HLS Banned 60 Students From Its Library for a ‘Study-In.’ Dozens Just Did It Again.

Harvard Law School temporarily banned at least 60 students from its library on Thursday, prompting more than 50 other students to protest the suspensions by staging another “study-in” protest at the library.

The protest, which denounced the ongoing war in Gaza and the Law School’s decision to take disciplinary action against its students, marks the second “study-in” protest at HLS in as many weeks. The protest on Thursday was organized in part by Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, the group responsible for the 20-day encampment in Harvard Yard.

Students who participated in last week’s protest were notified Thursday morning that their “physical access to the Harvard Law School Library will be suspended from now until November 7, 2024,” according to an email obtained by The Crimson.

Amanda Watson, the assistant dean for library and information services at HLS, wrote in the email that students were being sanctioned for participating in an “organized demonstration.”

“Participants assembled in the Langdell Reading Room with the purpose of capturing people’s attention through the coordinated display of flyers provided by the demonstration organizers,” Watson wrote.

In recent weeks, Harvard has sought to crack down on “study-in” protests in libraries across the University. Harvard Library administrators similarly suspended more than 25 faculty members from Widener Library for two weeks on Thursday after they staged a silent “study-in” on Oct. 16.

The string of library bans started earlier this month, when 12 undergraduate students were banned from Widener for two weeks for organizing a silent pro-Palestine protest in the library’s reading room.

The HLS students banned from the library in Langdell Hall will retain borrowing privileges and their “physical access to other Harvard libraries will not be affected,” according to Watson’s email.

However, multiple students who were banned from the library have since reported losing ID access to the study rooms located in the Wasserstein Hall and Caspersen Student Center.

HLS spokesperson Jeff Neal declined to comment for this article.

In response to the bans, more than 50 students entered Langdell Reading Room just before 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, with messages taped to their laptops including “Harvard Divest from Death” and “Israel bombed a hospital, again.” The signs were identical to those from the study-in last week.

Prior to the protest, HLS administrators stood at the entrance to the library distributing flyers that outlined campus protest policies. The flier reminded students that “Libraries are not spaces available for protests or demonstrations.”

Less than 15 minutes later, HLS administrators — who identified themselves to The Crimson as part of Harvard Law School’s Campus Safety Department — interrupted the silent protest to begin IDing students.

One student — who sat with other protesters but did not have a sign on her laptop — asked the administrators why she was not being ID’d. The student informed the administrators she was with the protesters before giving them her ID.

Many students refused to give them their IDs to the administrators.

“I’m just studying,” one student said.

The HLS Campus Safety Department staffers told The Crimson that they determined who to ID based on whether they had signs taped to their laptops.

HLS Student Government co-presidents Déborah V. Aléxis and John M. Fossum wrote in a statement to The Crimson that “students were confronted by administrators and IDed in the library today for merely studying while wearing a keffiyeh scarf or having a Palestine sticker on their computer.”

Aléxis and Fossum called the University’s use of space policies “unintelligible and indefensible.”

“Harvard leadership is trying very hard to suppress specific viewpoints and shut down academic freedom on our campus,” Aléxis and Fossum added. “We are embarrassed for them and we stand with our peers,” they added.

While some protesters participated in the “study-in,” more than 30 others, many of whom were banned from entering the library, waited for them on the steps outside Langdell Hall. A few minutes after the IDing finished, the protesters left the library and rallied with the other pro-Palestine protesters outside the building.

Speakers at the outdoor rally enumerated recent actions taken by HLS administration towards pro-Palestine protesters, focusing on the suspension of students from the library. Speakers also alleged that HLS had installed security cameras in the Caspersen Student Center’s Haas Lounge.

After a series of speeches, protesters chanted: “In our thousands, in our millions we are all Palestinians.”

Then, the students dispersed to attend classes.

—Staff writer S. Mac Healey can be reached at mac.healey@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @MacHealey.

—Staff writer Saketh Sundar can be reached at saketh.sundar@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @saketh_sundar.