Inside the Ohio State University response to the 2024 pro-Palestine protests

More than a year has passed, but the sights, sounds, and emotions of the days and weeks surrounding April 25, 2024, are still etched in the memories of those who were there. 

On that day, hundreds of people gathered outside of the Ohio Union at Ohio State University, protesting the ongoing war in Gaza and the complicity of the Biden administration – and the university itself. Pro-Palestine organizers established an encampment on the Union’s lawn, and as the day went on, the Ohio State police (OSUPD), Ohio State Highway Patrol, and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office began to surround the protesters, claiming the students were violating space rules. By nightfall, 36 students had been arrested and footage of the police response had been widely shared by the media. 

“A lot of people were terrified,” said Miriam Saab, a member of Ohio State Students for Justice in Palestine (OSU SJP). “I witnessed people getting choked and assaulted by police. I was praying when they started charging … [and] trying to worship in this space where I have helicopters around me, people are shouting, I can tell the police are trying to move in.” 

On April 22, OSU SJP posted to Instagram about the upcoming divestment rally, unaware at the time that authorities had eyes on the group. Three days later, on the morning of April 25, the Statewide Terrorism Analysis and Crime Center (STACC) messaged the Office of the President at Ohio State, warning Ted Carter about the planned event and forecasting that “similar events” might take place on campuses across Ohio. STACC is one of Ohio’s fusion centers, an entity that allows for state and federal intelligence sharing on terrorism and criminal threats. Since their creation in the aftermath of 9/11, these fusion centers have repeatedly been used to surveil protest movements, from Occupy Wall Street to student activist groups. 

This email to Carter is one of the 2,500 documents obtained via a records request by Matter News. These emails, text messages and memoranda show how Ohio State leadership coordinated with law enforcement agencies to respond to the largest protests the campus had seen since the Vietnam War. 

In an email sent on April 22, OSUPD Lieutenant Marge Rizalvo wrote that Deputy Chief Eric Whiteside expressed a need to be “proactive in keeping folks from staking tents on campus,” hoping to avoid a situation similar to what had unfolded on the campus at Columbia University. “I.e. the formation of a ‘tent city,’” she wrote.

As the April 25 date drew nearer, the sense of urgency in emails from OSU police also increased. “Another Protest on Thursday the 25th. Numbers are growing on intel channels. We will be staffing a protest response similar to last week. We need approximately 20 total officers, including shift staffing, SRT and command staff. This will be a full SRT deployment as well,” current OSUPD Deputy Alan Horujko wrote on April 23.

Footage from April 25 showed police clashing with pro-Palestine protesters. Ohio Democratic House Rep. Munira Abdullahi said that she sustained minor injuries. The Ohio Democratic Caucus issued a statement condemning the police response, writing that “there is no room or excuse for the unnecessary force that was used on the students and demonstrators.” 

Nonetheless, OSUPD celebrated its handling of the encampment. “I know it has been a long day and each of you should be extremely proud of how you all handled and managed this protest and worked as a team,” former OSUPD Chief Kimberly Spears-McNatt wrote in an email to leaders of the college’s Public Safety Department on April 26. 

Text messages between Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and OSU President Ted Carter also show the governor thanking Carter directly. “My team reports it went well. … Let’s hope we don’t have multiple campus challenges,” DeWine texted Carter on April 26.

The documents also reveal how Ohio State’s messaging and on-the-ground realities didn’t always match. It was widely claimed on April 25 that State Highway Patrol officers on the roof of the Ohio Union were carrying sniper rifles – claims Ohio State initially denied. In an article published by OSU student newspaper The Lantern headlined “University Confirms There Are No Snipers on the Ohio Union’s Roof,” Ohio State spokesman Ben Johnson said the troopers were “in a watching position, similar to a football game day.” 

However, an email from the state highway patrol’s intelligence unit on April 25 referred to the troopers as “snipers.” Hours later, the university confirmed the officers had firearms.

“We definitely are not surprised that we’re being monitored in this way,” said Jineen Musa, co-president of Ohio State Students for Justice in Palestine. “I think if we’re looking at what is occurring nationally, that we’re seeing the exact same tactics being used against students no matter where they’re protesting.”

But OSU SJP wasn’t the only student organization whose activities were being monitored. On April 22 of last year, Dennis Jeffrey, former deputy chief and current chief of OSUPD, sent an email requesting monitoring of a rally staged by Ohio Youth for Climate Justice (OHYCJ) in which protesters demanded Ohio State divest from fossil fuel companies and businesses connected with Israel. The demonstration was disrupted by OSUPD, with officers arresting two of the protesters. 

“I remember standing there at the bottom of the steps, and the line of police officers at Meiling Hall. … And I remember police officers starting to point me out, and I started to get nervous,” said Yousuf Munir, an organizer with OHYCJ and one of the two students arrested. (Body camera footage of Munir’s arrest is featured in the action report of former OSUPD Chief Kimberly Spears-McNatt.) “They were more than prepared to begin these arrests. It was a premeditated arrest.”

“OSUPD works closely with local, state and federal partners to monitor and evaluate safety on a daily basis, including for planned or unplanned events. We do not discuss our security protocols in detail,” Ohio State spokesperson Ben Johnson said in reply to an email request for comment about social media monitoring conducted by OSUPD. 

More than a year has passed, yet according to Ohio State’s pro-Palestine organizers, there has been no campuswide reckoning over the university’s treatment of protesters. “Something I keep coming back to is how quickly we moved on,” Miriam Saab said. “We weren’t provided any type of support or resources for what we had experienced.” 

Donald Trump’s return to the presidency has only intensified pressures at Ohio State. The university is one of 60 schools being investigated by the administration for alleged antisemitism. And pro-Palestine organizer Ahwar Sultan was among twelve international students who had their student visas terminated at the university earlier this year. (The Ohio State graduate student has since filed suit against the Trump administration, accusing it of targeting him for his participation in pro-Palestine protests in 2024.)

“What we’re seeing now is not a transformation. It’s a continuation of the repression we’ve seen against the Palestine solidarity movement and progressive causes for a long time [and] that has only been ramping up since October 7,” Munir said. “Trump would not be able to do the escalated repression that he has been doing … without the work that universities themselves, and the universities with the assistance of the Biden-Harris administration, enabled, and allowed, and encouraged.”

Correction: An earlier version of this piece incorrectly identified Yousuf Munir as one of 12 international students who had their visas terminated at Ohio State. Matter News regrets the error.