The New York Times revealed in an investigation how American colleges and universities tightened rules related to protests, closed campus gates, and imposed stricter penalties after the unrest witnessed by pro-Palestinian demonstrations and camps last spring.

"It seems that the efforts are bearing fruit," according to the newspaper.

The investigation indicates that there have been nearly 950 protests on college campuses so far this semester, compared with 3,000 last semester, according to a tally by the Nonviolent Action Lab at Harvard’s Ash Center. About 50 people have been arrested so far this academic year in protests on college campuses, according to figures compiled by The New York Times, compared with more than 3,000 last semester.

When students protested this fall, academic administrators imposed (often literally) new rules created in response to protests against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza last spring. The moves created scenes that were previously unimaginable, especially on campuses that once cherished and celebrated their history of student activism.

In December 2023, Harvard University temporarily banned dozens of students and faculty from its libraries after they participated in silent “study sessions”—where protesters sat at library tables holding signs opposing the war in Gaza—though a similar protest on another issue the same month did not result in similar punishment. At Indiana University in Bloomington, some students and faculty who attended a candlelight vigil were disciplined under a new ban on expressive activity after 11 p.m. Penn officials and campus police officers, holding plastic handcuffs, told the vigil participants to move because they had not reserved the space in compliance with the newly created rules.

At Montclair State University in New Jersey, police officers are often outnumbered at a weekly demonstration where protesters hold signs with pictures of children killed in Gaza and the words “We grieve.”

“They say it’s to keep us safe, but I think it’s to keep us under control,” Tasneem Abdul Aziz, a student in the university’s teaching program, told the newspaper.

The changes come in the wake of federal civil rights complaints, lawsuits and intense scrutiny from the US Congress, which has “accused universities of tolerating anti-Semitism” after some protesters praised Hamas and denounced Israeli violence.

“Some students and faculty have welcomed the quieter campus, while others see the relative calm as the bitter fruit of a crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech. They worry that President-elect Donald J. Trump, who as a candidate called on universities to “defeat extremists,” could increase the pressure,” the paper says.

While the details vary, similar restrictions and procedures are imposed on where and when protests can take place and, in many cases, universities are enforcing rules they adopted before the start of the academic year.

The restrictions have made people afraid, Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors and an associate professor of media studies at Rutgers University, told the newspaper.

“They feel like they're being watched and scrutinized; I think there's a strong degree of self-censorship going on,” he said.

“But Jewish students who felt targeted by protesters praised the rules — and the speed with which the universities enforced them — for helping to restore order and safety,” the paper says. “Naomi Lamb, director of Hillel at Ohio State University, said the school’s new protest policies appear to be effective.”

Some of the tactics protesters used last semester have also been met with harsh responses this academic year. At the University of Minnesota, 11 people were arrested after occupying a campus building. Last academic year, some universities allowed protesters to occupy buildings overnight and even for days.

At Pomona College, California, the president used “extraordinary authority” to bypass the standard disciplinary process and suspend or ban some pro-Palestinian protesters who took over a building on Oct. 7 of this year (a year into Israel’s war on Gaza). The unusual step was justified because the students’ takeover damaged property, threatened safety and disrupted classes, a college spokeswoman said, noting that the students were given opportunities to respond to the charges against them.

On some campuses, protesters have adopted new tactics to challenge the new restrictions.

Courses such as those at Harvard, Ohio State University, Tulane University and the University of Texas at Austin have also been held to protest the Israeli war. Students often wear Palestinian keffiyehs and stick signs on their laptops with messages such as “Our tuition money is funding genocide.”

“This is designed to put the administration in this predicament where it either ignores it, or imposes rules that it finds foolish,” Jay Ulfelder, director of the research project at Harvard’s Nonviolent Action Lab, told the newspaper.

A Harvard spokesperson said a statement from university leadership in January 2024 made clear that demonstrations were not permitted in libraries or other areas of campus used for academic activities.

During Sukkot, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the year’s harvest, members of the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace organization set up “solidarity sukkots” on about 20 college campuses, including Northwestern University (Chicago) and the University of California, Los Angeles. The sukkots commemorate the structures that the Israelites lived in during their 40-year wandering in the desert and are often decorated with pumpkins, fruit and lights. Members of Jewish Voice for Peace added signs that read, “Stop arming Israel.”

According to Jewish Voice for Peace, the sukkots were removed at nine universities, with administrators citing new rules prohibiting unauthorized structures.

“They don’t care about our ability or right to practice our religion; they just care about restricting Palestinian freedom of expression,” said Paz Bom, a Jewish student who supports Palestinian rights.