Around 20 students picketed outside NYU’s Finance Committee meeting run by the board of trustees on Tuesday, where they demanded that the university divest from companies with ties to Israel amid tenuous ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas following the war in Gaza. 

The picket, organized by NYU’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, took place outside the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World on 84th Street. Protesters approached the trustees — each accompanied by four to five Campus Safety officers — as they left the building, asking them to briefly meet with students to discuss the school’s investments. Hamza, an NYU Law student at the demonstration, told WSN that while he approached trustees “civilly,” they still dismissed his requests.

“Trustees are being escorted out by gaggles of officers as if they’re expecting to be mugged or something,” Hamza said. “It’s a shame to see this kind of refusal to conversation, especially when the protesters have been portrayed as irrational and rabid.”

Four police officers observed as the group circled the building’s entrance while chanting, “Trustees, trustees, look at me, we will fight till Gaza’s free” and “Trustees, what trust have you earned, windows shut while Gaza burns.” Around an hour into the protest, students and faculty were unable to enter the building through its turnstiles.

After several trustees, not including President Linda Mills, left through the front door, the protesters dispersed. Hamza cited allegations that Mills had maintained close relations with a parent who has repeatedly called for the university to reprimand pro-Palestinian protesters — criticizing that students had not received similar transparency in communication from the university president.

“Myself and other students have sent multiple emails requesting meetings with the administration, and have been ignored,” Hamza said. “Students don’t know how else to prompt this conversation.”

Contact Alex Woodworth at [email protected].