University of Chicago protesters call out campus police 'shoving, hitting' while encampment was cleared

Protesters who participated in the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Chicago criticized the university and campus police Thursday for the way the tents were cleared this week.

More than 20 students and faculty members gathered at the University Classics building for the press event. Some called out university president Paul Alivisatos for his response to the demonstrations, while others detailed their experiences early Tuesday morning when police began breaking down the encampment.

Katja Stroke-Adolphe, a student at the university's law school and student organizer with groups like Law Students for Justice in Palestine, said she was pushed down and her friend was struck by officers in riot gear.

Stroke-Adolphe, 25, told reporters that her experience ran counter to a statement released by the university's dean of students Tuesday, which read that "all of the protesters left without incident."

"I ask how [the University of Chicago Police Department] — in riot gear — raiding people sleeping in their tents, grabbing, shoving and hitting people, throwing me to the ground, how any of this is without incident," she said.

Lukas Borja, an undergraduate at the university, was sleeping at the encampment early Tuesday when he woke up to screams that police were coming.

“I moved out toward the middle of the quad area because the cops had us surrounded from all four sides,” Borja, 20, told the Sun-Times. “I barely had two or three minutes after I woke up before they started breaking down stuff and entering the camp.”

Borja said that, amid the confusion, he had his hands up as he tried to figure out how to leave the quad when an officer “checked” him in the shoulder with a riot shield.

“It’s something I’ve been trying to process the last few days,” he said. “Trying to grapple with this place that had felt very safe, very calm, and then now seeing a truly incomprehensible number of police surrounding us.”

UChicago United, a student protest group, set up the encampment in late April, joining hundreds of other students across the country to express support for the Palestinian people and to call on the university to disclose its financial investments and to divest from “death in Gaza, the South Side and beyond.”

Shortly after Thursday's press event, a petition signed by over 1,500 University of Chicago alumni calling for the university's administration to meet student demands was released.

One 20-year-old student and member of the Maroons for Israel at the University of Chicago said he was "happy the encampment was taken down but upset that it took a week to do so."

"The university finally upheld it's promise that it would do something about the encampments, which caused a lot of disruptions [and] caused a lot of people to feel unsafe," the student, who didn’t give his name for privacy reasons, told the Sun-Times.

Since the encampment was cleared, some students and faculty have also claimed that campus police are stopping and monitoring people who appear Muslim, Arab or show visible signs of solidarity with Palestinians.

Safia Mahjevin, a student who was in the audience at the press event, said she was stopped by two officers before giving her thesis presentation about Islam in America Wednesday, near the remnants of the encampment.

"While I was doing my thesis presentation, mainly with Muslims in attendance, there were rotations of five police officers surveilling us at all times," she told the Sun-Times.

The university didn't immediately comment about the incident, but in a general statement said, “Officers with the University of Chicago Police Department are prohibited from stopping or detaining individuals solely based on legally protected categories. The University has clear processes for reporting complaints concerning UCPD, and we encourage anyone with a complaint to report it so it can be investigated.”

Student protests over the war in Gaza are continuing around the city. Over the weekend, nearly 70 protesters were arrested at a pro-Palestinian encampment set up outside the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Northwestern is facing heavy backlash after reaching an agreement with demonstrators last week, with three Jewish organizations calling for the school’s president to resign while three Jewish students have filed suit against NU over the encampment, alleging they have been harassed and subjected to hateful rhetoric.

Students who were at the U of C encampment told reporters they will continue to protest, including at the upcoming Democratic National Convention in August.

"There is new grass where the encampment stood. [The University of Chicago] has attempted to cover over the imprint of our presence," Stroke-Adolphe said. "UChicago cannot destroy the encampment because the encampment is us, the people."

Contributing: Mary Norkol and Sophie Sherry