As tensions on US university campuses between student protesters, administrators and police remain high, faculty at the New School (which includes the top-ranked Parsons School of Design) have become the first in the nation to launch their own pro-Palestine encampment in the University Center building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The encampment was established on the morning of 8 May in response to events that unfolded over previous days on the university’s campus. Around seven tents have been set up in the building’s main lobby area, with signs featuring slogans such as “faculty against genocide” and “Jews for Palestine”.
As the New School enters the final few days of the spring semester, with graduation celebrations fast approaching, the encampment’s future remains uncertain. On 9 May, 12 people were arrested outside the building faculty members are occupying. The same day, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams visited the encampment and spoke in support of faculty members’ efforts. Other municipal officials, most notably New York’s mayor Eric Adams, have defended the actions of police officers in crackdowns on the city’s university campuses—which have included mass arrests of students at Columbia University, New York University, City College, Fashion Institute of Technology and the New School.
“The call from students and from Palestinians in Gaza is clear—we cannot give up, we must escalate and persevere to demand our universities divest, disclose and boycott from the war profiteers and institutions justifying and aiding the genocide in Gaza,” says a New School faculty member who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal.
The faculty protesters are calling on the university to divest from 13 weapons manufacturers that the school is invested in, an academic boycott of Israeli institutions, amnesty for students and staff punished by police and the university, and an end to the university’s collaboration with the NYPD. A vote was held last week at the New School in which 90% of the faculty voted in support of these demands.
“The students do not stand alone,” the faculty group said in a joint statement on 9 May. “Their demands for immediate divestment in companies complicit in Israel’s genocidal war––these are our demands, too. We call on the Investment Committee of The New School’s Board of Trustees to vote immediately to divest from companies that benefit directly or indirectly from the genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Palestine.”
The joint statement adds: “Every university in Gaza has been turned to rubble. As our students have taught us, we cannot in good conscience permit our campus to return to normal. As education workers, we refuse to be complicit in scholasticide and genocide.” The encampment is named for Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian professor, author and poet who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in December—his 2011 poem, “If I Must Die”, has become a fixture at pro-Palestine protests.
A New School faculty member who only provided his first name, Sunil, to Spectrum News NY1, said: “Faculty knew that we had to step up—not just to make sure that this could not happen again, but the students’ demands that they fought so hard for, risked their lives and their careers and futures, that was not in vain. I see dead children on my screen every day. I’m seeing bodies pile up in the streets. I’m seeing mass starvation. So what are you seeing and how is that acceptable?”
In a statement on 9 May, New School interim president Donna E. Shalala said the university will not pursue criminal charges against the student protesters who were arrested. She added that “we maintain our unshakeable commitment to free speech and peaceful assembly and demonstration. These values are the bedrock of our university, and while you may observe the New York Police Department periodically patrolling the neighbourhood near our campus, this is not at our request. The NYPD will not enter any university building without our consent… All our students deserve our support and respect.”
The establishment of the New School faculty encampment comes after most pro-Palestine encampments and campus building takeovers were either violently dispersed or voluntarily dismantled. At the Rhode Island School of Design, students ended their occupation of a campus building last week following a tense showdown with staff and university president Crystal Williams. Not far from the New School, at the Cooper Union, students and faculty held a pro-Palestine rally on 9 May.
