Dozens of protesters at Columbia University were arrested in recent days as they erected tents on the elite school’s campus to demonstrate in favor of Palestine.

Individuals started to erect tents on the south lawn of the New York City school on Wednesday morning, prompting Columbia administrators to suspend them after multiple warnings that they were not permitted to occupy the space, according to a letter which Columbia President Minouche Shafik sent to the New York Police Department in order to request assistance. More than 100 demonstrators were arrested shortly after the request was submitted.

Shafik announced to all students and faculty that Monday classes would be held remotely and asked that “students who do not live on campus” refrain from traveling to school.

“There is a terrible conflict raging in the Middle East with devastating human consequences,” she wrote. “I understand that many are experiencing deep moral distress and want Columbia to help alleviate this by taking action. We should be having serious conversations about how Columbia can contribute. There will be many views across our diverse community about how best to do this and that is as it should be. But we cannot have one group dictate terms and attempt to disrupt important milestones like graduation to advance their point of view.”

The announcement added that the protests have been “exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas.”

Faculty and students at elite universities have been divided over the war between Israel and Hamas, with protests over the conflict sweeping the nation in recent months. Members of Congress held hearings on campus antisemitism last year which contributed to the ouster of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill and Harvard University President Claudine Gay. Several elite schools have lost key donors in recent weeks as a result of the protests.

Columbia students protesting in favor of Palestine claim on their website that the Near Eastern territory is “the vanguard for our collective liberation” and say they want to end “Israeli apartheid by urging Columbia to divest all economic and academic stakes in Israel.”

Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Minnesota Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar, was reportedly suspended from Barnard College as a result of her participation in the Columbia protests: she complained to the media that she is now homeless as a result of her eviction from campus housing. Law enforcement also arrested nearly four dozen protesters at Yale University.