There may be some movement at the encampment at the University of Minnesota, which has remained peaceful for the last several days.
Several protest organizers met with interim University President Jeff Ettinger Wednesday, with both sides calling the 90 minute meeting productive.
Thursday morning, Ettinger says the group has agreed to not interfere with graduation ceremonies or finals week activities. He also says the buildings that had been closed on Northrup Mall will reopen at noon Thursday.
In addition, Ettinger says there is a framework in place to have the encampment taken down by the protestors, but that has not yet been confirmed.
Ettinger says they'll have an opportunity to address the Board of Regents at their meeting next week. Also Thursday, Ettinger is scheduled to meet with members of campus Jewish groups.
It's a different scene at other U.S. campuses however. Police removed barricades and began dismantling pro-Palestinian demonstrators’ fortified encampment early Thursday at the University of California, Los Angeles, after hundreds of protesters defied orders to leave. Some of them formed human chains as police fired flash-bangs to break up the crowds. Some people were detained, their hands bound with zip ties.
The action came after officers spent hours threatening arrests over loudspeakers if people did not disperse. A crowd of more than 1,000 had gathered on campus, both inside a barricaded tent encampment and outside it, in support. Protesters and police shoved and scuffled as officers encountered resistance. Video showed police pulling off helmets and goggles worn by some protesters as they were being detained.
Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century. The ensuing police crackdowns echoed actions decades ago against a much larger protest movement protesting the Vietnam War.
In the Mideast, Iranian state television carried live images of the police action, as did Qatar’s pan-Arab Al Jazeera satellite network. Live images of Los Angeles also played across Israeli television networks, as well.
Meanwhile, protest encampments elsewhere were cleared by the police, resulting in arrests, or were closed up voluntarily at schools across the U.S. In New York, those included the City College of New York, Fordham University, Stony Brook University and the University of Buffalo. Others nationwide included Portland State in Oregon, the University of New Hampshire in Durham, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, and Tulane University in New Orleans.
Police burst into a building occupied by war protesters at Columbia University on Tuesday night, breaking up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school.
At the University of Wisconsin in Madison, a scrum broke out early Wednesday after police with shields removed all but one tent and shoved protesters. Four officers were injured. Four people were charged with battering law enforcement.
In rare instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies. At Brown University in Rhode Island, administrators agreed to consider a vote to divest from Israel in October — apparently the first U.S. college to agree to such a demand.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.