(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — On Friday evening, Pro-Palestinian activists launched a new protest on the University of Chicago campus.
Around 6 p.m., protesters occupied the Institute of Politics building at the University of Chicago.
Organizers of the protest issued a statement claiming to have renamed the building after a Palestinian revolutionary – and say their demonstration was intended to get attention during Alumni Weekend.
But late reports from the campus suggest University Police have control of the building and are in the process of assessing any damage inside.
This comes a little more than a week after police cleared an anti-war tent encampment on the quad.
When police cleared the protest on May 7, the University issued a statement that read in part:
“Since the encampment began last Monday, the University has provided the greatest possible leeway for freedom of expression, carefully monitoring the growing number of serious disruptions, policy violations, and safety hazards that the occupation caused. The encampment violated the University’s commitment to free expression by monopolizing the center of campus – entirely obstructing physical access to a large part of the Quad, disrupting classes in nearby buildings, and contributing to an increasingly unsafe environment of confrontation, particularly the events of last Friday.”