Student, faculty, and public protestors come together at Washington Square Park near New York University on April 23, the day after NYU leaders directed the NYPD to arrest over 130 protestors.
The majority of protesting students are calling for their institutions to disclose their investments and to divest from any funding or connections with Israel, whether that’s through military defense contracts or in partnership with Israeli institutions. These protests have arisen in response to the Israeli war waged in Palestinian territory, which has killed roughly 35,000 people, 14,500 of which are children.
Many institutions, like Columbia University, the University of Texas at Austin, The University of California Los Angeles, the University of South Florida, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and more, have sent in police departments and state troopers to discharge these camps and protestors. Footage has been captured of police using tear gas and physical force against these students. Injured students have posted selfies on their social media of wounds inflicted by rubber bullets. In total, more than 2,400 arrests reportedly have been made on campuses, including students and faculty members of all races, genders, and religions.
But a few other institutions have chosen non-physical means of compromise. Brown University and Northwestern University (NU) made concessions to their students to end their encampments. NU has agreed to create a culturally supportive space for Middle East/North African (MENA) and Muslim students. It will also consider more culturally appropriate food in their dining halls. But they have not agreed to divest or disclose.
Brown, meanwhile, has agreed to consider divestment proposals, but will wait until October for a final vote on the matter. Brown and NU declined requests for comment and deferred to their pre-written statements.
Dr. Dexter Gordon, executive vice president of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.
“Ultimately, the goal is to build trust, promote inclusivity and create a supportive environment where student voices are valued and respected,” said Gordon.
TESC has agreed to consider “our socially responsible investment or divestment policies, and grant policies,” said Gordon. TESC has also charged a task force to reconstitute a civilian oversight board for their police department and a task force to “envision alternative models of crisis response and de-escalation.”
TESC was joined by Sacramento State University on Wednesday afternoon, when its institutional leaders agreed to investigate and divest from Israel-related funding.
These institutional responses stand in stark contrast to The University of Michigan (U-M), where protests (and subsequent arrests) began as early as November.
“Forty students were arrested during a sit-in of the administration building here [on Nov. 7],” said Dr. Charles H. F. Davis III, an assistant professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education and Postsecondary Education at U-M. “Several students were brutalized, and there were, I think, 10 different police jurisdictions represented at that arrest, which definitely included the university police, but also state police, local Ann Arbor police, and Eastern Michigan University’s police were deployed.”
Michigan is also home to one of the largest Muslim populations in Dearborn, the first Arab-majority city within the U.S. U-M has a branch campus in Dearborn.
“So, you can imagine, the inability or unwillingness of the institution to acknowledge the suffering of Palestinians, especially in this particular moment, is taken with great offense,” said Davis.
U-M students were not deterred by the November police action. They set up their own encampment in April. Davis has been in U-M’s encampment several times, even offering teach-ins to the students there. He said he found it to be a peaceful and educational environment. His experience confirms findings from Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, an organization that collects real-time data on political violence and protests around the world. Their study confirms that 99% of pro-Palestinian campus protests have been peaceful.
“Nothing violent has happened until police have showed up,” said Davis.
Police response, Davis said, has become tantamount to “best practice in higher education.” But, he added, peacefully formed agreements can be the equivalent of kicking the can down the road in hopes that students will lose their protest momentum.
Dr. Charles H. F. Davis III, , assistant professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan.
Once again, TESC’s agreement has a different tone. At TESC, students who are part of the Evergreen’s Geoduck Student Union will have the opportunity to sit on the Senior Leadership Team at the college, which will be investigating the process of divestment this quarter in cooperation with three members of the student union, members of faculty, and the administration, said Dexter.
“The conversation with student protestors began almost immediately after the first tent was erected on Red Square,” said Dexter. “As discussions progressed, we heard students’ concerns, grievances and desired outcomes. Over time, the conversation evolved as compromises were sought, solutions explored, and agreements negotiated. The process involved multiple rounds of dialogue, negotiation and mutual understanding to reach a resolution.”
While TESC has a police force, Dexter said there was no need to call for police to intervene, because the discussions had been peaceful.
Liann Herder can be reached at [email protected].
