Gov. Shapiro calls for Penn to disband pro-Palestinian encampment as 6 students are placed on leave

Citing increasing unlawfulness, Gov. Josh Shapiro on Thursday called on the University of Pennsylvania to disband a pro-Palestinian encampment that has spent two weeks on the Ivy League campus.

“Over the last 24 hours ... the situation has gotten even more unstable and out of control,” Shapiro said during an event in Westmoreland County. “More rules have been violated, more laws have been broken. That is absolutely unacceptable.

“It is past time for the university to act to address this, to disband the encampment and to restore order and safety on campus.”

Penn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shapiro’s comments mark a change in stance from last week, when he deferred questions about whether the encampment should be disbanded to the university.

“I don’t think it’s my judgment on that that matters,” he said at that time. “I think it’s the university’s judgment that matters. They’re closer to it, they see it.”

Interim Penn president J. Larry Jameson has said repeatedly that the encampment should come down.

It’s unclear what impact Shapiro’s remarks will have on the encampment. In December, his criticism of then-Penn president Liz Magill’s testimony before a congressional committee about the school’s handling of antisemitism on campus proved a critical turning point in what became a bipartisan censure and she resigned days later.

Earlier this week, there was a unified front among city leaders — including Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, and District Attorney Larry Krasner — that the encampment in its current form should not be disbanded using force, and that Penn should resolve the matter peacefully.

It was unclear whether the events of the previous 24 hours — which included the expansion of the encampment, another defacing of Penn’s iconic Benjamin Franklin statue, and the comments from Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, who is Jewish — would change that. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office declined comment.

Also on Thursday, six students were placed on mandatory leaves of absence from Penn for participating in the encampment. One of them — an international student — was also evicted from on-campus housing.

The discipline came after encampment members moved about a dozen tents from one side of College Green to the other Wednesday night, effectively taking over the popular graduation photo spot. Organizers began to take down barriers as nearly 200 people chanted, “Disclose, divest, defend” — shorthand for the encampment’s demands — the Daily Pennsylvanian, the school newspaper, reported. That move happened in response to what the student organization UPenn Against the Occupation called “the administration’s continued bad-faith negotiations.”

On the Benjamin Franklin statue’s forehead, protesters drew an inverted red triangle, which has conflicting meanings as a reference to a Palestinian flag and the target markers used in Hamas’ tactical videos. The triangle appeared to have been washed off of Franklin’s forehead by Thursday morning.

A Penn spokesperson confirmed in a statement Thursday that the university “issued mandatory temporary leaves of absence for six students in accordance with our policies and pending the results of the Center for Community Standards and Accountability disciplinary investigations. These actions relate to the University’s continuing response to the unauthorized encampment on College Green.”

Penn has also announced changes to its commencement ceremony scheduled for May 20, adding airport-style checks before entry and prohibiting signs, posters, and flags.

» READ MORE: Penn adds security, makes commencement changes as protests continue

The encampment is part of a movement on U.S. college campuses calling for universities to disclose their funding sources and divest their endowments from entities benefiting from the ongoing war in Gaza, where the death toll for Palestinians has surpassed 34,000 following the Hamas attack on Israel in October, which resulted in deaths and hostages being taken.

Those placed on leave Thursday are among the 12 students who received disciplinary notices early in the Penn encampment’s two-week stint for violations of the university’s Guidelines on Open Expression, which govern free speech and protest on campus.

The six students placed on leave are barred from academic buildings. They also aren’t allowed to participate in university programming — including “graduation-related events,” according to a letter from vice provost Karu Kozuma obtained by The Inquirer.

“Your role as an organizer in the encampment has contributed to increasingly unsafe conditions,” Kozuma wrote in the letter. “You and other organizers have persisted in fostering a situation that poses a threat to order.”

Two of those students were on the negotiation team that met with Jameson, the Freedom School of Palestine — one of the groups participating in the encampment — said in a statement posted to X (formerly Twitter). Three of the students are seniors. All are women.

Sophomore Eliana Atienza, 19, is among the students placed on mandatory leave. An international student from the Philippines, Atienza told The Inquirer she was barred from entering her dorm when the discipline went into effect, and that access to her student ID was shut off.

“I’m the only one made homeless by this,” said Atienza. Her family lives in the Philippines. Friends have offered up their homes instead.

Atienza said she is unsure how Penn’s actions will impact her visa.

» READ MORE: What is divestment? And why do Penn students want it?

The encampment’s expansion came after a two-hour negotiation session with Penn leadership Tuesday that organizers initially described as favorable.

» READ MORE: Penn leaders hold third meeting with encampment members: ‘It felt like we were making progress,’ one student said.

But in a meeting between encampment organizers and Penn administrators on Wednesday, the tenor changed.

“The negotiations yesterday went incredibly poorly. Things went from, ‘Oh, we’re going to give you maybe several demands,’ to ‘We’re not going to give you anything,” said an encampment spokesperson who declined to be named due to doxxing and safety concerns. The spokesperson declined to elaborate on specific sticking points.

Encampment members are also asking for the university to defend pro-Palestinian speech on campus, including amnesty for students involved in the protests.

The spokesperson went on to say that encampment leaders would “always be open” to talks with Penn administration, but none are currently scheduled.

More than 2,600 people have been arrested for participating in pro-Palestinian encampments, according to a tracker from The Appeal. Universities have asked city and state police forces to disband the protests, resulting in a wide array of unrest.

A New York City police officer accidentally fired a gun while removing protesters from a Columbia University building, and officers at the University of Arizona and the University of Texas at Austin intentionally discharged rubber bullets and pepper balls while breaking up their respective encampments. At the University of California Los Angeles, officers stood by for hours as counter-protesters beat encampment members with sticks and shot off fireworks.

Penn has requested support from the Philadelphia Police Department in disbanding the encampment, which city officials have been reluctant to offer.

» READ MORE: Penn weighs risk of removing encampment, saying it ‘is causing fear for many’

Jameson contended that the protests at Penn have not been peaceful, citing vandalism to the Benjamin Franklin statue, reports of threatening speech, and instances of agitation from counter-protesters. Over the past two weeks, a man entered the encampment with a large a knife, another was cited for harassment after spraying down tents with chemicals, and videos posted to Instagram showed people calling for a “UCLA 2.0″ while banging pots and pans outside the barricades.

Jewish students have reported 132 incidents of harassment surrounding the encampment, according to the results of a survey conducted by the Penn President’s Jewish Student Advisory Council. Board members of Penn’s Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies urged Jameson to “restore order” on campus by disbanding the encampment.

Meanwhile, a petition circulated by Penn senior Eyal Yakoby calling for the FBI and CIA to investigate the encampment has received more than 1,500 signatures, the student said in a tweet.

“I feel betrayed by the university, who just two days ago said that everyday the encampment exists, it presents a danger to the community,” said Yakoby, who is Jewish. “They need to stand by their word.”

» READ MORE: While a few other universities reach compromises with protesters, why can’t Penn?