MIT President Sally Kornbluth told pro-Palestinian protesters to leave the campus encampment by 2:30 p.m. on Monday. Students will face immediate academic suspension if they don’t disperse, and the punishment will be harsher if they’ve already been sanctioned by the school’s discipline committee.

At Harvard, interim president Alan Garber told protesters they need to end their encampment in Harvard Yard or face consequences including suspension.

“The continuation of the encampment presents a significant risk to the educational environment of the university,” Garber said in a statement. “Those who participate in or perpetuate its continuation will be referred for involuntary leave from their schools.”

Colleges from the East Coast to California and Texas are cracking down after weeks of escalating protests spurred by the Israel-Hamas war. Columbia University canceled its main commencement ceremony after ordering a police raid last week in which more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested, including dozens who had occupied a campus building.

In Los Angeles, the University of Southern California also canceled its main graduation event, opting instead for smaller ceremonies because of safety concerns.

Harvard’s first commencement event is scheduled for May 21 in Harvard Yard. Protesters there set a 5 p.m. deadline Monday to begin talks over “their demands that Harvard disclose and divest from investments and companies in Israel and the West Bank,” the Harvard Crimson reported.

So far, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school hasn’t sent in police to clear the encampments, as peers such as Columbia, Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia have done.

Harvard’s police department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Cambridge police said they haven’t dedicated resources to the encampment protests but have been meeting regularly with campus police from Harvard and MIT.

“The recent protests have been on university property and handled by their police departments,” said Robert Goulston, a spokesman for the Cambridge Police Department.

Garber said students placed on involuntary leave may not be able to sit for exams or continue to live in Harvard housing, and “must cease to be present on campus until reinstated.”

“The right to free speech, including protest and dissent, is vital to the work of the research university,” he said. “But it is not unlimited.”