A closer look at how University of Pittsburgh handled protests amid national strife

Many universities across the country are facing a harsh reckoning over vandalized buildings, mass campus arrests and chilling images from this week of student protesters battling police and sometimes each other.

But the University of Pittsburgh is not — at least thus far.

The university fared differently than other campuses where pro-­Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli counter-­protesters tested their schools’ ability to balance safety and free speech.

Chancellor Joan Gabel and other top leaders remained silent Wednesday on their takeaways from the weeklong encampment there that was largely trouble-free, except for two arrests during a disturbance Sunday evening.

Gabel was traveling, said Pitt spokesman Jared Stonesifer. She was not available to discuss the extent to which the university’s approach helped Pittsburgh police keep things under control.

For one thing, the encampment appeared to be smaller than those at some other universities. It began inside on April 23 and on the lawn of the Cathedral of Learning, but city and campus police secured an agreement early on with the demonstrators to shift their tents just off campus to city-owned Schenley Plaza.

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Robin Kear, president of Pitt’s university Senate, said Wednesday she believes the university communicated effectively with those in the encampment, and that students themselves displayed restraint in this case.

She said Interim Vice Provost and Dean of Students Carla Panzella and a small team of individuals worked with those in the encampment, especially Pitt students.

“I think that they have opened a dialogue that I hope will continue into the fall term,” she said. She had no additional details about that.

Did Pitt dodge a bullet?

“No,” Kear said. “I think that our students recognize that they live in a community and that community is made up of many different viewpoints,” she said. “And I think that as long as we work very hard as a university and faculty to engage in dialogue” it will prove beneficial.

Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto said police required that protesters agree to several conditions, including that they would not engage in antisemitic speech or behavior; they would not impede traffic that could be going to nearby hospitals; they would not disrupt commencement events; and they would commit no violence or destruction of property.

Scirotto said the organizers agreed to those conditions and honored them throughout their event.

That’s not to say everyone was satisfied, or that some of the language and chants overheard were not deeply offensive.

A group calling itself Pitt Divest from Apartheid, which organized the encampment, issued a statement before leaving that was sharply critical of university leadership, including Gabel. It included demands, among them legal amnesty for all protesting students, faculty and staff both now and going forward, and disarming campus police, along with divesting from entities it says support genocide in Gaza.

The group said it was uncalled for that university police at one point Sunday shoved the group while removing them from campus. Pitt and city police said the demonstrators had reneged on an agreement to remain off campus.

The group re-upped its criticisms in a statement late Wednesday.

“While the police did not enter the encampment, their elevated presence kept many people on high alert for the duration of our stay,” it read in part. “Additionally, the police did not provide any aid or assistance in times of duress — in fact, when counter-protesters provoked us at our encampment, they were nowhere to be found.”

The statement added, “Now it is time for us to escalate, move forward, and find new ways to apply pressure to the City and University.”

The group had initially numbered about 50 students and others, but grew throughout the week, numbering in the hundreds Sunday. Meanwhile, a Utah woman was identified as the second person Pitt police detained for trespassing Sunday as law enforcement cleared pro-Palestinian protesters who had moved from City of Pittsburgh property onto school grounds.

Police issued Cassidy James Diamond, of Park City, Utah, a citation for defiant trespassing at 6:36 p.m. Sunday, according to police logs that Stonesifer provided to TribLive.

Diamond’s citation was not available Wednesday in online court records and an Allegheny County court administrator found no record Wednesday of her citation.

A woman by the same name is listed on Carnegie Mellon University’s website as a student.

Diamond could not immediately be reached for comment.

Earlier, using court records, TribLive identified the other person arrested as a Chester County man, Haiwei Hu.

Hu, 20, of Easttown Township, was arraigned at 12:45 a.m. Monday on a misdemeanor trespassing charge and released on a non-monetary bond.

Hu did not respond to an email Monday morning seeking comment.

A person with the same name as Hu was identified in an online Pitt database as a trainee in the director’s office at the University Center for International Studies in Wesley W. Posvar Hall.

That individual was a Frederick Honors College student who had been studying computer science, according to the database.

Pitt police had two interactions with Hu on Sunday. They first stopped him at 6:36 p.m. for trespassing on university property. Hu was near the Cathedral of Learning, on the 4400 block of Bigelow Boulevard, a criminal complaint said. Police said they told Hu to stay away from Pitt property.

But at 11:06 p.m., Hu returned to the William Pitt Union driveway, still holding his trespassing citation from the previous arrest in his hand, the complaint said.

Pitt police handcuffed Hu and took him to the Allegheny County Jail, the complaint said.

Hu’s attorney was not listed in court records.

Staff writer Justin Vellucci contributed.