Pro-Palestine students at Pitt face dismissal, criminal charges, and the threat of canceled visas
Pittsburgh City Paper, 2/24/25: “It was a cold night in November, and Oakland was quiet. Adam* was studying with friends. While checking their email, they saw an alert from the Office of Student Conduct. Under their name were the words persona non grata — they had been dismissed from the University of Pittsburgh, and their presence was forbidden on Pitt grounds.
This was no surprise to Adam, who had spent the last three months embroiled in student conduct hearings for their participation in pro-Palestine demonstrations. But that made it no less terrifying.
‘When I got that notification, all I felt was fear,’ Adam tells Pittsburgh City Paper. ‘It felt like my future was being closed off.’
Last April, students began peacefully occupying Pitt’s campus to show their support for Palestine and call for Pitt’s divestment from Israel. Two students were arrested during an encampment in Schenley Plaza. In June, a second encampment was set up on the Cathedral of Learning lawn, which later escalated into a standoff with police.
Pitt did not respond by press time to detailed questions about the ongoing disciplinary process.
Encampments like the ones last spring have been used throughout history to bring attention to issues, from the Vietnam War to South African apartheid. But they are generally received more negatively than other forms of protest, such as marches.”