Tensions rose on the USC campus Saturday after pro-Palestinian protesters returned with tents and reestablished an encampment in Alumni Park, where 93 people were arrested on Wednesday.
They beat drums and put up banners reading “Free Palestine,” “We are all Gaza,” and “Stop Funding Genocide.”
Shortly after 8 p.m., the university announced that it had closed its main campus to the public.
“Due to a disturbance, the University Park Campus is temporarily closed except for residents,” USC said on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
The school said the disturbance was at the center of campus and urged people to “please avoid that part area until further notice.”
The university’s Department of Public Safety sent text alerts to students saying the campus “was temporarily closed except for residents.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which had issued a tactical alert Saturday evening, sent dozens of squad cars to the campus Saturday night. They arrived with lights flashing, and students said the officers had handcuffs and zip ties.
Later, students said they saw the police leave the area, while dozens of protesters ate dinner and settled into their tents.
“Things have been quiet. Nothing has escalated. We’re anticipating it might, but it has been quiet,” Anusha S., a journalism student who posted updates on a live blog for USC Annenberg Media, said in an interview.
The student journalists reported that LAPD officers unfurled yellow caution tape next to the Seeley G. Mudd building and said the area was being turned into a potential “command post.”
Late Saturday night, LAPD confirmed that their “tactical alert” had ended.
The protests are aimed at supporting Palestinians in Gaza who have been suffering since Israel launched a retaliatory war on the territory in response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 people, with another 240 taken hostage. Gaza health authorities say Israeli forces have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, and the United Nations says roughly 2 million civilians there are now living in near-famine conditions.
Students who belong to a group called the Divest from Death Coalition have made demands including an immediate ceasefire, divesting from Israeli companies and protecting free speech on campus.
Earlier this week, a masked USC student who self-identified as Jewish said during a news conference with other coalition members: “We will continue to call for an end to USC’s ties to Israel and investments in militarism abroad.”
The USC campus has been roiled by bitter controversy over the rescinding of a graduation speaking slot for valedictorian Asna Tabassum and the subsequent cancellation of the “main stage” commencement ceremony.
Amid the protests, a symbol of the university was vandalized on Saturday. Photos appeared on social media showing the words “Say no to genocide” in bright red on the granite pedestal of university’s iconic Tommy Trojan statue, and a video appeared to catch the spray-painting as it happened.
(In an initial photo posted Saturday afternoon, the word genocide was missing the final “e.” It was apparently added later.)
A man who witnessed the tagging recorded a video of a masked woman leaving the area. As she was walking away, he followed her and asked, “Why’d you tag Tommy Trojan, huh?”
She held up her middle finger and said, “Because I can.”
He replied, “No, that’s called vandalism.”
“I don’t really care,” she said as she walked away.
Times staff writer Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.