CUNY public safety officers and the NYPD quickly quashed an attempt by students to establish a ‘Liberated Zone’ on the quad of City College of New York on Thursday afternoon.
A group of several dozen pro-Palestinian protesters on the campus announced they’d set up a “liberated zone” around 2 p.m. but were swiftly confronted by CUNY officers who forced them out of the area, dousing some in pepper spray. At least one student was arrested, an NYPD spokesperson later confirmed.
One video posted by a photojournalist Marcos Gabriel Quiñones showed a CUNY officer waving the pepper spray at the crowd, which also appeared to waft onto an adjacent public safety officer who covered his face, backing away from the students.
One CUNY undergraduate student named Aria, who declined to give her name and age because of worries about retaliation from administrators, said she’d hopped a fence to avoid the cloud.
“They began indiscriminately pepper spraying us,” she said.
CUNY public safety officers and the NYPD quickly squashed an attempt by students to set up a “Liberated Zone” on the City College of New York uptown campus, April 24, 2025. Credit: Gwynne Hogan/THE CITY
Similar to the five demands spelled out by students during last year’s encampment on CCNY campus, Aria said the goal of demonstrators in the liberated liberated zone was to pressure CUNY to disclose its investments and divest from companies profiting off Israel’s war in Gaza, as well as calling for free tuition to the university among others.
CUNY spokesperson Jay Mwamba said the university was aware of the demonstration at CCNY, declining to comment on the use of pepper spray.
“As there is an active investigation at this time, we cannot comment on specific allegations related to today’s protest,” Mwamba said. “Extra public safety officers are on campus and access to the campus is restricted to CCNY employees and students with ID.”
A spokesperson for Teamsters Local 237, which represents CUNY public safety officers, declined to comment.
In the aftermath of the chaotic scene, NYPD officers there ordered students on Convent Avenue south of the quad, shoving and forcing them down the block and off campus. Several protesters who’d been hit by the clouds of pepper spray squatted on the sidewalk gasping as others poured water on their red, puffy faces.
The foiled CCNY occupation came a day after NBC reported that students at Columbia University were planning to reestablish an encampment there, though that appeared not to have occurred by Thursday afternoon.
Student demonstrators involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations are facing immense pressures from the Trump administration, which has revoked the visas of 1,800 international students and detained other noncitizen activists including two from nearby Columbia, Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi.
Earlier this month, CUNY confirmed 17 of its own students had their visas revoked, including some from CCNY.
“In this political climate, risking arrest, it is not safe,” Aria said, as the group swiftly marched around the campus, with leaders warning others to disperse in just over an hour.
“They were more prepared for us” than last year, she said, when a student encampment lasted for five days before it was busted up by the NYPD the night of April 30, the same night as officers raided Columbia’s campus.
CUNY public safety officers had also unleashed pepper spray on student demonstrators then, with City College President Vincent Boudreau later lamenting they didn’t have proper crowd control training.
On Thursday afternoon, CCNY students received a notice from administrators that the campus would be locked down on Friday, and require identification to enter through May 1.
“We understand these measures may cause some inconvenience and appreciate your patience, understanding, and cooperation,” the email read.
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