The University of Pennsylvania recently issued new temporary rules governing on-campus protests after chaos at anti-Israel demonstrations at the university led to the arrests of 33 protesters.

The new rules, which will be reviewed by a faculty-led committee during the next school year, ban encampments and overnight demonstrations “in any University location, regardless of space (indoor or outdoor).”

“Unauthorized overnight activities will be considered trespassing and addressed,” the rules say. 

This is the first time the university’s guidelines specifically prohibit encampments. The change comes after protesters set up a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus for more than two weeks during the spring semester before it was dissolved by university and city police.

The university will also prohibit projections on buildings and semi-permanent or permanent substances used on university surfaces after messages including “From river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,” were light-projected on several Penn buildings last November.

Tensions on campus began in September over the Palestine Writes literary festival, which featured several speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks. Then, after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel, donors argued that the university was not doing enough to protect Jewish students.

Former Penn president Liz Magill then resigned in December shortly after she testified at a congressional hearing and gave a troubling response when asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate university policy. She said it would be a “context-dependent decision” for UPenn. “If the speech becomes conduct. It can be harassment, yes,” she added.

Now, the new guidelines are intended to set parameters on “when, where, and how open expression” can take place on the campus, university officials said.

“The University aims to foster open and rigorous debate, to protect academic freedom and free speech, and to promote constructive discussion, even on the most challenging, sensitive, and controversial issues. Indeed, central to our mission is providing a platform upon which various viewpoints are expressed and encouraged,” the school said in its guiding principles for the mandates.

The new policy says protesters may not prevent visiting speakers from giving their scheduled presentations.

The temporary guidelines also include rules that were already in place, including a requirement that demonstrators give 48 hours’ notice ahead of a demonstration. The rules also reaffirm the university’s ban on climbing on or engaging in other protest activity on Penn sculptures or statues, after protesters vandalized Penn’s Benjamin Franklin statue during the encampment.

Demonstrators are also prohibited from erecting “structures, walls, barriers, sculptures, or other objects on university property without prior permission from the Vice Provost for University Life.” Protesters also may not occupy private offices or residences, classrooms, museums, or libraries.

A task force will review the university’s “open expression” guidelines over the next academic year and recommend more permanent guidelines — the first revision to its policy since 1989.

The overhaul comes after an update to the guidelines was recommended by the University’s Task Force on Antisemitism and the Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community in their respective reports last month.