On Thursday morning, a few hours after members of the Portland Police Bureau cleared Millar Library of the pro-Palestinian protesters who had taken over the building on Portland State University’s campus, the sense of relief emanating from the school’s president of 10 months, Ann Cudd, was palpable.
True, she had not been able to negotiate her way out of the conflict with protesters without having to call in law enforcement, unlike a small handful of other universities around the country that managed to convince student activists to stand down.