Dozens of students sat in Bobst Library’s lobby for a study-in on Wednesday, demanding that NYU withdraw sanctions against all students and student workers who participated in a pro-Palestinian sit-in last semester and enforce its 2021 commitment to protecting international and immigrant community members. 

NYU’s graduate student worker union, GSOC-UAW Local 2110, organized the demonstration, which lasted almost three hours. Participants sat silently on the library’s first floor, wearing keffiyehs and displaying cardboard signs reading phrases such as “NYU, SHAME ON YOU” and “NO BUSINESS AS USUAL DURING GENOCIDE.” 

Jonah Inserra, the co-chair of GSOC’s organizing committee, told WSN that over a dozen Campus Safety officers and administrators from the Office of the Dean of Students monitored the study-in. Inserra said that one administrator had approached the demonstration and unsuccessfully told the group to disperse. After about half an hour, the group complied with the administrator’s request to remove a sign taped to a lamp in the library because it had allegedly violated the university’s conduct policy. 

The union chose to hold a study-in to recognize and display solidarity with the 13 protesters facing suspension following a sit-in during finals week last semester, according to Inserra. He said that at the December demonstration, NYU suspended two GSOC members and placed one member on probation. 

“This was to demonstrate to NYU that this is not in any way worthy of reprisal or punishment,” Inserra said. “And to drive home the point that the people who are already under sanction absolutely deserve a reprieve and to have those sanctions overturned.” 

GSOC specifically called on NYU to honor a section of the union’s 2021 collective bargaining agreement detailing the university’s commitment “regarding the protection of the privacy” of all community members. The section, entitled “Protections for International and Immigrant Workers,” stipulated that NYU will not “not voluntarily provide information to governmental agencies that would enable them to target” people based on their immigration status, nor allow governmental agency representatives to enter campus building “without permission or legal process.”  

The union also demanded that NYU “cease cooperation and collusion with racist, non-university sanctioned groups.” Specifically, Inserra cited President Linda Mills’ close correspondence with an NYU parent and founder of the Facebook group Mothers Against Campus Antisemitism, who called for the deportation of international students and faculty in a social media post. 

Aashna Miharia contributed reporting.

Contact Amanda Chen at [email protected].