Tensions Over Occupy Protests on Campuses

Several colleges are seeing tensions and debates over Occupy protest movements on their campuses.

• Harvard University has restricted access to Harvard Yard to university students, preventing many others from joining an Occupy Harvard movement. The university says that it acted to assure student safety and not for political reasons. Organizers of Occupy Harvard and some faculty members say that the university is overreacting and that it could safely restore full access to the campus.
• At the University of California at Berkeley, authorities are vowing to prevent tent cities from being set up, and are defending arrests made Wednesday night to take down tents that the university said were not authorized, The San Jose Mercury News reported. But many faculty members and others who support Occupy Cal say that the university used inappropriate force against a nonviolent protest movement.
• Officials at Seattle Central Community College are frustrated with the Occupy Seattle movement, which set up its tents on campus, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported. College officials say that they don't think they have the legal right to kick the protest off the campus, but are concerned that since the protest arrived, the college has had to deal with increased trash (including some dirty needles), the theft of soap from campus bathrooms and the arrival of people with mental illness, some of whom have been attracted to the protests.