After NYU said it would proceed with disciplinary action against protesters at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment — citing students’ failure to respond in negotiations and decision to remain at the demonstration — NYU’s Palestine Solidarity Coalition and faculty mediators denied the university’s account of student meetings with administrators, calling it “disingenuous” and “misleading.” NYU PSC also said negotiations are currently “at a standstill.”
In a statement yesterday afternoon, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said protesters had agreed to leave the encampment in exchange for “many hours of discussion” with administrators on Saturday, and that “students failed to honor that promise.” Beckman cited a last-minute decision “that all demands must be met as well” for students to leave the encampment as having caused negotiations to fall through on Saturday. He said the decision came at the insistence of “others, including, we believe, outsiders.”
Beckman also said that the next day, NYU gave protesters two options: to cease overnight stays at the encampment and proceed with discussions, or continue staying overnight and face conduct charges. According to his statement, students did not respond to the university’s proposals.
In a statement in response to the university, NYU PSC challenged Beckman’s account of events, saying student organizers had discussed all four of their demands from the beginning of negotiations. Protesters’ demands include the disclosure of the university’s investments, divestment from companies with ties to Israel, the closure of NYU Tel Aviv, the removal of police from campus and the pardoning of disciplinary action taken against pro-Palestinian protesters.
NYU PSC said the university had offered to disclose its investments and pardon the protesters arrested at Gould Plaza if demonstrators agreed to leave the current encampment during the nighttime, but that student protesters refused. The group also said negotiations are currently “at a standstill.”
“The students have made it clear what the only appropriate resolution is,” NYU PSC’s statement reads. “We will not de-escalate, we will not de-camp and we will not rest until this university cuts every last tie, monetary or otherwise, from the Zionist project.”
Three faculty mediators who were present at the negotiations backed much of NYU PSC’s account of events in a letter to administrators. The professors said the university’s statement misinterpreted communications about student organizers’ decision-making process as involvement by “outsiders” in negotiations. They called for NYU to issue an apology for and retract its statement on the negotiations.
“We also note that this is the second time since Monday April 22, 2024, that NYU has released an official statement describing events in tendentious ways without accurate information,” the letter reads. “At best, this pattern of misrepresentation demonstrates incompetent communication among senior administration. At worst, it indicates a reckless and calculated disregard to the safety and well-being of our students.”
An NYU spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Contact Carmo Moniz at [email protected].
