Faced with a threatened show of force by police, a group of pro-Palestinian student protesters on the main campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick quietly left their encampment Thursday under a 4 p.m. deadline to leave or face a response by law enforcement.
The move came after university officials charged that the protesters had disrupted final exams in the weeks leading up to graduation.
“We value free speech and the right to protest, but it should not come at the cost of our students’ education and safety. We strive to balance these rights and maintain a safe and secure environment for our students to learn and succeed,” Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway and Rutgers-New Brunswick Chancellor Francine Conway said in a statement earlier in the day.
As the deadline approached, there was no real show of force by police, some of whom could be seen in the background but making no effort to put an end to the encampment. But there were soon clear signs that the protest had come to an end.
Minutes before the deadline, one of the protest leaders said they were agreeing to leave because he said the university had agreed to some of their demands. Some were soon seen breaking down tents and removing their belongings. Increasingly, onlookers unrelated to the demonstrators gathered as well, watching to see what might happen.
Meanwhile, a young woman with megaphone yelled, “We will be back if the demands are not met!”
Two hours after the protest came to an end, Holloway and Conway in another statement said the “resolution was achieved through constructive dialogue between the protesting students and our leadership teams,” while better addressing the needs of the university’s Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian student body, which numbers over 7,000.
“The protesting students have voiced their desire for representation within our community through a cultural center, diversity initiatives, and the symbolism we display to celebrate our global diversity. They also seek representation in our curriculum through partnerships, like our existing one with Birzeit University, and an expansion of Middle Eastern studies,” they wrote. “The Advisory Council for Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian Life will be critical in facilitating further discussions on academic initiatives in collaboration with the Office of the Chancellor.”
They said while the request for the university to divest from companies engaged in Israel and to sever ties with Tel Aviv University was made, such decisions fall outside of the university’s administrative scope.
“However, following our established university policies, the divestment request is under review,” they promised.
The protesters demanded that the university accept at least 10 displaced Gazan students to study at Rutgers University on scholarship and the university said it would “work with a committee of students, faculty, and staff to implement support for 10 displaced Palestinian students to finish their education at Rutgers.”
The university also promised it would not retaliate, stating that “No member of the Rutgers–New Brunswick community-including faculty, staff, graduate students, undergraduate students, or alumni-found to have been involved in the encampment or related activity will face retaliation from the University, including termination of employment or reduction in compensation.”
The agreement, they added, was predicated on the absence of further disruptions and adherence to University policies.
MORE: Read the protesters’ demands and the university’s responses
Sami Shaban, a board member for Center of Islamic Life at Rutgers University, the Muslim chaplaincy at Rutgers University, said “what the students have done here in expressing their freedom of speech rights and expressing the issues they had was nothing short of remarkable and reflective of our history in Rutgers and in our country of advocating for things that we believe in.”
He spoke to the crowd of hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters at about 15 minutes before the university’s deadline to disperse the encampment and drew a rousing ovation after his three-minute speech, speaking about how his father was taken from his home at gunpoint and moved to Gaza as a refugee in 1948.
“Since October 7th, 35 of my family members have been killed,’’ he told the crowd. But he strongly urged the protestors to take a deal with Rutgers administration and agree to leave by 4 p.m.
“We have to understand that change is incremental and what has happened today at Rutgers is monumental,’’ he told NJ Advance Media as the protestors were breaking up their tents. “And if we keep going with these types of changes we will see what we want, the alternative in this case was we would’ve lost the momentum that we had gained and on top of that risked the safety of our students. So absolutely I think this is the best result.”
At one point, a group of faculty stood arm-to-arm to form a ring around the protesters, apparently as a show of support.
Todd Wolfson, president of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT faculty union, said he was thankful “that they seem to have come to a peaceful (agreement) and move ball forward on the crisis in the Middle East, where thousands of people are dying. One again Rutgers is in the lead.”
But Gabby Rubin, a sophomore, wearing a t-shirt that said: “Wherever I Stand I Stand with Israel,” said the encampment shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
“It’s not peaceful. All these signs are hurtful, it’s frustrating, she said. “I don’t understand how this has been allowed for as long as it has been, they say the rudest things. This is my greatest fear coming to reality,” comparing current events to the Holocaust.
The standoff between the protesters and the university’s administration began earlier in the day, when Holloway had drawn a line in the sand. He warned that protesters had until 4 p.m. to remove tents from the university’s New Brunswick campus or officials would move in with the assistance of law enforcement.
“The university has consistently taken steps to make clear to protesting organizations, including this group, our policies reflecting our commitment to free speech and the university’s thresholds for disruptive activity,” Holloway wrote. “Our strategy has been focused on de-escalation.”
In a statement, he had noted that university officials had met with a group of students representing the protest on Wednesday to “discuss the need to ensure that their fellow students’ exam period was not disrupted.”
But in the wake of that meeting, they learned overnight that Students for Justice in Palestine — a group that university officials said was already on probation for earlier disruptions on campus — called for a significant rally on the Voorhees Mall, coinciding with the beginning of the exam period, which was specifically intended to disrupt finals.
That rally, they said, disrupted 28 scheduled exams, impacting more than 1,000 students.
“While the protesters eventually responded to our request to cease their disruption, the disruption adversely impacted our students and university operations and forced our postponement announcement,” they said.
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Staff writer Ted Sherman contributed to this report.
Tina Kelley may be reached at tkelley@njadvancemedia.com.
Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieKausch.
Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com.