New York: In lieu of the pro-Palestine protests, two students have been arrested and barred from Princeton University for staging demonstrations on campus. According to the university spokesperson, Indian-origin student Achinthya Sivalingan has been expelled from the university and will face disciplinary action. She was brought up in Columbus but was born in Coimbatore.
At around seven in the morning on Thursday, demonstrators set up tents for a student-led pro-Palestine campsite in McCosh Courtyard. Two Princeton students were taken into custody following warnings from university authorities, while the remaining demonstrators withdrew their camping equipment and carried on with the demonstration as a sit-in, according to a report from the Princeton Alumni Weekly.
On Thursday morning, some 100 graduate and undergraduate students joined a worldwide wave of pro-Palestinian sit-ins by starting a sit-in on McCosh Courtyard. The demonstrating students are calling for universities to sever their financial ties to Israel and sell their holdings in businesses they claim are supporting the bloody battle in Gaza. Some Jewish students claim that antisemitism has now crept into the protests, and they are terrified to be on campus.
Princeton Public Safety (PSAFE) issued its first warning to demonstrators as student organizers started to set up tents. There have been two student arrests at least. Students folded them away following the initial arrests, according to the Daily Princetonian. Six minutes after the first tents were erected, the two students, Achinthya Sivalingam GS and Hassan Sayed GS, were taken into custody.
“The two graduate students have been immediately barred from campus, pending a disciplinary process,” University spokesperson Jennifer Morrill wrote to the ‘Prince.’ “No force was used by Public Safety officers when conducting the arrests, which occurred without resistance,” Morrill added.