A Few Graduations Are Disrupted by Protest, but Many Are Held as Planned (2024)

Here’s the latest on campus protests.

The University of Illinois, California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Texas at Austin are also among the colleges holding their main commencement ceremonies Saturday. Many had increased their security measures in anticipation of possible disruptions, or taken various measures including dismantling encampments, setting aside free speech zones, canceling student speeches and issuing admission tickets.

The University of Wisconsin said it had reached a deal with protesters to clear the encampment before Saturday’s commencement in return for meeting to discuss the university’s investments. At the University of Mississippi, where there had been a confrontation between counterprotesters who taunted and jeered a female Black student protester, there were no demonstrations and light security.

At Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where the ceremony included more than 1,000 students, some students had objected to the appearance by Mr. Youngkin, a Republican, in part because he supported the dismantling of an encampment on campus. Late last month, 13 people, including six students, were arrested. A reporter in attendance at the graduation was not permitted to leave the auditorium to speak with the students who walked out.

Here are other developments:

• Arizona State University has banned a postdoctoral research scholar and faculty member from campus as it investigates a video that went viral depicting him confronting a woman in a hijab, the school said this week. In the video from May 5, the scholar can be seen cursing and getting in a woman’s face at a pro-Israel rally near the school’s Tempe campus.

• Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans this week became the second school to rescind an invitation to Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The University of Vermont said last week that she would not be speaking there, agreeing to a demand from student demonstrators.

• Arizona State University has put the chief of its campus police department on paid administrative leave. Complaints had been filed related to the chief’s actions in late April, when the campus police broke up a pro-Palestinian encampment and arrested dozens of people.

• Faculty members at the University of California, Los Angeles, failed to come to a vote on Friday on whether to formally rebuke the school’s chancellor for his handling of the campus encampment, where pro-Palestinian demonstrators were attacked for hours last week without police intervention.

• More than 2,800 people have been arrested at pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. campuses since April 18, according to New York Times tracking data.

Cynthia Howle and Dan Simmons contributed reporting.

On a day with many calm ceremonies, Berkeley’s protests stand out.

Some administrators also tried to reach agreements with encampment organizers. The University of Wisconsin said it had reached a deal with protesters to clear the encampment in return for a meeting to discuss the university’s investments.

Some students, too, were on edge about their big day — many missed their high school graduations four years ago because of the pandemic and did not want to repeat the experience.

In 2020, David Emuze and his mother had watched his high school graduation “ceremony,” a parade of senior photos set to music on Zoom, from their living room in Springfield, Ill. This time, he and his classmates at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign heard that other schools, like the University of Southern California and Columbia University, had canceled their main-stage commencements altogether because of campus unrest.

But on Saturday morning, Mr. Emuze donned his electric-blue mortarboard and orange sash, and his mother watched live from the audience as he received his bachelor’s degree in public health. “It was a touching, peaceful, inspiring and motivational ceremony,” he said, with a note of relief in his voice.

He said the keynote speaker, Jeanne Gang, an architect and University of Illinois alumna, had hit just the right note. She acknowledged that “we all know about what’s going on in the world right now,” but said it was a time to come together and celebrate achievements.

At Berkeley, the home of the free-speech movement, the protesters made themselves heard. Greta Brown, 23, an environmental science graduate, wore cap, gown and a stole with the word “Palestine” emblazoned on it. She was among those who stood and chanted during the graduation speeches. “I felt like it was necessary,” she said, because the university had not done enough. “I just heard a lot of, like, ‘Oh, we hear you,’ and a centrist point of view.”

At the beginning of the ceremony, Chancellor Carol Christ was met with boos when she began to speak, but there were louder cheers when she mentioned the pro-Palestinian encampment nearby. “Students have been camping around Sproul Hall for almost three weeks,” Dr. Christ said. “They feel passionately about the brutality of the violence in Gaza.” She added, “I, too, am deeply troubled by the terrible tragedy.”

As the speeches continued, the disruptions escalated. Dozens of students in the crowd in the stands rose with signs reading “Divest,” and at least 10 Palestinian flags. They began to chant, and then interrupted the speech by the student body president, Sydney Roberts, who said, “This wouldn’t be Berkeley without a protest.”

Despite warnings from a school official, a group of students staked out a section of empty stadium seats behind the main stage, chanting, “Hey hey, ho ho, the occupation has got to go” and “UC divest” and attracting other students until the crowd swelled to about 500. Most of them slowly made their way to the exit as the graduation drew to a close.

Not all of the protests were centered on the Middle East. At Virginia Commonwealth in Richmond, Micah White, 26, was one of roughly 60 students who walked out while the governor was speaking.

“The first thing that motivated me is the hypocrisy of V.C.U. declaring themselves to be a minority-serving institution, declaring themselves to be for diversity, equity and inclusion, and bringing Youngkin in as commencement speaker,” he said.

The university’s board voted on Friday against requiring students to take racial literacy classes. Mr. Youngkin, a Republican, requested to review course materials for proposed racial literacy classes.

Mr. Youngkin also supported the dismantling of an encampment on campus late last month during which 13 people, including six students, were arrested. Sereen Haddad, 19, who studies psychology at V.C.U., said she was knocked to the ground during the clash between protesters and the police that day and that Mr. Youngkin had failed to acknowledge that the encampment was peaceful.

The ceremonies came after a week in which some colleges made arrests and cleared encampments of pro-Palestinian demonstrators. In recent days, authorities dismantled encampments at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Officers were also called in to empty an encampment at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, deploying “chemical munitions” in the process, hours before its graduation ceremony on Friday evening.

Anger over the clearing of an encampment lingered for some at the University of North Carolina commencement on Saturday night. Many students jeered their interim chancellor, Lee Roberts, who last month ordered that an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters be removed. Still, when two students waved Palestinian flags and walked on the field in the middle of Mr. Roberts’s speech before security escorted them out, the majority of the stadium booed them and chanted, “USA! USA!”

Cynthia Howle and Eduardo Medina contributed reporting.

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At U.C. Berkeley ceremony, a student protest draws in hundreds.

Ms. Roberts continued her speech, expressing pride in the activism on campus and empathy for those affected by the conflict in Gaza. The chants did not stop. Sunny Lee, associate vice chancellor and dean of students, interrupted and warned that those continuing to disrupt the ceremony would be asked to leave. That was greeted by cheers from the crowd of guests, largely students’ families, seated in a majority of the sections.

Greta Brown, 23, a graduate in environmental science, was one of the students who joined in the chanting. Dressed in her cap, gown and a stole that said “Palestine,” she said she had felt the recent tension on campus and was compelled to support her fellow students. “I felt like it was necessary,” she said.

A group of about 50 students then staked out a section of empty stadium seats behind the main stage, continuing their chanting. Hundreds of Berkeley graduating students stood up and left the designated student section to join them, swelling the crowd behind the stage to about 500.

Ms. Lee warned that security personnel would start removing protesters. She paused the speaker, and the stadium put on Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” for about five minutes. Eventually, more security guards gathered in front of the protesting students. Amid the Palestinian flags and continuing chants, most of the protesters slowly made their way from behind the speakers to the concourse above the stadium as the graduation drew to a close.

About 100 of the demonstrators regrouped on the street outside the stadium to continue protesting, with signs condemning Zionism and calling for alumni to not donate to the school.

“I think it was a graduation to remember,” said Sahar Enayati, 21, a graduating senior.

— Holly Secon Reporting from Berkeley, Calif.

Arizona State bans a scholar from campus after a confrontation at a protest.

It was unclear what occurred before the video, but at one point in the video Mr. Yudelman can be seen repeatedly advancing toward the woman who is wearing a hijab, and telling her — “I’m literally in your face, that’s right” — as she backs away from him.

The woman responds and tells him that he is disrespecting her religious boundaries to which Mr. Yudelman responds, “You disrespect my sense of humanity,” followed by a profanity.

Mr. Yudelman, who was a postdoctoral fellow at the university’s School of Civics, Ethics and Leadership, had earlier resigned from the position, effective June 30, according to a statement the school released on Wednesday. But the school said he was placed on leave on May 6, adding that he was no longer permitted to come to campus, teach classes or interact with students or employees.

“Arizona State University protects freedom of speech and expression but does not tolerate threatening or violent behavior. While peaceful protest is welcome, all incidents of violent or threatening behavior will be addressed,” the statement added.

Mr. Yudelman was interviewed on May 5 at the pro-Israel rally by Phoenix television station KPNX. In the clip, he stated that campuses across the country were being “taken over by supporters of terrorism,” and stated that Jewish students were being intimidated. “It was important to come out, show the broader community that there are people who stand against this,” he said.

Mr. Yudelman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Here’s why antiwar protests haven’t flared up at Black colleges like Morehouse.

The reasons for concern are clear: Nationwide demonstrations over the war and Mr. Biden’s approach to it have inflamed more than 60 colleges and universities, stoked tensions within the Democratic Party and created new headaches for his re-election bid.

Yet Mr. Biden appears to be entering a different type of scene at Morehouse.

While anger over the war remains palpable at Morehouse and other historically Black colleges and universities, these campuses have been largely free of turmoil, and tensions are far less evident: no encampments, few loud protests and little sign of Palestinian flags flying from dorm windows.

The reasons stem from political, cultural and socioeconomic differences with other institutions of higher learning. While H.B.C.U.s host a range of political views, domestic concerns tend to outweigh foreign policy in the minds of most students. Many started lower on the economic ladder and are more intently focused on their education and their job prospects after graduation.

At Morehouse — which has a legacy of civil rights protests and is the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s alma mater — discontent over the Gaza war has played out in classrooms and auditoriums rather than on campus lawns.

“This should not be a place that cancels people regardless of if we agree with them,” David Thomas, the Morehouse president, said in an interview on Thursday. Of Mr. Biden’s visit, he said, “Whether people support the decision or not, they are committed to having it happen on our campus in a way that doesn’t undermine the integrity or dignity of the school.”

Some students have held contentious meetings with university leaders and urged them to rescind Mr. Biden’s invitation, and a small group of faculty members has vowed not to attend commencement. Some alumni wrote a letter expressing worries that student protesters could be punished, noting Morehouse’s history of “celebrating student activists long after they have graduated.”

But the college might appear politically safer for the president to visit than many others. Morehouse is a custom-bound place where undergraduates traditionally do not step on the grass in the heart of campus until they receive their degrees. Alumni view commencement as a distinguished event not only for students but also for scores of family and community members — making it a less likely venue for a major disruption.

Mr. Biden chose to speak at Morehouse after the White House had received invitations from an array of colleges. It will be the third time in four years he has addressed graduates of a historically Black institution; he has also spoken at commencement for one military academy each year.

Among those lobbying Mr. Biden to come to Morehouse was Cedric Richmond, a member of the college’s class of 1995, who ran Mr. Biden’s public engagement office and is now a senior adviser at the Democratic National Committee.

Mr. Richmond, who has a nephew at Morehouse, predicted Mr. Biden would speak about the high expectations of the college’s alumni, promote his record of reducing Black unemployment and narrowing the racial wealth gap, and deliver familiar exhortations about perseverance.

Mr. Richmond does not think Mr. Biden will face protests.

“The Morehouse College graduation, at least as I remember it, is a very solemn event,” he said. “You have almost 500 African American males walking across that stage, whose parents and grandparents sacrificed and those students worked their butts off to, one, get into Morehouse, and two, to graduate. That’s a very significant day. And I’m just not sure whether students or protesters are going to interfere with that solemn moment.”

Vice President Harris, who graduated from Howard University, another historically Black institution, is engaged in her own virtual tour of such colleges. A congratulatory video she recorded will be played for graduates at 44 H.B.C.U.s; she is often introduced as a surprise guest and greeted with cheers.

In Atlanta last month, Ms. Harris asked the Morehouse student government president, Mekhi Perrin, what approach Mr. Biden should take in his address.

“I think really she was just trying to gain an idea of what exactly students’ issues were with his coming, if any at all,” Mr. Perrin said. “And what would kind of shift that narrative.”

Mr. Biden has been trailed by Gaza protesters for months. The last time he spoke at a four-year college campus was in January, when demonstrators interrupted him at least 10 times during a rally at George Mason University in Virginia.

Morehouse’s traditions are strong. Dr. King said it was a place where he had advanced his understanding of nonviolent protest and moral leadership — which current Morehouse students say they take seriously.

“I feel like the protests do need to come out, because if you don’t see students advocating for what they believe in, then the change that they’re advocating for will never come about,” said Benjamin Bayliss, a Morehouse junior. Looking toward the statue of Dr. King in front of the chapel named for the civil rights leader, he added, “You really feel the weight of what King did and the fire of the torch that he lit that we have to carry on.”

Yet even as some students feel compelled to protest, outside factors can shape their decisions. Roughly 75 percent of students at H.B.C.U.s, including 50 percent of Morehouse students, are eligible for the Pell Grant, a federal aid program for low-income students. More than 80 percent of Morehouse students receive some form of financial aid. In the Class of 2024, nearly a third of graduates will be the first in their family to receive a bachelor’s degree.

Some students at Black colleges also may decide against protesting because of family pressure, which amplifies the importance of securing their degrees.

“Your student body at Columbia is very different than the student body at, say, Dillard,” said Walter Kimbrough, who spent a decade as president of Dillard University, a historically Black institution in New Orleans. “It doesn’t mean that people aren’t concerned. But they understand that they have some different kinds of stakes.”

The stakes are also high for Mr. Biden, whose standing with Black voters has softened ahead of November’s presidential election. Young people are less enthusiastic about voting at all — partly because of Mr. Biden’s handling of the Gaza war, but also because they are unhappy with the choice between him and former President Donald J. Trump.

“I think it’s really just picking the lesser of two evils,” said Freddrell Rhea Green II, a Morehouse freshman. “Anything better than Donald Trump, a madman, a quote unquote tyrant, is better for me.”

“Joe Biden is probably a very nice person,” said Samuel Livingston, an associate professor of Africana studies at Morehouse. “But niceness is not the level of leadership that we need. We need ethical leadership. And continuing to support the aiding, abetting and the stripping of Palestinian land, from Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, is not ethical.”

Some students, like Auzzy Byrdsell, a senior studying kinesiology and journalism, support their classmates’ protests but fear a possible response from the police to a crowd of largely Black young men.

“Do we get tear-gassed?” said Mr. Byrdsell, the editor in chief of The Maroon Tiger, the school’s student newspaper. “Do we get arrested? That would not be the greatest look for a Morehouse College graduation.”

Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, a 1991 Morehouse alumnus, said that he hoped Mr. Biden would highlight his record and his agenda — but that there was little the president could say about the Gaza conflict to assuage his critics on campus.

“While what he says is important,” Mr. Warnock said, trying to put himself in the shoes of student protesters, “I think much more important is what he does in the future.”

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

— Maya King and Reid J. Epstein Maya King reported from Atlanta, and Reid J. Epstein from Washington.

Pennsylvania’s governor leans into the campus fight over antisemitism.

And at a moment of growing Democratic anger and unease over how Israel is conducting its devastating military response, Mr. Shapiro, 50 — who has no obligation to talk about foreign policy — has not shied away from expressing support for the country while criticizing its right-wing government.

Plunging into a subject that has inflamed and divided many Americans carries risk for an ambitious Democrat from a politically important state. The politics around both the Gaza war and the protest movement are exceptionally fraught within the Democratic Party, and many of its voters and elected officials have become increasingly critical of Israel.

But Mr. Shapiro has been direct.

Asked if he considered himself a Zionist, he said that he did. When Iran attacked Israel last month, he wrote on social media that Pennsylvania “stands with Israel.”

When the University of Pennsylvania’s president struggled before Congress to directly answer whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated the school’s rules, Mr. Shapiro said she had failed to show “moral clarity.” (She later resigned.) When opponents of the Gaza war picketed an Israeli-style restaurant in Philadelphia known for its falafel and tahini shakes, Mr. Shapiro called the demonstration antisemitic and showed up for lunch.

And as university officials have struggled to define where free speech ends and hate speech begins, a tension upending the final weeks of the school year, Mr. Shapiro has issued stern warnings about their responsibility to protect students from discrimination. The issue hits close to home: On Friday, police cleared an encampment of pro-Palestinian demonstrators off the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Shapiro had said it was “past time” for Penn to do so.

‘It should not be hard’

In the interview, Mr. Shapiro stressed that he did not believe all encampments or demonstrators were antisemitic — not “by any stretch.” But he suggested that on some campuses, antisemitic speech was treated differently than other kinds of hate speech.

“If you had a group of white supremacists camped out and yelling racial slurs every day, that would be met with a different response than antisemites camped out, yelling antisemitic tropes,” he said.

Law enforcement officials and advocacy groups have tracked a rise in antisemitic, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab acts in recent months.

Speaking after an appearance at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony on Monday, Mr. Shapiro emphasized that “we should be universal in our condemnation of antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of hate.”

While there is room for “nuance” in foreign policy discussions, he said, “it should not be hard for anyone on the political left or right to call out antisemitism.”

In a new survey, Mr. Shapiro, a former state attorney general, had a job approval rating of 64 percent, with just 19 percent of Pennsylvanians saying they disapproved.

He has long emphasized bipartisanship and prioritized nonideological issues like rapidly reopening a stretch of Interstate 95 after a collapse. And his own religious observance has helped him connect with people of other faiths in a state where Jews are estimated to make up about 3 percent of the electorate.

“I make it home Friday night for Sabbath dinner because family and faith ground me,” he said in a campaign ad.

Many Jews in Pennsylvania hope that he will become the first Jewish president. On that subject, he deflects as skillfully as any potential White House aspirant: He laughs or insists that he loves and is focused on his current job.

“I am very humbled that people have taken note of our work,” he said. “I sort of dismiss those comments because they’re not helpful to the work I’m trying to do every day as governor, the voice I’m trying to have both here in the commonwealth and across the country to root out hate and to speak with moral clarity.”

He added, “It’s certainly not helpful when it comes to our top political priority, which is to re-elect President Biden.”

‘Josh is front and center’

The Mideast war, which has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to local health authorities, has fueled a broad and significant protest movement.

But on college campuses, there are sharp debates over when demonstrations against Israel and its treatment of Palestinians veer into antisemitic targeting of Jewish students and institutions.

To Mr. Shapiro, the distinction is clear: Criticism of Israeli policies is fair game. “Affixing to every Jew the policies of Israel,” he said, is not.

Mr. Shapiro said he felt a “unique responsibility” to speak out both because he leads a state founded on a vision of religious tolerance, and because he is a “proud American Jew.”

Indeed, his Jewish identity is intertwined with his public persona to a degree rarely seen in American politicians.

He is a Jewish day school alumnus who has featured challah in his campaign advertising and alludes to a collection of Jewish ethics in his speeches. In recent weeks, he offered an under-the-weather 76ers player matzo ball soup and celebrated the end of Passover with Martin’s Potato Rolls, a Pennsylvania delicacy.

“It’s not an easy time to be Jewish, and to be a Jewish politician,” said Sharon Levin, a former teacher of Mr. Shapiro’s. “Josh is front and center.”

Mr. Shapiro has also spent significant time in Israel, proposing to his wife in Jerusalem. Asked if, like Mr. Biden, he considers himself a Zionist, he confirmed that he did.

“I am pro-Israel,” he said. “I am pro-the idea of a Jewish homeland, a Jewish state, and I will certainly do everything in my power to ensure that Israel is strong and Israel is fortified and will exist for generations.”

He also supports a two-state solution, is a longtime critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said he mourned “the loss of life in Gaza.”

That approach is common among elected Democrats. But it is clearly at odds with the campus protests, which are often explicitly anti-Zionist.

The issue is virtually certain to divide Democrats on future presidential debate stages.

For now, Mr. Shapiro has not drawn the kind of backlash from the left that some other Israel supporters have, in part because he is not voting on foreign policy. And while another Pennsylvania Democrat, Senator John Fetterman, has sometimes engaged provocatively with pro-Palestinian demonstrators, Mr. Shapiro has a more measured, lawyerly style.

“It’s critically important that we remove hate from the conversation and allow people to freely express their ideas, whether I agree with their ideas or not,” he said.

Tensions over Israel

Some Muslim leaders say Mr. Shapiro has not found the right balance in his post-Oct. 7 comments.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Philadelphia said in a statement that two of its board members had skipped an iftar dinner he hosted, arguing that he had “created much harm and hurt among Muslim, Arab and pro-Palestinian Pennsylvanians.”

“The governor, like the White House, is not fully able to see the deep level of resentment that exists about his stances,” Ahmet Tekelioglu, the executive director of that chapter, said in an interview. (In a statement on Friday, he also criticized Mr. Shapiro’s call to disband the Penn encampment.) “The governor has lost the trust of many in the Muslim-American community in Pennsylvania that had long considered him a friend.”

Mr. Shapiro, whose team has clashed with CAIR before, replied, “I’m not going to let one press release from one group that has its own agenda take away from the close, strong relationship I have with the Muslim community.”

“We have tried to create, at the residence and across Pennsylvania, a place where all faiths feel welcomed,” he said.

State Representative Tarik Khan, a Philadelphia-area Democrat who is Muslim, did attend the iftar. It included time for prayer and a “legit dinner,” he said, rather than “hors d’oeuvres and get the hell out.”

“At a time when there’s a lot of trauma, sometimes the easy thing is to do nothing,” Mr. Khan said. “If he didn’t care about our community, he wouldn’t have spent that time.”

Growing expectations

Mr. Shapiro faces different pressures from the Jewish community.

In the Philadelphia area, many know him or his family personally — or feel as if they do — and in some cases expect him to speak out frequently in support of Israel. But, said Jonathan Scott Goldman, the chair of the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition, his job is to lead the whole state.

“Jewish people want to and do claim Josh as their own,” Mr. Goldman said. “He knows he’s not just a Jewish governor. He’s a governor, and he’s the governor of all Pennsylvanians.”

In the interview, Mr. Shapiro reiterated that he was focused on that job.

But asked if — broadly speaking — he believed the country could elect a Jewish president in his lifetime, he replied, “Speaking broadly, absolutely.”

“It doesn’t mean that our nation is free of bias,” he said. “If you’re asking me, can the country rise above that, and elect someone that might look different than them or worship different than them? The answer is yes.”

— Katie Glueck Reporting from Pennsylvania’s State Capitol building in Harrisburg, Pa.

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After arrests at Arizona State, the campus police chief is put on leave.

There were also reports that the police had removed some women’s hijabs during the arrests. Those reports were being reviewed by the general counsel’s office, the university said in a statement last week.

Azza Abuseif, executive director for Arizona’s branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement on April 29 that she was calling for a full investigation.

David Chami, a lawyer representing four of the women, as well as many of the students who were arrested and suspended, also pointed to video reportedly showing Chief Thompson, in plainclothes, cutting through a tent in the encampment as it was being cleared out.

University officials did not respond to questions about whether those reports were related to Chief Thompson being placed on leave. The assistant chief of the school’s police department, John Thompson, is now serving as acting chief. The two men are not related, according to the school.

Anna Betts contributed reporting.

A U.C.L.A. meeting to consider formally rebuking the chancellor ends without a vote.

“For many of us, we feel strongly that the actions and inaction of our chancellor warrant a vote of no confidence,” said Carlos Santos, an associate professor of social welfare who represents the Luskin School of Public Affairs in the Assembly, before the meeting. “We feel strongly that it’s critical that we go down in history as centering our students’ safety, first and foremost.”

But after more than three hours of discussion, much of it devoted to parliamentary procedure, the meeting ended without a vote. The group will take up the issue again at its next meeting, on May 16.

Mr. Block, 75, did not comment on the resolutions on Friday. He has served as chancellor of U.C.L.A. since 2007 and has already said that he will step down at the end of July. But the vote could still serve as an important indicator of how faculty members at the elite public university feel about free speech and the campus climate in a polarized era.

On Friday, dozens of speakers recounted rushing to help students who had been beaten, their eyes streaming from chemical agents. Medical school faculty members described hearing from medical students and residents who had been attacked as they tried to treat injured protesters.

Many emphasized that a vote of no confidence was simply that: an indication that Mr. Block had lost the backing of the faculty, and a sign to the incoming administration that faculty members would not hesitate to speak up on behalf of students. It was not, they said, a referendum on the views of the protesters themselves.

Relatively few speakers opposed the measures, though a couple voiced concerns about antisemitism among protesters at the encampment.

If the Senate passes one or both resolutions, U.C.L.A. will join a list of universities whose faculty and staff have united with protesters to rebuke their administrators’ handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Earlier this week, the Academic Senate at the University of Southern California voted to censure its president. The University Senate at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, took a vote of no confidence last month in its president, Tom Jackson Jr., after law enforcement officers in riot gear responded to activists who took over an administration building.

Frustration with Mr. Block has mounted since the night of April 30, when a large group of counterprotesters confronted a pro-Palestinian encampment that had sprawled across a campus quad days earlier.

Administrators initially took a more hands-off approach to the encampment than other universities, citing University of California policy that law enforcement was to be called “only if absolutely necessary to protect the physical safety of our campus community.”

But on April 30, the sixth day of the encampment, Mr. Block declared the site illegal and warned protesters to leave. He cited some violent incidents between protesters and counterprotesters, as well as examples of pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocking access to parts of the campus.

Counterprotesters arrived later that night and sprayed students with pepper spray, shot fireworks into the encampment and used metal pipes and other objects to attack protesters. Police and security officers who were present for parts of the melee didn’t intervene for hours, and no arrests have been made in the attacks.

The next night, administrators authorized police officers from three agencies to clear the encampment.

Criticism from members of the campus community, as well as state and local officials, was swift. Mr. Block called it “a dark chapter in our campus’s history.”

He subsequently established an office of campus safety, with a former police chief at its head, to oversee the university’s police department. He also brought in outside consultants to investigate what happened during the attacks.

Until then, “We thought the university was handling it great,” said Matt Barreto, a professor of political science and Chicano studies who has been acting as a spokesman for a faculty group that has been supporting the protesters. So the sudden change in approach and in particular, what Mr. Barreto characterized as an overly violent police response, was jarring.

Some Jewish organizations, however, were upset by videos of protesters blocking students from accessing walkways or buildings if they did not renounce Zionism. Jewish Federation Los Angeles said the climate had become hostile to Jewish students and that there had been a “horrifying escalation of antisemitism.”

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Two universities cancel speeches by the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

The University of Vermont announced last week that Ms. Thomas-Greenfield would not be speaking there, agreeing to a key demand by student demonstrators who set up an encampment on the campus in Burlington. The school’s president, Suresh Garimella, notified the student body last week that Ms. Thomas-Greenfield would not speak at graduation, and wrote, “I see you and hear you.”

A spokesman for Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement that the ambassador looked forward “to continuing to engage with young people on campuses” and elsewhere, and noted that she had recently spoken to high school students in Pennsylvania.

Opponents of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of more than 30,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, have focused some of their ire on Ms. Thomas-Greenfield because she has led the U.S. efforts in the Security Council to block several resolutions calling for a cease-fire. She argued against the resolutions on the grounds that Hamas, whose Oct. 7 attack on Israel killed 1,200 people, had not agreed to release the hostages it took that day.

Even so, in March the United States abstained from voting on one cease-fire resolution, a signal of the Biden administration’s growing displeasure with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of Israel’s war efforts. That abstention allowed the resolution to pass the Security Council, breaking a five-month impasse.

Jerry Seinfeld, a strong supporter of Israel, will speak at Duke University.

Ms. Seinfeld, a cookbook author, attracted attention when she promoted on Instagram a counterprotest — which she said she had helped bankroll — at the University of California, Los Angeles, where clashes with pro-Palestinian demonstrators turned violent. In 2018, the family visited a West Bank paramilitary training camp that had become a tourist attraction.

Some students have objected to Mr. Seinfeld’s appearance at Duke.

The Rev. Dr. Stefan Weathers Sr., an ordained minister in the American Baptist Church who is being awarded a Ph.D. in divinity, recently wrote a letter to the university asking that Mr. Seinfeld be replaced, citing Mr. Seinfeld’s ongoing and strong support for Israel.

While Dr. Weathers acknowledged in the letter to Dr. Vincent E. Price, Duke’s president, that the Hamas attacks on Israel were a “horrific display of hate and inhumanity,” he also argued that Israel’s ongoing retaliation has killed more than 34,000 people.

“What has taken place over the past six to seven months can only be described as genocide,” Dr. Weathers wrote. He received a polite, if noncommittal, letter of response from Dr. Price, he said. And despite other questions raised by some pro-Palestinian students, the university has remained supportive of Mr. Seinfeld’s appearance, which it first announced in a video during a Duke basketball game.

A spokesman for Duke did not respond to requests for comment.

Dr. Weathers said during an interview on Friday that he was expecting some kind of a protest Sunday amid the normally polite and genteel Duke gathering, where Mr. Seinfeld is also scheduled to receive an honorary degree.

“There won’t be a business-as-usual commencement taking place,” he said, promising to “lift up our voices any way we can.”