The 50 or so pro-Palestinian demonstrators picketing outside Columbia University’s main gates on the first day of the semester urged students to boycott classes and handed out fliers accusing Columbia of being complicit in genocide.

But the lines to enter campus stretched longer than the picket line. Inside the gates, students lounged in the sun and the university’s new interim president served ice cream. The mass show of support for the demonstrators, which caused Columbia to largely shut down its central campus in the spring, was not yet evident.

Even the day’s boldest disruption, the splashing of red paint on Columbia’s iconic statue, Alma Mater, was cleaned up by the university within hours. Some had predicted there would be a new encampment on Day 1, but from the administration’s perspective the start of the semester went relatively smoothly.

School administrators, at Columbia and around the country, have been preparing for this moment all summer. There are new protest rules and new security measures. At Columbia, only people with valid IDs can enter the main campus. Students who didn’t have one on Tuesday had to wait in long lines. Some grumbled about the inconvenience.

The anti-Israel rhetoric at the protests continued and disturbed some students who walked by. “There is only one solution, intifada revolution,” the protesters chanted.