Update 4:50 p.m. April 29: The number of arrests has been updated in the story. A Virginia Tech spokesman said the school’s initial tally was incorrect.
__________________________________
Police arrested 82 people, including 53 current students, late Sunday night and early Monday at a pro-Palestine encampment on the lawn of the Graduate Life Center at Virginia Tech.
All were charged with trespassing, a university statement said Monday afternoon.
This appears to mark the largest arrest of students on campus since May 12, 1970, when 107 students were taken in after occupying Williams Hall as part of a protest of the Vietnam War and the fatal shooting of four students just days earlier at Kent State University, according to university records and the Collegiate Times, the student newspaper.
The encampment was set up on the state university’s Blacksburg campus early Friday morning to protest Israeli military action in Gaza, to urge the university to divest from Israeli investments, and to request a meeting with Virginia Tech President Tim Sands.
Students and other Palestine supporters attended throughout the weekend, with many pitching tents, praying or performing music and dancing, according to social media posts.
The encampment violated the university’s policy for facility use, the university said on its website throughout the weekend, in part because it continued overnight and because it involved temporary structures. Communication among protest organizers, campus police and university officials broke down shortly after 10 p.m. Sunday when the occupation spread beyond the Graduate Life Center lawn and toward Squires Student Center, according to Tech’s statement.
“Those who gathered were advised by university officials to remove their possessions and to disperse voluntarily; those who failed to comply were then approached by Virginia Tech Police and were again asked to leave and advised that anyone who failed to comply would be charged with trespassing, in accordance with Virginia law,” the university’s statement at 10:50 p.m. Sunday explained.
A Virginia State Police spokesperson confirmed that the agency assisted Virginia Tech Police in the arrests but wouldn’t comment further.
University spokespeople referred inquiries to a response page that has been updated several times since Friday.
As of Monday afternoon, at least two dozen of those arrested at the protest had been scheduled for court dates in June, according to online court records.
Several of those arrested had signed onto an October open letter to Sands in the college newspaper, the Collegiate Times. The letter responded to Sands’ Oct. 11 statement to the terrorist attacks by Hamas that ignited the conflict in Gaza, which excluded mention of Palestine by name.
“Your statement claims ‘to honor the lives lost’ but whose lives are you counting? Whose deaths are worth grieving?” asked the letter, which was cosigned by Amnesty International at Virginia Tech.
On Monday, Sands released a statement about the protest and the arrests.
“While I am grateful the incident was resolved peacefully by Virginia Tech Police, I was saddened by the way our officers were treated,” it says in part. “I am also deeply disappointed to see members of our community choose uncivil and unlawful behavior over purposeful engagement in difficult conversations and robust debate that should be part of the Virginia Tech experience.”
Around the nation, students at college campuses have set up similar pro-Palestinian encampments.
Twelve students were arrested at an encampment on the University of Mary Washington campus on Saturday for trespassing. State police also assisted in that event, according to the Fredericksburg Advance.
In New York City, Columbia University has been negotiating with student protests for more than a week. A notice obtained by The Washington Post Monday warned that students who didn’t leave the large encampment by 2 p.m. Monday would be suspended from the university. As of 2:45 p.m. Monday, there was no sign of police moving in, according to The New York Times.
At the University of Virginia, a group called the Dissenters is planning a May 1 event, “declaring a day-long liberated zone on the lawn in solidarity with the Palestinian people and call for an END to the occupation and an end to our institutions’ complicity in genocide.”
Sunday afternoon: A protestor waves a Palestinian flag. Photo by Justin Fleenor. 
Sunday night before the arrests: Protestors link arms. Photo by Justin Fleenor. 
Sunday before the arrests: A speaker addresses the crowd. Photo by Justin Fleenor. 
A sign at the protest. Photo by Justin Fleenor. 
Police put up police line tape. Photo by Justin Fleenor. 
A protestor being arrested. Photo by Justin Fleenor. 
A demonstrator is being evaluated by a doctor while another demonstrator is getting his info written down by Virginia Tech Police officers. Photo by Justin Fleenor. 
Protestors in a police van. Photo by Justin Fleenor. 
Spectators outside the police line watch the arrests. Photo by Justin Fleenor. 
Two spectators put up chairs to watch the arrests. Photo by Justin Fleenor.
