WASHINGTON (WP) -- Two pro-Palestinian student groups at George Washington University say they have been suspended by the university. American University, the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia announced new policies for protesting. And student activists at Virginia Commonwealth University held a “disorientation” week to press for a cease-fire and drum up support for future actions.
Months after demonstrations over the war in Gaza scrambled the end of spring classes, leading to thousands of arrests nationwide, colleges across the D.C. region are bracing for a new round of protests this fall. And as they do, some students and faculty are renewing calls for institutions to cut ties with Israeli universities and divest from companies that may support the state.
Now, as ceasefire talks over the fighting in Gaza stall, and the U.S. presidential election draws more attention by the day, some are worried tensions could erupt. Already at the University of Michigan, police arrested four pro-Palestinian protesters — none of whom were students — for refusing to disperse, according to a university spokesperson, as demonstrators vowed to return to Columbia University.
“I know the hurricane is out there and it’s coming,” said Jeff Hunt, a crisis communications consultant who works with universities across the country, including in the D.C. region. “I just don’t know where and when.”
Earlier this month, the GWU chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, another pro-Palestinian student organization, announced they’d been suspended for the semester for setting up an encampment at the D.C. university in the spring that led to 33 arrests.
University officials declined to comment on the alleged suspensions, adding that conduct violations would be disclosed once the entire disciplinary process, including appeals, concludes.  
Student activists quickly organized a demonstration in response that drew about 100 protesters from schools across the region on Aug. 22, including in a park near GWU. They marched to GWU President Ellen Granberg’s house on campus, where they called for divestment — a rallying cry of the student protest movement that has meant everything from urging universities to divest from weapons manufacturers to cutting ties with tech companies that aid Israel. They held signs directing people’s attention to Gaza.
A university spokesperson said GWU and city police worked together to ensure the protests occurred on public spaces but did not address whether students violated the groups’ suspensions.
“Anything is on the table,” said Lance Lokas, a fourth-year student who is on the leadership team of the GWU SJP. “And they should know that the community is prepared and willing to take action. We will continue to escalate until our demands are met.”
As tense as the end-of-semester protests were at some D.C. area schools, administrators, faculty, students and outside consultants said the spring could have been worse. Graduation and summer break helped to defuse tensions as students left campuses.
Universities across the country have reshaped free expression policies in two ways, according to Ryan Ansloan of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
Many, such as James Madison University and Virginia Commonwealth University, solidified guidelines that Ansloan said restrict free expression in favor of perceived campus safety, such as preventing students from protesting without prior approval. Other policies included a ban on tents, limitations on where demonstrators can set up posters (largely on approved bulletin boards) or a rule requiring that anyone wearing a mask on university property show a valid ID if asked.
Violating those rules could result in being barred from university property and possible penalties for criminal trespassing.

Granberg, the GWU president, announced updated policies in a fall welcome note to students that spelled out what forms of demonstration are and aren’t permissible. Occupying university property after being directed to disperse, refusing to remove masks and stopping traffic would probably be prohibited. Boycotting an establishment, walking out of an event and participating in marches that don’t otherwise disrupt university functions would probably be okay.
At Georgetown, Nader Hashemi, director of the university’s Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, received a call from his dean over the summer to discuss what students could be planning for the fall.
One of the primary goals of the Georgetown chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, Hashemi said, is divestment, and its members said they are open to continuing dialogue with the university. Hashemi said he’s organizing teach-ins on Gaza and the Palestinian cause.
Even as Hashemi praised Georgetown administrators for keeping an open line of communication with students and faculty, he said this year could be difficult.
“This could be a very long academic year given the situation in Gaza is getting steadily worse,” he said.
As college administrators began looking ahead to the fall, so too were students.
At VCU, where police arrested 13 protesters while dispersing an encampment on the Richmond campus last spring, demonstrators are holding a weekly “Chalk the Plaza” and organizing other events aimed at attracting first-years.
They are also creating frequent Instagram reels, recapping the spring protests and criticizing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who they accused of “crush[ing] student dissent” by supporting the breakup of the encampment. (The governor had pledged in the spring that his administration would support colleges to keep them safe.)
One Instagram account, called notwelcomeatvcu, told first-years they should be prepared for action in a post also shared by the university’s SJP chapter.
“VCU admin wants us to forget about last semester,” it wrote, “but there is far too much dirt to be swept under the rug.”
Meanwhile, some students at George Washington University and beyond say they are also hoping to keep attention on that campus. In the spring, student protesters across the region chose to focus on GWU, pointing to its location in the nation’s capital and the university’s record of what they called “silencing opposition” to the Israel-Gaza war. For example, they noted the university had suspended its SJP chapter last fall for projecting pro-Palestinian slogans onto a campus library.
“GW was selected not just because of its centrality to other campuses, but because its administration had gone especially far in repressing the SJP and JVP chapters there,” said Hershel Barnstein, a fifth-year student at the University of Maryland and a JVP organizer.
Over the summer, students said they continued to protest in the District and in Richmond. They also said they talked with people involved in past student movements to try to learn new tactics to pressure the university.
Some of the students arrested in the spring spent the summer tied up in the legal system, including several who faced court orders to stay away from the GWU campus.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has labeled GWU as one of three “institutions of particular concern,” for “targeting” pro-Palestinian protesters. The university did not respond to a request for comment on CAIR’s classification.