Striking deals to end campus protests, some colleges invite discussion of their investments
NEW YORK — Antiwar demonstrations ceased this week at a small number of U.S. universities after school leaders struck deals with pro-Palestinian protesters, fending off possible disruptions of final exams and graduation ceremonies.
The agreements at schools including Brown, Northwestern and Rutgers stand out amid the chaotic scenes and 2,300-plus arrests on 44 campuses across the nation since April 17. Tent encampments and building takeovers have disrupted classes at some schools, including Columbia and UCLA.
Deals included commitments by universities to at least review their investments in Israel or to hear calls to stop doing business with the Middle Eastern nation, a longtime U.S. ally. Many protester demands have zeroed in on links to the Israeli military as the Israel-Hamas war grinds on in Gaza.
The agreements to even discuss divestment mark a major step on an issue that has been controversial for years, with opponents of a long-running campaign to boycott Israel saying it veers into antisemitism. But while the colleges have made concessions around amnesty for protesters and funding for Middle Eastern studies, they have made no promises about changing their investments.
Israel-Hamas war: In Qatar’s capital, a compound housing Palestinian medical evacuees from Gaza is a living catalog of what war does to the human body.
Israel has branded the protests antisemitic, while Israel’s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, protest organizers — some of whom are Jewish — call it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest the war.
President Biden on Thursday defended the right of students to peaceful protest but decried the disorder of recent days.
The University of Minnesota reopened Thursday after administrators said they had reached an agreement to end an encampment in the heart of the Minneapolis campus.
People across Gaza sent thanks to students protesting on U.S. campuses against Israel; Israeli leaders characterized the demonstrators as ‘pro-Palestinian mobs.’
Interim President Jeff Ettinger said demonstrators agreed not to disrupt final exams or commencements. In return, student organizations can address the university’s board at a meeting next week, where protesters are expected to demand divestment from Israel.
“While there is more work to do, and conversations are still planned with other student groups affected by the painful situation in Palestine, I am heartened by today’s progress,” Ettinger said in a statement.
Demonstrators at Rutgers University — where finals were paused amid protests on its New Brunswick, N.J., campus — packed up their tents Thursday afternoon.
The state university agreed to establish an Arab Cultural Center and to not retaliate against any students involved in the protest camp.
In a statement, Chancellor Francine Conway noted protesters’ request for divestment from companies doing business with Israel and for Rutgers to cut ties with Tel Aviv University. She said the request is under review, but “such decisions fall outside of our administrative scope.”
Protesters at Brown University in Rhode Island agreed to dismantle their pro-Palestinian encampment Tuesday. School officials said students could present arguments to divest Brown’s endowment from companies contributing to and profiting from the war in Gaza.
In addition, Brown President Christina Paxson will ask an advisory committee to make a recommendation on divestment by Sept. 30, which will be brought before the school’s governing corporation for a vote in October.
Northwestern’s Deering Meadow in suburban Chicago also fell silent after Monday’s agreement. The deal curbed protest activity in return for the reestablishment of an advisory committee on university investments and other commitments.
The arrangement drew dissent from both sides. Some pro-Palestinian protesters condemned it as a failure to stick to their original demands, while some supporters of Israel said it represented “cowardly” capitulation.
Law enforcement fired ‘less-lethal’ rounds as the UCLA encampment was cleared, and protesters say they ‘connected with heads and hands.’
Seven of 18 members resigned from a university committee that advises the administration on addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia and expressions of hatred on campus. They said they felt unable to continue serving “with antisemitism so present at Northwestern in public view for the past week.”
Michael Simon, the executive director of an organization for Jewish students, Northwestern Hillel, said he resigned after concluding the committee could not achieve its goals.
Meanwhile, arrests of demonstrators continued at other schools.
About a dozen protesters who refused police orders to leave a tent encampment at New York University were arrested early Friday, and about 30 more left voluntarily, according to NYU spokesperson John Beckman. The school asked the New York Police Department to intervene, Beckman said.
NYPD officers also cleared an encampment at the New School in Greenwich Village. Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry posted on X that the school asked the department to disperse the protesters. No arrests were announced.
Classes will proceed as scheduled Friday, he said. A larger NYU encampment protesting over the Israel-Hamas war was dismantled on April 22 and more than 130 protesters were arrested.
President Biden defended the right to free speech but says ‘order must prevail’ on college campuses across the country.
Video posted by Daughtry showed dozens of helmeted officers massed outside the school on lower Fifth Avenue. No details on arrests at the New School were immediately released. Messages seeking comment were sent to the school.
Meanwhile, at the State University of New York at New Paltz, police said 133 people were arrested Thursday night as a pro-Palestinian encampment was broken up. University President Darrell P. Wheeler said administrators had hoped to avoid the removal, but it became necessary.
The tiny Persian Gulf nation initially had success persuading Hamas to give up hostages. Critics claim its influence and commitment have diminished.
Earlier in the week, more than 100 people were taken into custody during a crackdown at Columbia University. The encampment at Columbia, set up April 17, inspired a wave of similar encampments nationwide over the Israel-Hamas war.
The demonstrations began at Columbia with students calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there. Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on Oct. 7 and took roughly 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel.
Associated Press journalists Carolyn Thompson, Kavish Harjai, Krysta Fauria, Leslie Ambriz, John Antczak, Lisa Baumann, Jae C. Hong, Colleen Long, Sarah Brumfield, Philip Marcelo, Steve Karnowski, Cedar Attanasio and Gene Johnson contributed to this report.
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