24 students, 1 former student arrested after six-day UConn encampment  

24 University of Connecticut students and one former student were arrested early Tuesday morning from an encampment in the area surrounding Dove Tower between the School of Business and Recreation Center. The encampment had been up since last Thursday afternoon, with students, faculty and community members protesting the university’s relationships with weapon-manufacturing companies, including Raytheon TX and Lockheed Martin.  

According to University Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz, the group of protesters were warned multiple times over the past few days, as well as four times early Tuesday, that they would be arrested if they refused to remove their tents and tarps at the encampment site.  

“The group was warned multiple times over a period of days that while they were free to be in the space and exercise their free speech rights, the guidelines needed to be followed and the tents needed to be taken down. This was ignored,” said Reitz. “UConn Police directed them four times on Tuesday morning to remove the tents and disperse, and they again repeatedly ignored the directives. Officers then entered the site to remove the tents and tarps, and to arrest those who refused compliance.”  

All 25 protesters were charged with criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct, according to Reitz. The university says they will not discuss any potential disciplinary actions involving students at the moment in accordance with the federal privacy rules. Documents reveal that nearly every arrestee was assigned a $1000 bond, and all were given a court date for Rockville Superior Court within the next two weeks, the earliest date being May 8.  

According to an email sent to students Tuesday afternoon, the university’s guidelines mention specific items, such as tents, are not permissible in outdoor gatherings, and those arrested were considered to have violated those guidelines after putting up around 20 tents and using amplified sound.  

For several hours following the arrests, students and community members gathered in front of the University Safety Building on N Eagleville Road to support and cheer for the arrestees as they were released. Many had brought breakfast and snacks to welcome the released students as well. Several honked their car horns in support as they drove by the scene.  

Video footage of the encampment site shows dozens of police officers arriving shortly after 7:00 a.m. to arrest protestors. According to some eyewitnesses, over 100 officials, from UConn and other areas of Connecticut as well, arrived at the encampment site.  

Several students at the gathering deemed the large number of officers unnecessary for the nature of the situation.  

“I just think it’s ridiculous how UConn thinks it’s necessary to spend that much money in employing such a big number of police officers to [arrest] innocent protestors that are just exercising their American rights as citizens,” said student Mehak Shaikh. “There’s people that are getting their cars broken into, that are not getting the help they need because police officers are too busy arresting innocent people rather than arresting people that should be arrested.”  

According to a student who asked not to be named, students who did not want to get arrested chose to remain on the “outskirts” of the gathering, continuing to chant with the group, following one of the warnings of arrest by UConn Police earlier that morning.  

Expressing disappointment with the situation, the student said they also joined the outskirts of the group, as they could not risk getting arrested.  

“We weren’t doing anything wrong. This happens at athletic events all the time,” said the student in reference to tents and encampments often set up near Gampel Pavilion by sports fans. “There were a lot of discrepancies.”  

One student who was arrested, who asked to remain anonymous, said that there were three categories protesters at the encampment could choose–red, yellow and green–with red being for those who would stay at the site even if arrested, yellow for those who were unsure or would likely leave the scene when police arrived, and green for those who were confident they did not want to get arrested.  

The anonymous student said she originally chose the yellow category, but then decided to join the red group after a friend and fellow protestor had to leave the encampment in fear that she would lose her employment if arrested.  

“I realized I probably don’t have that much to lose at that point. I’m not even graduating this year anyway. At least I can say… I did something about it, I tried. So, I stayed in the tent [during the arrests],” they said.  

The arrested student also said that following her arrest she was held in the cell for at least four hours, and that officers considered her and the others the “best arrestees” they ever had at the station.  

“When we were behind cells, all we kept hearing was, ‘These are the best arrestees we ever [had], they were so patient with us,’’’ they added. “We were allowed to use the bathroom because the police thought we were so patient…we did not resist, we followed the exact orders. When we put up the tents we didn’t do anything violent. We sat in there and stayed silent, and didn’t even fight the police. The second they told us to get up, we got up with them. We did not resist.”  

According to some of the students gathered at University Safety, all of those who had been arrested were released by 5:00 p.m. Shortly after that time, the majority of community members began to leave the area, with some staying behind.