MIT threatens to suspend anti-Israel occupiers who don't leave encampment

Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth threatened to suspend students who don’t leave the encampment.

In a letter to the campus community, Kornbluth wrote that students who don’t leave the anti-Israel encampment by 2:30 p.m. on Monday will be placed on interim academic suspension.

Students who have previous sanctions or active investigations “related to events since October 7” will be placed under an immediate interim full suspension, which prohibits students from accessing their meal plans or residence halls.

However, individuals who have contributed “significantly as a leader or organizer of the encampment” will be referred to MIT’s student conduct office even if they leave voluntarily. 

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Kornbluth said that the anti-Israel encampment has disrupted the entire campus.

”My sense of urgency comes from an increasing concern for the safety of our community. I know many of you feel strongly that the encampment should be allowed to continue indefinitely – that the protest is simply a peaceful exercise of the right to free expression, and that normal rules around campus conduct shouldn’t apply in the face of such tragic loss of life in Gaza,” she wrote.

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The MIT president also said that “this prolonged use of MIT property as a venue for protest, without permission, especially on an issue with such sharp disagreement, is no longer safely sustainable.”