Faculty members of New School erected a solidarity encampment at the Manhattan campus on Wednesday, May 8, making it the US' first staff-led anti-Israel protest. Faculty members set up about a dozen tents at the college’s University Center. They have now joined their students’ demand that the school divest from 13 companies said to be aiding Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
The protestors have also demanded that NYPD’s presence on campus come to an end. They have called for disciplinary charges against students to be dropped. A representative who is organising the new encampment said in a statement recently released by New School’s Students for Justice in Palestine said, according to New York Post, “The movement started by our brave students must continue, and it is incumbent upon us as faculty to heed their calls, and help finish what they started.”
The encampment has been named the Refaat Alareer Faculty Solidarity Encampment, honouring a writer and professor killed in December in an Israeli airstrike. Previously, over 40 students from the university were arrested by the NYPD while cops cleared out their anti-Israel encampment, the New School Free Press said.
‘From the brazen lies spouted by administration…’
The outlet said, “The 45 student demonstrators arrested at The New School’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment and released from One Police Plaza last Friday have been charged with criminal trespassing in the third degree,” adding that as many as 37 New School students were also issued interim suspensions.
{{/usCountry}}The outlet said, “The 45 student demonstrators arrested at The New School’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment and released from One Police Plaza last Friday have been charged with criminal trespassing in the third degree,” adding that as many as 37 New School students were also issued interim suspensions.
{{/usCountry}}“For international students, while interim suspensions will not immediately impact their visa status, criminal charges and the outcome of student conduct investigations, if pursued by the university, could pose a threat to their student visas,” the outlet added.
An unarmed faculty members said, “From the brazen lies spouted by administration in the face of violent NYPD repression to the suspension of students and tactics used to prevent students from accessing their essential needs after arrests, it is clear the President, Board members and Administration have no interest in protecting students or listening to their demands, only in protecting themselves and their own profits.”
The Students for Justice in Palestine said in a statement that University Interim President Donna Shalala “has asserted a false and misleading narrative to justify the deployment of NYPD riot police against her students as they slept. They called for a “general strike” to stop school operations.
The strike demands that all students, faculty and staff stop participating in labour for the New School, be it paid or unpaid. The organisation said that faculty have been asked to not submit final grades.
Additionally, faculty members who are protesting have demanded that universities and municipalities across America drop charges against all the student protesters who have been arrested. “This is the first faculty-led encampment in the US,” they said. “We hope it will not be the last. We thank our students for showing us the way; for being our teachers.”