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Outdoor Action Alumni Trips

Outdoor action & princeton journeys alumni trips, outdoor action and the princeton journeys office collaborate to offer active travelers opportunties to travel to some of the world's most spectacular adventure locations., trekking mont blanc:  a three country hike, july 23 – august 2, 2018.

Patagonia 8K

Patagonia 8K explores the beautiful and rough landscapes of southern Chile and Argentina. Shot in 8K resolution on a medium format camera it's aimed to deliver the most realistic experience. Shot in 6 weeks, travelling over 7500km from Santiago to Punta Arenas we captured roughly 100.000 still frames that combine into this timelapse video.

Trekking Nepal: Rocks and Docs in the Annapurna Sanctuary

Learn about Outdoor Action and Princeton Journey's Trekking Trip to the Annapurna Sanctuary in the Himalayas in May 2012. Watch for more great international adventures from Outdoor Action and Princeton Journeys.

Trekking Patagonia: The Torres del Paine Circuit 2016

Come join us in 2016 as Princeton Journeys and Outdoor Action offer active travelers the chance to explore on foot the scenic wonderland of Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park along with Rick Curtis '79, Director of the Outdoor Action Program, on a trip operated by World Wide Trekking.

Outdoor Action Nepal Trip

The May 2012 Outdoor Action/Princeton Journeys alumni trip to the Annapurna Sanctuary in Nepal. With Dr. Robert "Brownie Schoene" and Blair Schoene as faculty.

We stand in solidarity with our BIPOC communities  —  Read Princeton AlumniCorps’ statements about the mass shootings in Uvalde, TX and Buffalo, NY

AlumniCorps’s Statements of Solidarity

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• ​ My Best 61 Travel Tips to Make You the World's Savviest Traveler - Nomadic Matt
• ​Only 1 in 3 Young People Can Read a Road Map. Can You? - Andrei Zakhareuski
• ​Going On A Road Trip Without Using Any GPS Systems Taught Me A Lot About Myself - Tanya Ghahremani
• How to Take a Road Trip Without Using GPS - Ryan Brower
• Nobody gets lost anymore: The art of smartphone-free travel - Leon McCarron
• The Lost Art of Reading a Road Atlas and Hitting the Open Road - Bryan Black
• Why are travel blogging and travel media STILL so WHITE? Not only a rant, but also solutions - Oneika the Traveller
• Travel Tips - Rick Steves

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Outdoor Action

Leadership Starts Here

Outdoor Action Alumni Trips

Outdoor action & princeton journeys alumni trips, outdoor action and the princeton journeys office collaborate to offer active travelers opportunties to travel to some of the world’s most spectacular adventure locations., trekking mont blanc:  a three country hike, july 23 – august 2, 2018.

Princeton Journeys and the Outdoor Action Program are pleased to offer active travelers the chance to explore the majesty of the Alps during the brilliant European summer. Join your fellow Princetonians and experience one of the world’s classic treks, the Mont Blanc Circuit. Alongside Outdoor Action Director Rick Curtis ’79, sample the flavors and cultures of the three different countries that share the massif: France, Italy and Switzerland. The trek is dominated by spectacular views of the premier peaks in the Alps and remarkable Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe reaching 15,781 feet. You’ll be trekking on ancient pack animal routes, over high passes and through small villages and alpine pastures with experienced mountain guides who bring the wonderful added history, geology and local color to every aspect of the trip. After vigorous days of hiking, you’ll welcome the creature comforts of quaint European mountain inns and comfortable hotels — all featuring excellent mountain cuisine and local wines.

The Tour du Mont Blanc is an 11-day trip with nine vigorous days of hiking covering a 110- mile circumnavigation of the Mont Blanc massif. The trip is fit for active people who are prepared to hike five to seven hours per day with an elevation gain of between 2,000– 3,000 feet per day. You will be joined by expert trip guides who are all members of the Companie des Guides de Chamonix – the oldest and biggest guide company in the world. The Mont Blanc trek is “must do” for every mountain hiker and we hope you can join this beautiful walk with its clear, clean air, dark pine forests, gleaming glaciers, soaring rocky peaks and of course, your fellow tigers!

About our Princeton Journeys Host

ITINERARY AT-A-GLANCE

The letters in parentheses denote the meals provided that day: B=breakfast; L=lunch; D=dinner; R=reception.

Day 1: Arrival Geneva, Switzerland → Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France

Hiking time: 0hrs. (D)

Day 2: Mer de Glace [France]

Hiking time: 5hrs. Ascent 2,400ft. (BL)

Day 3: Col de Voza to Les Contamines-Montjoie [France]

Hiking time: 6 hrs. Ascent: 1850ft. Descent: 2,900ft. (BLD)

Day 4: Trekking the Savoie Region [France]

Hiking time: 7 hrs. Ascent: 4,000ft. Descent: 2500ft. (BLD)

Day 5: Into Italy

Hiking time: 6hrs. Ascent: 2,000ft.  Descent: 2,000ft. (BLD)

Day 6: Mont Saxe [Italy]

Hiking time: 7 hrs. Ascent: 3,000ft. Descent: 2450ft. (BL)

Day 7: Into Switzerland

Hiking time: 6 hrs.  Ascent: 2,200ft.  Descent: 2400ft. (BLD)

Day 8: Trekking the Alpine Pastures [Switzerland]

Hiking time: 6 hrs. Ascent: 2,000ft.  Descent: 1800ft. (BLD)

Day 9: Over the Smuggler’s Route [Switzerland-France]

Hiking time: 6 hrs. Ascent: 2,800ft. Descent: 2100ft. (BL)

Day 10: The Chamonix Valley [France]

Hiking time: 6hrs. Ascent: 2,800ft. Descent: 1000ft. (BLD)

Day 11: Depart Chamonix, France → Geneva, Switzerland → USA

Hiking time: 0 hrs. (B)

Program Rate: $5,300 per person double occupancy.

All prices are based on double occupancy. If you are traveling alone we will do our best to match you with a roommate of the same gender (when available). Participation in this program is limited to the first 16 registrants and single supplements are not available.

Included in price:

• Accommodations – Three-star hotels, lodges, and mountain inns.
• A qualified guide.
• All meals as specified in the itinerary – Continental breakfast, picnic lunches & dinner are provided except for dinner on days 2, 6 & 9 when restaurants are in close walking distance to our hotel.
• Group transfer to and from the airport.
• All transport during the trip including cable cars.
• Porterage* – bags will be transported from lodge to lodge by expert handlers.

Not included in price:

• Dinner on Days 2, 6 & 9
• On-tour beverages
• Travel and cancellation insurance
• Gratuities**

*Porterage Notes: Your personal equipment should not weigh more than 40 pounds as your one bag will be transported from lodge to lodge by expert handlers. All participants should be prepared to carry a daypack to carry raingear, camera, water and lunch. A recommended packing list will be providedupon receipt of registration.

**Gratuity note: Suggested rates are $40-50 per person per day based on your satisfaction with tour management, local guides, porters and drivers.

All participants will be required to both sign a release/waiver of liability and obtain a doctor’s medical release before final documents can be processed.

Last Updated on 02/08/2022

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Where They Went: Famous Princeton Travelers

Photo: Courtesy Department of Rare Books and Special Collections

As we enter the summer vacation season, PAW offers a sampling from the University Library’s holdings of passports once owned by alumni and others with Princeton ties. Passports typically arrive as part of personal papers acquired by the Library, according to Don Skemer, curator of manuscripts in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. He estimates there are at least 400 old passports in the department; here are a few of his favorites in the manuscripts division .

Images courtesy Department of Rare Books and Special Collections

RICHARD HALLIBURTON 1921  (above)

It’s said that Richard Halliburton 1921 wanted to be remembered as the most-traveled man who ever lived, and he attracted a worldwide following as a traveler, writer, and lecturer. This passport, issued in June 1934 and covering the 1934–35 period, records visits on its 38 pages to 11 countries stretching from France to Russia to Ethiopia, Egypt, and Turkey — and includes a ticket on the Polish-Palestinian Line. 

MOE BERG ’23

SYLVIA BEACH 

ERNEST DEWALD *1914 *1916

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD 1917

What Readers Are Saying

Halliburton's humor, inspired by halliburton.

Matthew Desmond’s Princeton course ‘Poverty, by America’ field-tests promising solutions in collaboration with community partners

Matthew Desmond, author of “Evicted” and “Poverty, by America,” teaches an undergraduate seminar in which students tackle questions about American poverty head-on — and field-test real solutions with community partner organizations. Photo by Sameer A. Khan

“Why is there so much poverty in America, and what can we do about?”

In 2023, Matthew Desmond, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,” retooled a large lecture course he had been teaching to coincide with the publication of his latest book, “ Poverty, by America .” The new seminar was capped at 15 students. Desmond’s goal: Have students tackle questions about American poverty head-on from multiple angles — and field-test real solutions with community partner organizations. He’s teaching it again the spring of 2024.

The class, by application only, attracts students from STEM to the social sciences to the humanities. “I’m looking for real serious engagement in the issue, but from a lot of different perspectives,” said Desmond, the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology and principal investigator of The Eviction Lab.

“Poverty, by America” — the course — is one of 90 classes across academic disciplines offered this academic year through the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship (ProCES), which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. ProCES incorporates community priorities into academic courses and coursework, including fieldwork. Desmond said ProCES provides essential support by helping connect his students with organizations for their fieldwork and final projects.

“America has much higher rates of poverty, especially child poverty, than other advanced democracies,” Desmond said. “Thirty-eight million Americans live below the official poverty line, and one in three of us live in households making $55,000 or less.”

The course helps students learn to effect real change. The first step, Desmond said, is challenging them to think about the concept of “expertise.” “The natural response is academia, government studies, economics, history, but we want to understand the lived experience, including from folks who have experienced poverty or are experiencing it.”

A wide range of viewpoints is key. Visitors to Desmond’s classes have included people who were formerly incarcerated, those currently struggling with homelessness, law enforcement officers, community organizers working on immigrant rights, fair wages and affordable housing, and both liberal and conservative writers. Senator Cory Booker and U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman have both been guests in Desmond’s courses, and this semester, New York Times investigative reporter Andrea Elliott, a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton and the author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning book “Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City,” led a class session and brought in the book’s subject, Dasani Coates, via Zoom.

In addition to Desmond’s own work, readings include books and articles by other Princeton scholars, including Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of “Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership”; sociologists Kathryn Edin and Patrick Sharkey; Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton; and others studying poverty, policy-making and related issues.

Two “fieldnotes” assignments require students to conduct interviews and observe or participate in settings like eviction court, minimum-wage jobsites and zoning board meetings.

Groups made up of five students are assigned to one of three community partner organizations for a semester-long project: “The organizations issue the challenge, and students are tasked with delivering something useful and rigorous by the end of the semester,” Desmond said.

Last year, community partner Fair Share Housing, a New Jersey nonprofit and national leader on issues of discrimination in housing, asked for help figuring out how many homes were being lost either to demolition or to gentrification in order to give the governor better data for investments to address the state’s affordable housing crisis.

“Fair Share Housing took the data that the students created to the governor’s office. And this year they had this incredible victory with affordable housing legislation that Gov. Murphy signed,” Desmond said. “That’s real-world impact.”

On a March field trip, the class met with staffers at Make the Road New Jersey (MRNJ) — a community-organizing nonprofit focused on immigrant and working-class communities in Perth Amboy, Passaic and Elizabeth. The students heard from community members who’d benefited from a temporary unemployment program set up by the state during the pandemic, which is a model for a new MRNJ campaign.

Students also canvassed in a Perth Amboy neighborhood to share information with residents, including an MRNJ flyer that explained a law limiting annual rent increases. Clariza Macaspac, a senior who served for seven years in the Navy and transferred to Princeton from San Jose City College, said some “thought the percentage was higher than it actually was. I was glad that I was able to share something important.”

Desmond calls the approach “ground truthing.” “You can go to Firestone Library and learn a lot, but you’ve got to take it back to folks that are on the front lines and say, ‘This is what we learned, does that sound right?’”

A ‘foundation of trust’ for tough conversations

Candor, disagreement and hearing opposing views are integral to the course, Desmond said, so a supportive environment for a free exchange of ideas is crucial. No laptops are allowed. The class abides by the Chatham House Rule: Students “are free to share information and conversation from our discussions outside of class and on social media, but we agree not to attribute particular comments.” This helps students feel comfortable challenging each other, specifically for the sake of a more nuanced discussion, Desmond said.

Desmond runs the discussions. If students want to raise a point, they turn a table tent card with their name on it to face forward. “But you can skip the queue with a two-finger intervention,” he said, a technique borrowed from the Brookings Institution. Students stick out their first and second fingers together “when you just have to say something ... often when it gets really energetic, there’ll be a lot of two fingers!” Desmond said.

Senior Casey Beidel, a pre-law sociology major who hopes to work on civil rights issues, particularly those related to LGBTQ+ equality, said he chose to take this course because he’d read excerpts from “Evicted” in other classes and didn’t want to leave Princeton “without learning from one of the country’s foremost academics studying poverty and the systems that perpetuate it.”

The course has challenged his outlook on poverty in the United States. “There are some concepts that I’d internalized from headlines and common rhetoric that I hadn’t realized were grounded in fallacies that I can now combat with research and data,” he said.

‘This is a class that brings hope’

“Students are confronted with really big issues like inequality, the climate crisis, and those issues can feel incredibly daunting and sometimes hopeless,” Desmond said. “But we have a rule in class that we can’t end there, on a hopeless note. This is a class that brings hope.”

Macaspac, who is majoring in Spanish, has volunteered for the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Eastern Service Workers Association, both in Trenton, and wanted to learn how she could do more to make a difference. ”My classmates’ enthusiasm and passion for our shared goal give me hope for the future.”

At the last class, Desmond encourages his students to take what they’ve learned out into the world: “If you go into the arts or the sciences, medicine or law, we all have a role to play here. I’d like students to leave with a commitment to poverty abolitionism, no matter who they are and no matter what they go into. For me, that is a real win.”

A version of this story first appeared on the Princeton University website .

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Friday, April 26

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Princeton Armenian Society hosts first Turkish scholar to acknowledge Armenian genocide

On April 24 — Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day — the Princeton Armenian Society hosted Taner Akçam, who spoke about Armenian genocide denial in McCosh 50.

Courtesy of hayk yengibaryan.

Taner Akçam, the inaugural director of the Armenian Genocide Research Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, sat down with the co-president of the Princeton Armenian Society Hayk Yengibaryan  ’26 on Wednesday, April 24 to discuss the history and motives for the continued Turkish denial of the Armenian Genocide.

Yengibaryan is an associate Sports editor for The Daily Princetonian.

The talk, which took place in McCosh Hall 50 on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, focused on denial of the Armenian genocide, which Akçam described as “an intrinsic part” of how the genocide is remembered. Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day is held annually to honor the victims of the Armenian genocide, during which at least 600,000 Armenians were killed.

Akçam gained notoriety when he became the first Turkish scholar to acknowledge the Ottoman-Turkish genocide of Armenians. 

His talk centered around four arguments: that denialism is a major phenomenon, it is an intrinsic part of the Armenian Genocide, it has its own facts and “truth,” and that denialism is not only an ideological attitude toward a past event, but also a structure.

Akçam discussed “the moment of fact and archive creation,” detailing the production of files within the Special Organization and Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), a secret police organization and political party in the Ottoman Empire known for its key role in organizing the genocide.

He also spoke on the establishment of the 1919–1921 Istanbul Military Tribunals, which were created in an attempt to restore peace. Akçam said that these trials were used to prosecute those who had a role in the genocide of Armenians, and some perpetrators were executed.

He mentioned that a common argument among deniers of the Armenian genocide is that there are no original records that document the trials. As a result, deniers believe that the findings of the Military Tribunals — and the Ottoman Empire taking accountability for the Armenian genocide — are fabricated. The notion that these documents did not exist was false, as they were found in 1983. 

Akçam refuted this denialist argument in a section of the conversation titled “The moment of proving the falsity of documents.”

Akçam said that the original files contained a coding system which has since been deciphered; these provide evidence of the execution of some Turkish citizens implicated in the trials. According to him, this is an example of his argument that “denialism has its own facts and truth.”

“Denialism is often regarded as a mistaken but tolerable ideological attitude toward mass atrocities,” he said.

In drawing comparisons to American society, Akçam stated that denialism should be considered when people speak about racism.

“We should consider denialism with racism, because it is a structural problem with society. The system, the mindset, and the institution that created denialism, continues today as [in] the case of slavery or racism in American society today.”

Akçam also acknowledged the difficulty in speaking out against the “founding fathers” of the modern Turkish nation, the same government in power during the genocide, but encouraged people to keep making their voices heard.

“Türkiye is a very strong country, they have all the resources to acknowledge and move on [from the genocide],” he said. Akçam believes they do not because of denialism’s influence on the country’s national security system.

Akçam added, “There is a very close connection between Turkish denialism and Turkish national security.” In Türkiye, if people acknowledge the genocide, he said, the Turkish government labels them national security threats and could charge them with treason. 

Yengibaryan also shared this sentiment. In a message to the ‘Prince,’ he said that his main takeaway from Akçam’s message was that it is possible to bring people who committed atrocities to justice.

“There is hope in this world for people who seek justice for crimes and genocides, no matter where they come from. For Dr. Akçam, a Turkish scholar, to recognize the genocide, speaks volumes,” Yenigbrayan stated.

Justus Wilhoit is a senior News writer and an assistant Audience editor for the ‘Prince.’

Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

Campus is isolated: Be the voice that speaks out

“Although today’s encampment represents a significant and monumental stride in campus activism, the culture of the Orange Bubble must fundamentally shift in order to ensure long term change.”

Play the Friday crossword, ‘Get Active!’

Negotiate your way through solving this organized puzzle by Senior Constructor Dashram Pai and Contributing Constructor Atishay Narayanan.

Seeking change beyond the ‘proper channels’: The 1995 ethnic studies sit-in

In 1995, a multiracial coalition of students participated in a 36-hour long sit-in in Nassau Hall, pushing for “the hiring of faculty to teach Asian-American and Latino studies.” The ‘Prince’ spoke with the alumni who were involved in the protest to learn about their experiences with activism and their current reflections.

In 1995, a multiracial coalition of students participated in a 36-hour long sit-in in Nassau Hall, pushing for “the hiring of faculty to teach Asian-American and Latino studies.” The ‘Prince’ spoke with the alumni who were involved in the protest to learn about their experiences with activism and their current reflections.

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Columbia says encampments will scale down; scores of protesters arrested at USC: Updates

Editor's Note: This page is a summary of news on the college campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war for Wednesday, April 24. For the latest news on the protests view our live updates file for Thursday, April 25 .

NEW YORK − Columbia University announced Wednesday that students had agreed to scale down their encampment as protesters across the nation pressed their demands for an end to the civilian casualties in Gaza that have tested the American public's historically ironclad support for Israel.

Meanwhile, police arrested protesters Wednesday at the University of Southern California campus, which closed to the public Wednesday amid clashes between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and authorities at the school and nationwide .

Arrests were actively being made on the USC campus Wednesday night, a Los Angeles police spokesperson told USA TODAY. The spokesperson said he could not provide an estimate on how many people were detained.

Columbia student protesters earlier in the day issued a statement saying the school had made a "a written commitment and concession not to call the NYPD or the National Guard," calling the progress "an important victory for students.”

The university closed the main campus due to the "significant activity on campus," USC's Department of Public Safety said in an alert to students. Everyone on the campus could still leave but students were required to enter through pedestrian gates using their school IDs.

Rallies and encampments have sprung up on campuses from California to Massachusetts this week, sometimes prompting police intervention, as was the case Wednesday at the University of Texas in Austin and at the University of Southern California. The protesters are calling for an end to U.S. military support for Israel and for eliminating Israeli investments.

The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization, called on political leaders and university officials to stop “endangering” Jewish, Muslim, Palestinian and other students who conducting peaceful protests. "Students should not have to risk their reputation, livelihoods or their safety to speak out against a genocide or their university’s complicity in genocide," CAIR-NY’s Executive Director Afaf Nasher said in a statement.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed a controversial aid package bill that provides billions of dollars for the Israeli military. Lawmakers who supported the aid have been among targets of the protesters. In Brooklyn, police made arrests for disorderly conduct late Tuesday during a street protest near the residence of Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader.

Developments:

∎ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the largely pro-Palestinian protests at U.S. campuses, calling them "horrific'' and saying, "Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities.''

∎ Hamas also put out a statement about the demonstrations, as Izzat Al-Risheq, a member of the militant group's Political Bureau, said the Biden administration is "violating the individual rights and the right to expression through arresting university students and faculty members'' who are protesting.

∎ At the University of Minnesota campus in St. Paul, police made nine arrests and cleared an encampment after the school asked them to take action, citing violations of university policy and trespassing law.

∎ In the Boston area, encampments have been erected at multiple schools including Tufts University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Emerson College.

∎ California's Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata will be closed Wednesday after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied a campus building, the school announced .

Protests in New York flare: US campuses brace for more unrest over Gaza war

Protesters met by police at UT Austin, USC

At least 20 people were arrested after a large number of law enforcement officers in riot gear descended upon the University of Texas' Austin campus Wednesday and broke up a peaceful antiwar protest, the Austin American-Statesman reported . At least nine of those arrested were handcuffed and loaded into police vehicles.

Officers wearing helmets, some of them on horseback, ordered the demonstrators to disperse after they had been marching for about 45 minutes, the newspaper said. The crowd spread out but then gathered again, leading to the detainments.

The protest, which featured chants of "Free Palestine,'' was organized by a student group in solidarity with demonstrations in other college campuses demanding schools sever ties with corporations linked to the Israeli military and for the U.S. to stop funding Israel's war effort.

In Los Angeles, the University of Southern California closed off its campus Wednesday after police clashed with protesters trying to set up an encampment at the school's Alumni Park.

"There is still significant activity at the center of the UPC campus due to a demonstration,'' USC said in a social media posting around 12:20 p.m. PT. "The gates are closed, so anyone coming to campus should be prepared to show an ID at the gates for class or for business.'' 

House Speaker Johnson booed at Columbia speech

House Speaker Mike Johnson called for Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign during his visit to the school Wednesday. In his remarks, Johnson shamed students and faculty involved in the protests, as well as administrators for not doing enough to prevent them.  

“It's detestable. As Columbia has allowed these lawless agitators and radicals to take over, the virus of antisemitism has spread across other campus,” Johnson said. “Anti-Israel encampments are popping up in universities all across this country. The madness has to stop.” 

When Johnson described instances of antisemitism, called for Shafik’s resignation, and said students perpetrating violence should be arrested, protesters nearby booed and chanted, “We can’t hear you.” 

“Enjoy your free speech,” he told them in response. 

-- Rachel Barber  

Pro-Palestinian protesters urge universities to divest from Israel. What does that mean?

Columbia students say they have won some concessions

Columbia student protest organizers said Wednesday the university has conceded to some demands but is still putting students at risk of attacks. The statement − issued in response to the university’s campus update on progress in negotiations with student organizers − referenced historic actions of American universities against student demonstrators at Jackson State and Kent State, where authorities fatally shot several students more than 50 years ago.

“Columbia’s reliance on the threat of state violence against peaceful protesters has created an unstable ground for the negotiations process which will continue over the next 48 hours,” the statement said, referring to the deadline the university has issued. “However, Columbia’s written commitment and concession not to call the NYPD or the National Guard signifies an important victory for students.”

Biden signs off on $17 billion in aid for Israel

Biden signed a controversial aid package bill Wednesday that provides, among other things, $17 billion for Israel. The bill also supplies $9 billion for humanitarian aid, some of it for Palestinians in Gaza, but that's a little over half the amount assigned for military aid to Israel. Such funding has been a driving force for the encampments and other protests at universities and elsewhere in the U.S.

In comments at the White House, Biden focused on the humanitarian aid and the threat Israel faces from Iran.

"My commitment to Israel ... is ironclad," he said, adding that more than $1 billion in aid is for Palestinians facing a humanitarian crisis because of "the war Hamas started."

"Israel must make sure all this aid reaches the Palestinians in Gaza without delay," Biden said.

Columbia students agree to remove some tents, university says

At Columbia, student protesters gathered on campus early Wednesday for another day of demonstrations while just outside the gates protesters were chanting in support of the students. Earlier, the school issued a statement saying protesters had agreed to remove a "significant" number of tents, would allow only students to take part in the encampment, would follow city fire safety rules and would "make the encampment welcome to all and (prohibit) discriminatory or harassing language."

"In light of this constructive dialogue, the University will continue conversations for the next 48 hours," the statement said.

Lead student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student who is Palestinian, disputed that an agreement was in place. "We are doing our best to work with the university to actually meet our demands, because this encampment is for specific demands,” he told USA TODAY. “If it takes 48 hours, takes more than that, the students are here to stay until their demands are met.”

Before the school issued the statement, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine said administrators threatened to bring in police and the National Guard if protesters did not comply with their demands. "We remain steadfast in our convictions and will not be intimidated by the University's disturbing threat of an escalation of violence," the group said in a statement.

Harvard students start their own tent city

Harvard students set up a ring of tents in Harvard Yard midday Wednesday and said they plan to stay put until the school’s administration responds to their demands to divest from funds that support Israel’s military. Students sang and danced in a circle in front of the statue of John Harvard, the school’s namesake, draped with a keffiyeh (scarf), as dozens of others looked on.

“We resist the fact that our tuition money is going toward bankrolling Israel’s genocide,” said Violet Barron, a sophomore from Los Angeles and member of the Harvard Out of Occupied Palestinian Coalition.

She said the school’s administration has consistently suppressed student support for Palestinians and now, after more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, the students decided to take more public action. “We tried countless times to go through institutional channels,” Barron said.

A sophomore majoring in social studies, Barron said her own activism is both a reflection of what she’s learning in her history classes as well as her Jewish upbringing, which taught her to try to “repair the world.”

− Karen Weintraub

Author Lis Harris defends students impacted by a 'nasty situation'

Longtime author and critic Lis Harris, a Columbia writing professor, defended the students' right to form the encampment she called a "tent city,'' and said police should not have taken it down and arrested protesters last week.

“I mean, how could the young people not feel as they do? It’s a nasty situation,” said Harris, who authored the 2019 book, “ In Jerusalem: Three Generations of an Israeli Family and a Palestinian Family .”

The book examines the impacts of the intractable Israelis-Palestinian conflict, which have been felt for decades and are particularly acute now.

“When you read about history happening by the leaders, that’s one thing,” she said. “It’s quite another to see the effect of all this violence and fear on the generations that keep coming and going.”

Brown students protest despite threat of disciplinary action

Students at Brown University in Rhode Island established an encampment Wednesday. Large signs announcing "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" and "Brown invests in the Palestinian genocide" were prominently displayed.

The encampment was set up hours after Provost Francis Doyle sent an email to all students warning that encampments are a violation of university police and and that participants could face disciplinary action "up to and including separation from the institution,” The Brown Daily Herald reported. University Spokesperson Brian Clark told The Herald protest becomes unacceptable when it violates safety policies or interferes with "regular operations of the university."

“We have been troubled by reports of violence, harassment and intimidation at some encampments on other campuses, but we have not seen that kind of behavior at Brown," Clark said. "Any such behavior would not be tolerated.”

Scores arrested in Brooklyn protests

In Brooklyn, police made scores of disorderly conduct arrests when a street protest reached a standoff Tuesday night. The protesters, organized by the activist group Jewish Voice for Peace, had gathered at Grand Army Plaza, near the home of Schumer, who has led the effort in Congress to provide funds for the Israeli military. The protesters conducted a Seder dinner and demanded a cease-fire in Gaza.

By nightfall, demonstrators sat in the street and led protest chants against Israel and U.S. foreign aid to the country. Police began pulling dozens of people, young and old, off the roadway. Officers handcuffed them with zip ties and loaded them on several buses that lined the street.

"We refuse to let our traditions be used to starve, displace, and massacre Palestinians," the Jewish Voice for Peace said in a tweet during the protest. "Taking seriously the mandate of the Jewish holiday of liberation requires us to show up with everything we have on the doorsteps of those still arming and funding these historic atrocities."

The New York Police Department said officers arrested 208 demonstrators who blocked traffic at Grand Army Plaza.

Contributing: Reuters

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Emory in Atlanta Is Latest University to Crack Down on Protests

More than 400 demonstrators across the country have been taken into police custody since arrests at Columbia University in New York set off a wave of student activism nationwide.

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By Alan Blinder ,  Anna Betts and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

Alan Blinder reported from Atlanta, Anna Betts from New York and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs from Boston.

Police officers swept onto the ordinarily serene campus of Emory University in Atlanta on Thursday, using what their department later described as “chemical irritants” to help subdue demonstrators. It was one of the latest clashes between police forces and a pro-Palestinian protest movement that has cascaded across American campuses.

More than 400 protesters have been taken into police custody on campuses nationwide since April 18, when the arrests of more than 100 protesters at Columbia University in New York set off a fresh wave of student activism.

Administrators have responded by calling in law enforcement, removing encampments, scaling back graduation plans and threatening academic consequences. The crackdown comes as some politicians have demanded a stronger response, saying the rhetoric and actions of some protesters put Jewish students in danger.

The police in Boston arrested 108 protesters at Emerson College late Wednesday, just hours after the Los Angeles police arrested 93 people who had refused to disperse on the University of Southern California campus. In each case, it was unclear how many of the arrested demonstrators were students.

Earlier on Wednesday, dozens of police officers, many of them in riot gear and some on horseback, arrested 57 people at the University of Texas at Austin . A school spokesman said about half of those detained were unaffiliated with the university, and Diana Melendez, a spokeswoman for the county attorney’s office, said charges against many had been dropped after the office found legal “deficiencies” in their arrests.

At Emory on Thursday morning, demonstrators screamed as the police wrestled with protesters on the ground and escorted others away. Protesters accused the officers of using pepper spray and tear gas to break up the encampment they had established a few hours earlier.

The Atlanta Police Department said in a statement that its officers had “used chemical irritants during the incident.” The department did not answer questions about what type of irritant it used, but the Georgia State Patrol said separately that its troopers used pepper balls for crowd control. It denied using tear gas.

Separately, video footage reviewed by The New York Times showed a trooper using a stun device on a demonstrator who was on the ground. The state authorities, in a statement on Thursday evening, said the demonstrator had “actively resisted arrest.”

Emory’s vice president for public safety, Cheryl Elliott, said that at least 28 people had been arrested, including 20 with ties to the school — a striking departure from the university’s suggestion earlier Thursday that no one involved in the encampment was affiliated with Emory.

As universities struggled to quell the unrest, some lawmakers have called for stronger tactics, including House Speaker Mike Johnson , who during a visit to Columbia on Wednesday asked the White House to take action and said it should eventually consider using military force.

Universities have deployed the police and suspended students under pressure from such lawmakers, as well as donors and alumni, who have called the demonstrations antisemitic .

Still, new protests continue to erupt . Many student activists say they are galvanized by the clampdowns on largely peaceful protests on other campuses and want their universities to sever financial ties to companies that protesters say make weapons being used on Palestinians.

“We have to do everything we can, despite the repression by the state or the university to try to shut us down,” said Bella Montealegre, an Emory student who said “solidarity with Columbia” had drawn many of her classmates to the protest area. “We have to continue to be steadfast toward Palestinian freedom.”

Campus Protests Since Wednesday, April 17

Protests where arrests have taken place

Other protests

Note: Data as of 9:30 p.m. Eastern time on April 25

By Bora Erden, Lazaro Gamio, Helmuth Rosales, Julie Walton Shaver and Anjali Singhvi

J. David Goodman , Sean Keenan and John Yoon contributed reporting.

Alan Blinder is a national correspondent for The Times, covering education. More about Alan Blinder

Anna Betts reports on national events, including politics, education, and natural or man-made disasters, among other things. More about Anna Betts

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports on national stories across the United States with a focus on criminal justice. He is from upstate New York. More about Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs