(Bloomberg) — Swarthmore College said it called in police to break up a pro-Palestinian protest camp on its grounds after federal law enforcement pressed for an end to the demonstration.
Police arrested nine people on Saturday, including one of the private liberal arts school’s students and a former student, Swarthmore President Val Smith said in a statement.
“In addition to placing the community at risk, the promotion of the protest on social media drew the attention of law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, who urged us to bring the encampment to an end as quickly as possible,” Smith said.
It’s the latest campus incident to draw scrutiny from President Donald Trump’s administration, which has frozen or threatened federal funding for universities, including Harvard, Columbia and Cornell, that it views as promoting antisemitism and other policies it disagrees with. This week, Trump stepped up the pressure by threatening to strip Harvard University of its tax-exempt status.
At Swarthmore, a 161-year-old institution in the Philadelphia suburbs, the camp was organized by a pro-Palestinian student group that was suspended by the college and also attracted outside protesters, Smith said.
She said her decision to call in police, which she called “terribly difficult,” was necessary to ensure safety on campus.
Swarthmore Borough police and the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Two federal grants have been cut at Swarthmore, which is far less reliant on federal funding than large research universities, the college’s campus newspaper reported in April. Federal funding makes up a small fraction of Swarthmore’s $220 million operating budget for 2024-25, according to the report.
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