Stanford University plans to suspend students immediately and deny graduation to seniors who were among 13 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested on Wednesday after a brief occupation of the president’s office. College officials said activists illegally entered a building, injured a law enforcement officer and carried out “extensive damage” to buildings in its historic quad. On the last day of spring classes, a small group of students and alumni barricaded themselves inside President Richard Saller’s office, vowing they would not leave until administrators met their demands to divest from Israel, the Los Angeles Times reports. At around 7:30 a.m. law enforcement officers broke open a door with a crowbar and entered the building. By 8 a.m., the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office and Stanford public safety department had cleared the building of protesters. Stanford said 13 students were arrested and a public safety officer was injured by protesters, who shoved the officer as they “interfered with a transport vehicle.”
Liberate Stanford, an autonomous group of Stanford University students that organized the occupation, called on Stanford to add the divestment proposal submitted by Stanford Against Apartheid in Palestine to the next Board of Trustees meeting, with a recommendation by Saller to support it, disclose finances from fiscal year 2022, and drop all disciplinary and criminal charges against pro-Palestinian students arrested on previous protests. “THE STUDENT INT1FADA IS GROWING,” Liberate Stanford wrote on Instagram as the building was occupied. “We refuse to leave until Stanford Administration and the Stanford Board of Trustees meet our demands and take action to address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” After students occupied the president’s office, about 50 students, most wearing black with their faces wrapped in kaffiyehs, linked arms and surrounded the building in solidarity. The occupation comes after months of protests and negotiations between Stanford officials and pro-Palestinian activists.