Those college protests violently escalating from coast to coast at
several colleges.
All right now, campus police are clashing with protesters at
the University of Wisconsin,
Madison campus Demonstrators have been seen linking arms in a
standoff with officers.
At least twelve people have been arrested there,
and four officers were hurt.
In this chaos and a New York City police in
riot gear
stormed the grounds of Columbia University with the permission of
the administration,
clearing protesters barricaded in the historic Hamilton Hall.
Mayor Eric Adams says between Columbia and City College,
roughly 300 people have been arrested in California.
UCLA has canceled classes today after protests turned violent.
Video shows the overnight clashes between pro Palestinian and pro
Israeli groups,
some appearing to throw fireworks
into an encampment. Well, leading us off this hour.
Chloe Morrissey of our ABC affiliate in Madison,
WI. She's on the scene there at the campus of
the University of Wisconsin,
Madison, Also with his Aikidachi on the campus of Columbia
University of New York City.
So Chloe, first to you,
pretty tense morning out there.
What's the latest?
Yeah, absolutely. This morning protesters were out here on the
UW Memorial Memorial Library lawn,
camped out when law enforcement came to take down their
tents that they had set up for the pro Palestine
encampment.
Since then, at least twelve people have been arrested and
the tents were taken down.
But as you can see behind me,
they put their tents right back up.
There is still a large presence around here.
The chancellor of the university,
Jennifer Mnuchin, said that they're ready to listen to voices
and concerns as long as protesters abide by campus and
state laws,
which includes the removal of tents.
But as you can see,
they have pitched them back up.
If we come this way,
you can see that protesters are getting ready for a
full day of events.
Here. They have tables set up with supplies,
everything from water and snacks and sunscreen to keep up
with the day's events Here.
You can just see everyone camping out around here getting
ready for the full day of events.
They have a schedule listed.
They're supposed to have another rally at 5:00 PM today,
so we're going to be expecting a lot more people
to come out from that.
But right now it's pretty calm.
There is not much of A law enforcement presence around
here.
They are still lining the perimeter,
getting ready to see if anything's going to happen.
But right now it is much calmer than it was
earlier.
Earlier today, there was a group that broke off from
the main group here that was running after a protester
that was being taken into custody by law enforcement.
There was another tense moment,
like you mentioned, when protesters were linking arms,
grabbing each other to guard their last tense that we're
standing around here.
And that is what kind of tipped off the tense
moment between the State Patrol and the protesters here.
But like I said, it's kind of calm down a
little bit.
There is still a decent sized crowd around here and
we're expecting more people to come out here in the
coming hours.
That's right. Thank you, Chloe Madison,
of course, no stranger to protests,
demonstrations over the years like Columbia University.
And that's what we turn to next.
IKEA Jacchi on the ground there,
Ike, the president of Columbia.
So she's sorry things have escalated this much,
hundreds of arrests overnight. What's the feeling on campus now
and how did that how was that accomplished?
How did it look?
Well, Sarah, if you want to talk about the feeling
on campus now,
don't mind the bus that's behind me.
But behind that bus is a brand new protest that
just
started about 10-15 minutes ago.
What we saw on campus not that long ago was
a group of faculty members,
faculty members who have been entranced with the students ever
since the onset of this incident.
And they hold, they held a sort of
press conference about within the past hour talking about how
they're ashamed of the president's actions that led the to
the New York Police Department on campus to disperse of
some of those students who are holding
in that encampment. And she also they also talked about
the well essentially what was the Columbia University negotiating and
what they believe what wasn't in good faith.
They felt that they didn't really come to the table
and it was all for show.
If you take a look right now,
you can see the fact that that meeting has essentially
erupted into this protest that we're seeing right now.
The members of that, the faculty and some others,
you're seeing them now starting to walk up and down
the street due to their normal chances they have in
the wild.
Now the university did offer to consider new proposals on
divestment and shareholder activism.
They also said that they would review access to their
dual degree program in global centers.
Another thing that they're talking about is that they want
to launch educational and health programs in Gaza and the
West Bank.
These are all the things that
the president have now said that they're willing to come
back to the table with.
But before that we they said that they wanted to
make maintain the safety and the security of the campus
which is why she said that she
she deeply regrets what had to happen which essentially was
the NYPD come along campus last night and clearing this
university we're being told about
119 individuals were arrested just from Columbia University last night
and we're being told from the NYPD that they're still
trying to determine from those
119 people who in fact were students and who were
those outside agitators.
Terry. Right there were plenty of people who joined the
that protest.
I Kijachi at Columbia. Chloe Morrissey in Madison.
Thanks very much.