As pro-Palestinian protests continue to rage across the country, Brown University officials and students set a rare example Tuesday. they made an agreement.
Demonstrators agreed to clear the cleared Brown encampment by Tuesday evening, and university leaders will discuss and then vote on divesting companies linked to Israeli military operations in Gaza. He said he would do it.
The agreement comes after protesters at U.S. universities, including protesters at Columbia University in New York and Portland State University in Oregon, occupied buildings, and protesters at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill replaced the American flag in the center of campus with a flag. The agreement was reached amid continued confusion. Palestinian stuff.
The crackdown on a pro-Palestinian camp in Columbia, New York, has sparked a chain reaction of student protests across the United States, with more than 1,000 people arrested in the past two weeks.
At Brown in Providence, Rhode Island, students began setting up tents on the main campus lawn Wednesday. Many said they planned to stay until they were forced to leave, adding that they were concerned about ending the violence in Gaza, not violating university policy.
After consultation with administrators, the Brown Divest Coalition said it, along with other pro-Palestinian groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, reached an agreement with the university over the Instagram post. The collective strength of university encampments across the country has forced university administrators to acknowledge overwhelming support for Palestine on their campuses. ”
The agreement sets out a series of steps for the coming months.
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In May, five students will meet with five members of the Brown University Corporation to advocate divestment from Israeli military-related companies.
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In September, Professor Brown's advisory committee on resource management will advise the university on the same issue.
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The committee's recommendations will be presented to businesses for a vote in October.
The Brown Divest Coalition said in a statement on Tuesday: “While the campaign is over, our commitment to organizing to ensure the Brown administration delivers on our demands for action on divestment continues through the business vote in October. “It will be done,” he said.
“This feels like a real moment of realization of our collective strength,” said Raffi Ash, a Brown University sophomore who attended the protest. “This is a demonstration of how student organizations can be mobilized to force universities to listen.”
Northwestern University administrators and student activists reached a similar agreement Monday.
But Brown's spokesman, Brian Clark, said the sale was not as simple as some students realized. The university says it does not invest the endowment directly. Instead, it relies on “external professional investment managers, all of whom we believe have the highest standards of ethics and share the values of the Brown community.”
Administrators said in a statement that they will continue to pursue disciplinary proceedings related to encampments that violate university regulations. Reports of harassment and discrimination will also be investigated, the statement said.
“The devastation and loss of life in the Middle East has led many to seek meaningful change, but also to be realistic about how best to achieve this,” Browns President Christina H. Paxson said in a statement. Issues were also raised,'' he said, adding that he had done so. She did not condone the camp and was concerned about its inflammatory rhetoric.
“We appreciate the sincere efforts of our students to take steps to prevent further escalation,” she said.
Gaya gupta Contributed to the report.