New Jersey: Indian-origin student Achinthya Sivalingam has been arrested and banned from Princeton University in the US, pending a disciplinary process, for participating in an unauthorised student-led pro-Palestine encampment protest within the campus premises. The development comes amid continued protests at major universities across the US against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Sivalingam, who was born in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, and raised in Columbus, Ohio, was arrested along with another fellow student, Hassan Sayed, the Princeton Alumni Weekly reported, citing a document by the protest organisers that identified the two.
Student protesters had set up tents in the University's McCosh Courtyard despite warnings from authorities. Within minutes, the two students were arrested, which led to the protesters packing up their tents while continuing to stage a sit-in demonstration. The sit-in protest, which initially saw a crowd of about 110 people, increased to some 300 later.
Confirming the development, Princeton University spokesperson Jennifer Morrill said the two graduate students were arrested "after repeated warnings from the Department of Public Safety to cease activity and leave the area”.
They “have been immediately barred from campus, pending a disciplinary process”, she said, adding that the remaining tents in the encampment area were “voluntarily taken down by protesters".
In an email sent to students this week regarding the pro-Palestine protests on campus, Rochelle Calhoun, Vice President for Campus Life at Princeton University, said demonstrations that involve “occupying or blocking access to buildings [or] establishing outdoor encampments and sleeping in any campus outdoor space” were prohibited.
“Any individual involved in an encampment, occupation, or other unlawful disruptive conduct who refuses to stop after a warning will be arrested and immediately barred from campus. For students, such exclusion from campus would jeopardise their ability to complete the semester," she said in her email.
