Within 24 hours, a barricade, which still stands today, was installed after dozens of students and faculty were arrested in an NYU authorized police sweep. The university’s 13 active renovations clearly aren’t just conveniently timed projects, but rather NYU’s preemptive silencing of student protest by depriving students of places to demonstrate. In January 2024, NYU restricted access to Bobst Library due to similar protests in solidarity with Palestine. In January 2025, the Trump administration demanded that universities dismantle student protests and end their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Yet President Linda Mills and NYU have stayed quiet, remaining publicly ambivalent towards the Trump administration’s tightening grip over higher education.