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Vanderbilt University police arrested students and one local reporter Wednesday, following student protests concerning divestment from Israel, The Tennessean reported.
A group of 25 students entered Kirkland Hall, where university chancellor Daniel Diermeier’s offices are located, on Tuesday and remained for over 22 hours. Vanderbilt police officers entered early Wednesday morning and forced them out, according to reporting from The Vanderbilt Hustler, the student newspaper.
Three of the 25 students were arrested on assault charges; one had the charges dropped. Another student, who was protesting outside the hall, was arrested on Tuesday night for vandalism. All were released as of Wednesday afternoon. The university gave 16 students interim suspensions for their participation in the sit-in.
The students were protesting Vanderbilt officials’ decision to cancel a Vanderbilt Student Government referendum on supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which would have prevented VSG funds from being spent on consumer goods and brands deemed complicit in Israel’s ongoing brutality against Palestinians in Gaza.
A university spokesperson said students were arrested because the protest was “not a peaceful one.”
“It began with the assault of a Vanderbilt Community Service Officer and continued with protesters physically pushing Vanderbilt staff members with the hope of entering and occupying the chancellor’s office,” they wrote in a statement to the Hustler.
The three arrested students allege that they were wrongfully detained, and that it was VUPD officers who used inappropriate force on students. Vanderbilt did not allow any press inside the building during the sit-in, and university police arrested Eli Motycka, a local reporter for the alt-weekly Nashville Scene, on Tuesday for “attempted trespassing.”
In a statement to the Vanderbilt community Wednesday, Deiermeier defended VUPD’s actions.
“Dozens of peaceful demonstrations have occurred over the past several months. In consideration of safety and the university’s normal operations, we, as a matter of policy, define time, place and manner limitations,” he wrote. “The university will take action when our policies are violated, the safety of our campus is jeopardized and when people intimidate or injure members of our community.”
The incident comes amid heightened tensions over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and students protesting human rights abuses in Gaza increasingly face punishment from university administrators.
