University of Chicago faculty call on administration to resume negotiations with pro-Palestinian protesters
The University of Chicago Faculty for Justice in Palestine on Monday reaffirmed support for the “peaceful, welcoming and educational space” students had created and called on school leadership to return to “good-faith” negotiations.
Flanked by other professors, University of Chicago professor Faith Hillis speaks during a news conference on campus Monday about the pro-Palestinian encampment in the university’s quad.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
A coalition of over 120 faculty and academic staff from the University of Chicago on Monday called on the school’s administration to resume negotiations with the pro-Palestinian encampment organizers.
University of Chicago Faculty for Justice in Palestine said administrators suspended negotiations Sunday and issued a midnight deadline to dismantle the encampment on the university’s main quadrangle. Dozens of faculty say they went to the encampment at midnight to protect students, but no action was taken.
UChicago United organizers established the encampment seven days ago — joining hundreds of other students across the country — to express support for the Palestinian people and call on the university to disclose its financial investments and to divest from “death in Gaza, the South Side and beyond.”
Speaking at a news conference Monday in front of the encampment, members of the faculty coalition reaffirmed their support for the “peaceful, welcoming, and educational space” students had created on the quadrangle and called on school leadership to return to “good-faith” negotiations.
University of Chicago assistant professor Eman Abdelhadi speaks during a news conference Monday about the pro-Palestine encampment in the university’s quad.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Faculty made clear Monday they will step in if law enforcement moves on the encampment and the students residing there, regardless of possible disciplinary action from the university.
“If the university brings police against our students, we will be there,” said Eman Abdelhadi, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development. “When genocide is happening … we are no more afraid for our jobs than people in Gaza are afraid to lose their tent, which replaced their home, which replaced their other home. Our fear pales in comparison.”
Abdelhadi, the only Palestinian faculty member, has joined student organizers in negotiations with the administration. Organizers say they were able to get the university to agree to establish a Gaza Scholars at Risk program that would bring eight Palestinian scholars to work and study at the school before conversations ceased Sunday.
A University of Chicago spokesperson said Sunday that no concessions have been made, noting there is already a Scholars at Risk program that people in Gaza can apply to.
The university also claimed it “sent no such communication” about a midnight deadline.
However, faculty members said Monday that the administration verbalized the midnight deadline in the negotiation room and would not provide information on what would happen if it were not followed.
Abdelhadi said they prepared for the worst because “the university has a history of arresting students and faculty.” About six months ago, the University of Chicago Police Department arrested UChicago United protesters, including two faculty members, who were engaged in a sit-in inside Rosenwald Hall.
Pro-Palestinian protesters on Monday at the encampment in the quad at the University of Chicago.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Over the weekend nearly 70 protesters were arrested at a pro-Palestinian encampment set up outside the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Any action to remove the University of Chicago encampment or its inhabitants would be “indefensible,” said Elham Mireshghi, an assistant instructional professor in the Divinity School.
“This was and is an educational and political endeavor, protected by the First Amendment. It should be especially safeguarded at UChicago, an institution dedicated to the free and open exchange of ideas,” Mireshghi said. “As faculty members, we will protect the safety of our students if the administration attempts to violently remove them, even if that means arrest and detention.”
University President Paul Alivisatos has claimed the encampment creates a “systematic disruption” on campus, but faculty vehemently disagreed.
Faith Hillis, a professor of Russian studies and faculty board member at the Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies, said the encampment is “above all, a place of learning,” hosting multiple teach-ins each day and engaging with fellow students, faculty and community members.
Any action to remove the University of Chicago encampment or its inhabitants would be “indefensible,” said Elham Mireshghi, an assistant instructional professor in the Divinity School.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
“Since the first day of the encampment, the university has threatened it with violent dispersal and the charge that it violates university statutes that bar disruption,” Hillis said. “But it is, in fact, the genius of this encampment is that it is not truly disruptive to the university’s operations in any meaningful way — it is outdoors, and orderly and peaceful, and, as I said, an integral part of our learning environments.”
“I implore our president and our university leaders to come back to the bargaining table in good faith and listen to our smart and courageous students and learn what they have to say,” she said.
University officials have not released any additional information on negotiations. In a statement Sunday, the administration wrote, “Unfortunately, the requests of the protesters were inconsistent with the University’s principles.”
About 20 miles north, pro-Palestinian protesters at Northwestern University were able to reach an agreement with administrators. The deal requires the university to disclose information about any investments to people associated with the university within 30 days of an inquiry, to re-establish a committee with student representatives to advise on investments and to fully fund tuition for five Palestinian undergraduate students, among other agreements — in exchange for the encampment being reduced to one aid tent.
At DePaul University, an encampment remains in the main quad of the school’s Lincoln Park campus. University officials say they have requested a meeting Monday with the DePaul Divest Coalition.
Doctors at Advocate Medical Group say the organization has fallen short in responding to ongoing humanitarian crises in Gaza, especially compared to donated aid and calls for peace after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Around 5 p.m. Friday, a large group of protesters had surrounded the Institute of Politics. Shortly after that, a group of police officers, equipped with riot shields, burst into the building and scuffled with protesters.
The encampment at the Lincoln Park campus had been been in place since April 30. The action came after school officials said they had reached an impasse with the protesters.
Students and faculty walked out of class to gather at the pro-Palestinian encampment and call for divestment from companies doing business with Israel.
The cancellation of the end-of-school-year music festival comes days after the university said it has reached a stalemate in negotiations with organizers of a pro-Palestinian encampment.
On Tuesday, Chicago’s Jewish community celebrated Israel declaring its independence 76 years ago, on May 14, 1948. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered across the plaza. There were a few altercations, but no arrests were made.
The flags, along with signs and banners, had been placed on Deering Meadow, where a pro-Palestine encampment stood for five days before organizers reached an agreement with university administration.
The Israel-Hamas war is heightening fears of unrest, but convention leaders say they’re confident in their partnerships with Mayor Brandon Johnson, Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling and the U.S. Secret Service.
In a press conference at the school Thursday morning, students criticized university president Paul Alivisatos and shared their experiences when police began emptying the encampment early Tuesday.
Rafah has become the most recent focus of Israel’s military, which describes it as Hamas’ last holdout. Chicago-based Dr. John Kahler has seen conditions deteriorate as Gazan refugees fled south to the city.
En la madrugada del martes, agentes del campus rodearon el patio principal de la universidad y les impidieron la entrada a los estudiantes, según informaron desde el lugar de los hechos.
One protester said they were hit by an officer and taken to Thorek Memorial Hospital for treatment, according to a complaint filed with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Reality on the ground is different from what policymakers understand in war rooms, far from the constant sound of bombs and drones, a Chicago-area doctor who has volunteered in Gaza writes. Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian American, walked out of a meeting with President Joe Biden about a month ago and is calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
After Oct. 7, chairs with the photos of hostages seized in Israel by Hamas were placed outside Am Shalom synagogue in Glencoe, waiting for the hostages’ release. “Our 248 chairs will stay up as long as they have to,” Am Shalom’s senior rabbi writes.
The group the People’s Art Institute accused law enforcement of yanking people’s hair, strangling them, and hitting people with batons and metal fences at the Saturday protest.
Around daybreak Tuesday, campus officers surrounded the university’s main quadrangle and kept students from entering, according to reports from the scene.
Según los informes, en el campus de Lincoln Park de DePaul los contra manifestantes intentaron enfrentarse a los manifestantes, pero los pro palestinos utilizaron tácticas de desescalada para mantener la paz. En todo el país se ha detenido a más de 2,500 manifestantes desde el 18 de abril.
An official familiar with Israeli thinking says Israeli officials are examining the cease-fire proposal approved by Hamas. But the official warns that the plan “is not the framework Israel proposed.”
Counterprotesters at DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus reportedly tried to clash with pro-Palestinian protesters. Nationwide, more than 2,500 protesters have been arrested since April 18.
Police said the museum asked them to clear the encampment on Saturday, hours after organizers set up tents in the Art Institute’s North Garden which they said were intended to pressure the school regarding the “occupation of Palestine.”
On a mostly peaceful day, tensions briefly bubbled over when counter-protesters confronted the demonstrators at the university’s Edward Levi Hall. An altercation prompted campus police to respond.
Las protestas contra la guerra han invadido los campus universitarios en las últimas semanas. Los estudiantes apoyan a los palestinos en los ataques de Israel contra Gaza, denuncian lo que llaman censura por parte de sus universidades y piden a las instituciones que dejen de invertir en fabricantes de armas y empresas que apoyan a Israel.
Tensions were higher Tuesday when hundreds of New York police officers raided Columbia University and City College of New York while a group of counterprotesters attacked a student encampment at UCLA.
“I remember coming out of my apartment one day and spotting Chicago cops dragging young protesters out of one section of Lincoln Park and shoving them into trucks, while nearby poet Allen Ginsberg was chanting in a circle of peaceful protesters not far away from the radical Abby Hoffman,” remembers Dan Webb, who later became a U.S. attorney.
Bulls PR confirmed an ESPN report Saturday that Unseld Jr. was set to join the coaching staff. Expect the search to fill one more vacancy to continue as Billy Donovan adds big names to sit next to him.
