AMHERST — At 6 a.m. on Tuesday, representatives of the University of Massachusetts administration arrived at the pro-Palestinian encampment that went up the previous day on the school’s South Lawn and issued a warning to protesters — take down their tents and structures or face potential legal prosecution.

Just a few hours later, law enforcement arrived.

“Things escalated very quickly after the administration sent out their initial statement yesterday,” said one graduate student who helped organize the event as part of the university’s Palestine Solidarity Caucus. “Student conduct officers came this morning with their bullhorns with a very vague warning to take down our tents or be threatened with arrest.”

Organizers of the encampment, called the UMass Popular University of Gaza, chose to remain anonymous to avoid potential legal and academic sanctions, as well as being doxed online.

“The number of cops continued to multiply even after we complied,” said the graduate student. “We took down our tents, but the UMass popular University for Gaza is still very much alive.”

While the South Lawn lacked tents by midday Tuesday, the presence of student protesters was still strong as about 50 remained on the scene and organizing groups held conversations and speeches. Meanwhile, faculty supportive of their movement taught class among the students.

Tables still lined the grass serving participants with food and water, as well as providing visitors with relevant literature and flyers.

After law enforcement, including campus police and state troopers, began to disperse, the university issued an official statement regarding the dismantling of the tents and the university’s property use policy. In the statement to the campus community, Chancellor Javier Reyes said that he was grateful to the student activists at the encampment for their cooperation.

“We are fully in support of the right to free expression and conveyed to participants in the encampment that their protest could continue so long as their tents and structures, which are in violation of the campus land use policy, are removed,” he wrote.

Reyes said that “there [had] been no request submitted for the use of this property by those occupying it” and that “the space had already been reserved for a university event, which we were forced to cancel.”

However, protest organizers from UMass Students for Justice in Palestine said that several requests were sent on behalf of their organization regarding the use of the South Lawn for their demonstrations, but they were “never acknowledged” by school officials.

“I think that involving law enforcement was ridiculous,” said Leah Alger, a UMass senior who works at the People’s Market, a student-run co-op in the Student Union building overlooking the South Lawn. “I was at the housing protests last year, which were in the same spot, and the administration never issued any warnings or sent in any cops. It’s completely hypocritical.”

In a statement issued by the student groups organizing the demonstrations in response to the letter from Reyes, protesters asserted that “the university applies its land use policy selectively, and we are only being targeted because our encampment is protesting the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.”

They also highlighted that they did not dismantle their tents “because [they] agree with the chancellor’s characterization of [the] encampment as disruptive and preventing fair use of access to space,” but rather “out of concern for the safety of [their] friends, comrades and fellow participants of the encampment.”

Despite no longer having tents to camp in, the protesters plan to continue occupying the South Lawn and hosting events until their demands are met. “We will protest till the university divests!” they said in their statement. “Onwards and upwards. The land is ours and we will remain on it.”

Reyes, meanwhile, said the university will continue to defend free speech and the free exchange of ideas on campus.

Noting that the protest continued without incident, the chancellor said, “This is the sort of outcome we strive for as we navigate these challenging times.”

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.