5 MSU students invaded after a pro-Palestinian protest

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — MSU Police charged five Michigan State University students with trespassing during a sit-in protest at the Hanna Administration Building on Friday.

According to a spokesperson for the Hurriya Coalition, a pro-Palestinian student advocacy group on campus, the students were staging a sit-in and demanding the following from MSU:

News release, Hurriya Coalition, October 25, 2024

Earlier on Friday, 40 students representing the coalition walked out on a meeting of MSU’s board of trustees and began a sit-in in the building, conducting divestment drills.

The coalition says trustee Brianna Scott spoke with the group for about 10 minutes, but the group was not happy with the discussion.

“Students have always been leaders in movements to end oppression. History has shown that the students are right. MSU’s refusal to participate in planning the walkout and its involvement in intimidating student organizers’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech and assembly is reprehensible and contrary to the values it espouses,” said Hurriya organizer Atiya Abdul-Wasi.

At approximately 19:15 on Friday, 5 students were detained by the police.

MSU’s Office of Police and Public Safety says the students were charged with trespassing for staying in the building after hours. A criminal case was filed against them and they were released from custody.

“This makes a mockery of the President’s call for ‘civil discourse.’ Civil discourse is impossible in an environment of intimidation,” says Abdul-Wasi.

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