Harvard College temporarily suspended Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) on Wednesday for the remainder of the semester and students will face expulsion if they continue to operate.

Harvard College informed the group via email that it was temporarily suspended for failing to register a protest and violating guidelines on the responsible use of space. The group had been on probation since March. 

“The organization will not be recognized and will not have access to university benefits and services during this time, including but not limited to use of campus space and appropriate use of the Harvard name,” reads an email from Harvard College, reviewed by the student-run publication The Harvard Crimson. “If the organization continues to operate and commits additional violations during this suspension, the organization risks permanent expulsion, as provided in the Resource Guide.”

“For the past 6 months, PSC has faced unprecedented repression — doxxing, racist harassment, and targeted administrative crackdowns — as we’ve protested the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the student group said in a statement announcing its suspension.

The PSC was an organizer of a protest with more than 200 people that occurred on Friday at Harvard Yard. The demonstration featured speeches from members of the PSC, the African and African American Resistance Organization, Law Students for a Free Palestine, and the unofficial Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions caucus of Harvard’s graduate-student union. The college’s email informing the PSC of suspension cited the Friday protest as failing to abide by school policies. 

On Sunday, Harvard restricted access to Harvard Yard for university-ID holders. A sign posted on the gates warned that blocking pathways or access to buildings is prohibited, and students violating such policies would be subject to disciplinary action. 

The Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine released a statement condemning the college’s decision and calling for the undergraduate group to be reinstated. 

“For the past 7 months our students have been subjected to an escalating campaign of harassment, intimidation, and racist hate speech, and targeted by some of the University’s wealthiest and most powerful donors and politicians,” the faculty and staff group said in a statement. “The university has summarily disposed of academic freedom and constitutionally protected freedoms of dissent in an effort to silence students for speaking out against apartheid, occupation and genocide.”

The PSC can apply for reinstatement if it abides by its suspension, according to The Crimson.  

The suspension comes as pro-Palestinian demonstrations have caused chaos on other elite college campuses. More than 150 students were arrested at New York University Monday night for refusing to disperse after being ordered to do so by police, the NYPD said in a statement. At Columbia, classes were held remotely as pro-Palestinian students continued to demonstrate and refused to vacate the encampment they’d set up days earlier on the university quad.

Dozens of students were also arrested at Yale Monday morning after refusing to vacate a pro-Palestinian encampment. After the initial arrests on campus, a group of students blocked traffic in New Haven, the Yale Daily News reported.

Harvard College did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. The last day for spring-term classes is April 24, and commencement is scheduled for May 23.