Students from Boston's institutions have risen in a chorus of dissent, mirroring actions taken by their collegiate counterparts at Columbia University over the current conflict in Gaza. Emerson College, MIT, and Tufts University have all seen the establishment of student encampments, as gatherings burgeon into stand-ins for protest against the violence overseas and the involvement of their schools through investments and partnerships.

At Emerson College, students have overtly pledged solidarity to those arrested at Columbia. "We're asking for the school to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, we're asking the school to disclose all financial ties to Zionist organizations and to divest from those organizations," Owen Buxton told NBC Boston. They have also demanded the administration to "condemn the arrests at Columbia last week."

The protests, beginning Sunday evening, have delved into Monday with students at all three universities staking claims on parts of their respective campuses. MIT protesters are pushing the school to sever research partnerships with the Israeli military, as per CBS News Boston, while Emerson participants are broadly calling for "Palestinian liberation."

Authorities and college officials have kept a watchful eye on the encampments, seeking to ensure safety and passage. Cameras rolled and police stood a careful watch, though no arrests have been made to date. Emerson College provided a statement to WCVB, acknowledging the situation and their ongoing collaboration with Boston Police to maintain public safety. At MIT, dialogues between protestors and the administration are reportedly ongoing.

In a bid to possibly preclude similar movements, Harvard University has preemptively enacted restrictions within Harvard Yard, barring any setups without prior authorization and laying the groundwork for disciplinary actions against policy violators, as reported by the Harvard Crimson and relayed by CBS News Boston. With Boston now a stage for the echoing of voices many miles away from the conflict, the collegiate community wrestles with the dilemma of alignment and dissent amidst an education in progress.