1 person arrested, protesters pepper sprayed at University of Chicago graduation

One person was arrested Saturday during a protest against the Gaza war at the University of Chicago as the South Side school held graduation ceremonies.

Around 11 a.m., a “small number of protesters acted violently” as they attempted to gain access to a closed area near 59th Street and University Avenue, school officials said in a communicated.

One person, who the university said was not affiliated with the school, was arrested for battery, the release said.

Officials did not release additional details.

Amid the ceremonies, several students walked out to protest the war “without incident,” school officials said.

“The University is fundamentally committed to upholding the right of students to express a broad range of opinions,” said school spokesman Gerald McSwiggan, who said the ceremonies took place without interruption.

The protests came a day after university faculty and 16 city council members claimed the school was circumventing its own disciplinary process to deny diplomas to some pro-Palestinian student demonstrators after an ad hoc president was abruptly added to the disciplinary committee to oversee their cases. .

One student protester, who asked to remain anonymous, said some students and their families walked out of convocation — a ceremony in which university administrators speak before groups of students attend smaller graduation ceremonies.

At a later rally, police set up barricades and used pepper spray against a dozen people during a clash with protesters when police tried to grab people in the crowd, the student said .

The student said the person arrested was the parent of a graduate. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The students left because the school refuses to issue diplomas and because there are no diplomas in Gaza,” the student said, referring to the closure of schools in Gaza since the start of the war.

Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza after a surprise attack on October 7 by Hamas militants that left more than 1,200 people dead, most of them Israeli civilians. The militants also took several hundred people hostage.