the arrests of more than 100 students at a similar encampment at Columbia University last week.
Dozens of Emerson students walked out of class Wednesday afternoon in solidarity with the three Palestinian students who were shot in Burlington, Vermont on Saturday. The demonstration also occurred in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. According to police, the victims who have been identified as Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and.
Student resident assistants who oversee campus life and who say their responsibilities have ballooned with time have joined forces at BU, Tufts, and Mount Holyoke.