Northwestern University reaches agreement with protesters

Northwestern University officials announced Monday that they have reached an agreement with students and faculty protesting against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, outlining a plan intended to allow demonstrations to continue while preventing the chaos and occasional violence that has engulfed other campuses across the country.

The deal — believed to be the first between a major U.S. university and Pro-Palestinian protesters —comes five days after demonstrators established an encampment in Deering Meadow, a popular common area on the Evanston campus. Administrators responded to the protest by banning tents and temporary structures, but they did nothing to enact the new policy as they negotiated with protesters throughout the weekend.

The agreement with the Northwestern Divestment Coalition, which Northwestern President Michael Schill announced in a campuswide email, requires the immediate removal of tents and sound systems, as well as a commitment that all protesters will adhere to university policies.

In return, demonstrations can continue on the meadow through June 1. Only students and university staff may participate in the protests, according to the deal posted on the university’s website.

The university has also agreed to fund two visiting Palestinian faculty members each year and provide scholarships for five Palestinian undergraduates throughout their undergraduate careers. It will also provide and renovate a community building that can be used as a gathering space for Middle Eastern, North African and Muslim students.

“This agreement was forged by the hard work of students and faculty working closely with members of the administration to help ensure that the violence and escalation we have seen elsewhere does not happen here at Northwestern,” Schill wrote.

Some cried and hugged, while others packed up the coffee, cooking oil and bags of goldfish crackers that had accumulated in the food tent over the past few days. Lawn chairs and colorful student artwork dotted the muddy grass, and a large Palestinian flag waved in the wind.

“These tents might come down, but we don’t have to go anywhere,” said senior Jordan Muhammad. “We’re going to not stop fighting until we get a free Palestine.”

Muhammad, like others, said she feels inspired by the demonstrations and the community formed on Deering Commons.

“Our power is not in the tents. It’s not in the tarps. It’s not in our piles of water bottles. It’s in us coming together,” she said.

Protest encampments have popped up in recent weeks at nearly two dozen college campuses across the country, including Harvard, Brown, the University of Michigan and University of Texas at Austin. New York’s Columbia University became the epicenter of the large, and at times violent, movement this month, as demonstrators clashed with police and administrators announced classes on the main campus would be held remotely for the rest of the semester.

Locally, students at Loyola University’s Rogers Park campus have held a sit-in, while student organizers from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College and Roosevelt University staged a walkout downtown in solidarity with Gaza.

Though U.S. campuses have been a magnet for social protests for generations, some Jewish students believe the recent demonstrations devolved into antisemitism and express concerns about being on campus. In Evanston, for example, Northwestern Hillel, the university’s Jewish center, said the encampment reflected “a disturbing and quickly escalating trend of antisemitic rhetoric and actions both nationally and on our own campus.”

Several Jewish students took issue with signs near the encampment, including a Star of David with a red slash through it and another of Schill, who is Jewish, with devil horns added. The Daily Northwestern also reported that “Death 2 Israel” had been spraypainted on a building over the weekend.

Like other universities, we have seen a rise in antisemitism,” Schill told the Faculty Senate Monday afternoon. “This sort of thing needs to be condemned by all of us.”

In his letter to the campus community, Schill also denounced anti-Arab and anti-Muslim incidents on campus over the weekend. The acts were “fueled by demonstrators who are not affiliated with Northwestern” and cannot continue, he said.

As universities across the country grappled with how to balance free expression and religious tolerance, administrators took decidedly different approaches to managing the situation. Some involved police almost immediately and canceled classes and graduation ceremonies out of safety concerns. Others, including Schill, took a more restrained approach and opted to negotiate with students rather than exacerbate an already tense situation.

Inaya Hussain, a Muslim student from Columbus, Ohio, said she had watched student protests turn violent across the country.

“Hearing about it is scary,” she said. “We planned for that here. … I didn’t expect it to be over this soon.”

In keeping with protests nationwide, the Northwestern protesters pushed the university administration to publicly disclose where the university invests its money and to withdraw its money from any funds profiting off the war. As a private institution, the university is not required to provide detailed financial statements and has its money in index funds that make it difficult to remove investments in a single company.

Schill, however, agreed to reestablish the Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility this fall and ensure it will include representation from the students, faculty and staff. The university also will answer questions about specific holdings within 30 days of the request, according to the deal.

“As a student movement that is composed of direct stakeholders in this institution, we are exercising power where we hold it,” the Northwestern University Divestment Coalition said in a statement Monday. “We have built a strong foundation of our work and for generations of NU activists to come. We have seen incredible momentum grow in support of our movement in these past few days and will not let it go to waste. We consider this to be a prime moment to take stock, recharge, plan, and build power.”