Northwestern agrees to students’ ‘clear set of demands’, both sides negotiating in good faith

Northwestern agrees to students’ ‘clear set of demands’, both sides negotiating in good faith

well the ongoing uh war in Gaza has triggered significant unrest on American University campuses overnight violent clashes broke out on the campus of UCLA that in California after counter demonstrators attacked a pro Palestinian encampment footage from local television shows items being thrown at the encampment and fireworks set off as well well our correspondent Wasim cor was there during the night during that unrest and he told us a bit about what he saw it is the calm after the storm here at the UCLA campus after a night of chaos shortly after 11:00 Tuesday night a group of dozens of pro-israeli supporters coming to campus to attack the pro Palestinian Camp you can see behind me that has been here for about a week or so for many hours throwing wooden projectiles water bottles uh traffic cones and even fireworks at some of those tents meanwhile Pro Palestinian students retaliating some of them using for example fire extinguishers to repel that attack but the question on everybody’s Minds this morning is why did it take the Los Angeles Police Department more than 3 hours to intervene all this while several Pro Palestinian students had been injured by some of those projectiles some some by pepper spray and that all of this was being broadcast live on local television as for the camp itself on Tuesday the LAPD did Issue an order that saying that this Camp would now be considered an unlawful Gathering and that anyone found here would be subject to arrest but the police so far has not made any decision to dismantle those tents that’s Wasim K reporting for us from UCLA in California and several hours before that violence erupted on the other side of the country in New York police evicted a pro Palestinian encampment from a building at Colombia University more than 100 people were arrested there you the occupation of Hamilton Hall lasted less than a day for weeks New York City’s Columbia University has been a hot spot for pro Palestinian protests but when students barricaded themselves inside an academic building it was a step too far for authorities under shouts from protesters outside NYPD officers in riot gear entered via a ramp to a first floor window they cleared the site and arrested dozens of protesters from inside and outside restraining them with zip tie handcuffs and loading them onto buses Columbia’s president has asked the NYPD to stay on campus we have word from the University that the police will remain on campus until May 17th so at least until the rest of this semester and possibly further we will see lasting implications from the events that are happening tonight police should not interfere the NY PD claimed a significant number of protesters were not students or faculty members we are seeing professional external actors getting involved in these protests including in the occupation of a university building these people are not Columbia students they are not affiliated with the university and they are working to escalate the situation the university spokesperson has accused the protesters of creating a threatening and unsafe environment for Jewish students free the students fre the students the aim of the protests is to show solidarity with gazin and to call for a ceasefire but they’re also intended to put pressure on University authorities activists accuse the University of being complicit in genocide as the administration rejects demands to divest from companies linked to Israel threats of arrest or suspension from University have not deterred the protesters they’re vowing to continue their action now in sharp contrast to the violent scenes at UCLA and at Colombia is what’s been happening at Northwestern University in Chicago their management reached a deal with students on Monday the pro Palestinian encampment is to be dismantled in exchange funding for five Palestinian undergraduates and two Palestinian faculty so will the deal there quell the unrest are the protesters Jewish students others on campus happy with the agreement joining me live now to tell us a bit more is Jacob Wendler he’s the editor of the newspaper there the daily Northwest and thanks very much indeed for talking to us today good to hear your perspective on all of this yeah thanks for having me can I just ask you first of all this deal was agreed on Monday of this week how would you say the mood is on campus now yeah I would say it certainly still tends I think that there’s some relief um that a deal was reached but I don’t think people feel like this is the end of demonstrations or activism on campus and I think there are a lot of people who are unhappy with the deal um a lot of folks feel like the activists should have pushed harder for their um full goals including divestment from companies linked to Israel and a lot of people feel that the university shouldn’t have reach a deal at all so there’s a lot of discontent right let’s unpack some of that a little bit then because one of the demands from those who were holding the encampment was that uh the university divested from companies that profited from the war Gaza is it fair to say that that demand wasn’t met in this deal that would be fair to say Yes um the two agreements that were included in the the final deal with regard to Investments are one related to disclosure so the university agreed to answer questions from internal stakeholders about Investments it’s not clear yet how much information that means they’ll be willing to give up and the second thing is they said they’ll reestablish an advisory committee on investment responsibility um which in the past has recommended that the University divest from companies related to fossil fuels and last time the Board of Trustees rejected that proposal so that’s an opportunity for students to give some input on investments but there’s no necessity that the university take those recommendations and not just at Northwestern but at other universities in the United States in the past couple of weeks we have heard that there are some Jewish students who don’t feel particularly safe while these encampments have been held now that a deal has been secured where you are at Northwestern do those Jewish students feel safer um I think that you know there there’s a lot of different feelings among the Jewish community at Northwestern both within Jewish voice for peace which was one of the pro Palestinian groups that was a part of the Coalition organizing the encampment and then other Jewish faes on campus like H um which put out a statement yesterday saying they were unhappy that the university came to a deal with these protesters um but I think that there’s definitely a sense of relief that the encampment has been deescalate right because I was reading um some of the descriptions of what was happening at the campus by the American Jewish committee and the Anti-Defamation League for the Midwest there and this is a quote I’m going to read you here saying the university quote succumbed to the demands of a mob I mean that’s quite strong language isn’t it I assume you’ve been reporting on campus quite a bit in the past couple of days is that a fair description of what those protests were before the deal was it a mob yes so we have seen quite a bit of outrage from from um Jewish organizations like the A and the ADL and the director of the ADL Midwest was here the other day for to engage in a pro-israel counter protester um I think that there’s you know V various characterizations from the time that we spent we had reporters on the ground 247 and I would say that the demonstration remained largely peaceful um lots of uh Palestinian dancing and chanting music praying um speaker events but there were definitely times that we saw moments of higher tension including in interactions with protesters and police indeed and again at other universities in the United States there have been claims on both sides that there are people who aren’t students taking part uh in these clashes on Camp campuses in tensions is that something that your reporters have witnessed at Northwestern it is yeah it’s it’s hard to get a particular say on exactly how many people at the encampment were affiliated with the university um but the size of the group certainly abbed and flowed I would say it hit its PE Thursday evening at a rally when there were probably well over a thousand people there um and it seemed just to the eye that a lot of those people appeared unaffiliated with the university um we also saw a counter protest a few days ago and a lot of those people were some some were parents in alumni but the majority of them were not students um so I would say there were folks definitely coming in especially from like the Chicago activist Community to support the encampment but the majority of the people who were both organizing it and sleeping there overnight intents did appear to be students and just a final question I think I’m right in saying that only Northwestern University has secured a compromis deal like this why do you think a deal was able to get done at this University given that so many other campuses seem so far from that kind of consensus yeah I think there’s a few reasons I think that the main one is probably that both sides agreed to negotiate in good faith from the start um the administration clearly did not want to have to send in the police seeing how much bad press that had brought University like Columbia when they sent in with the mypd um and the negotiators for the students also had a clear set of Demands um and they were offered many demands that they’ve been pushing for for years including a an affinity space on campus for Muslim and middle eastern North African students and more disclosure around Investments um and just felt like this was a deal that they couldn’t pass up I think that the University president who’s fairly new also has um you know formed a lot of his career around his commitment to free speech and his commitment to the Chicago principles back when he was the dean of the University Chicago’s law school so I think he had an interest as well in making sure that the resolution to this was something that he felt aligned with his values of protecting Free Speech Jacob Wendler the editor of the daily Northwestern great to talk to you thanks very much indeed

For five days, the shouts of student protesters and supporters rang out from Northwestern University’s Deering Meadow as they joined demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war unfolding on college campuses nationwide. But the meadow on the suburban Chicago campus fell silent hours after student organizers and the school announced an agreement late Monday to curb protest activity in return for the reestablishment of an advisory committee on university investments and other commitments. By quickly defusing the protests in Evanston and avoiding the longer standoffs that happened on other campuses, the agreement at Northwestern offered an example of successful negotiations between anti-war demonstrators and administrators. Brown University announced a similar deal. Still, the arrangement drew dissent from both sides. Protesters condemned the Northwestern agreement as a failure to stick to students’ original demands while some supporters of Israel said the deal represented “cowardly” capitulation to protesters. As Northwestern swiftly reaches a deal with student protesters, and a way forward, FRANCE 24’s Nadia Massih is joined by The Daily Northwestern’s Editor in Chief Jacob Wendler.

🔔 Subscribe to France 24 now: https://f24.my/YTen
🔴 LIVE – Watch FRANCE 24 English 24/7 here: https://f24.my/YTliveEN

🌍 Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https://www.france24.com/en/

Like us on Facebook: https://f24.my/FBen
Follow us on X (Twitter): https://f24.my/Xen
Browse the news in pictures on Instagram: https://f24.my/IGen
Discover our TikTok videos: https://f24.my/TKen
Get the latest top stories on Telegram: https://f24.my/TGen