The College Fix

The university has not responded to protesters’ demands

Eight Harvard undergraduates face university-enforced consequences for occupying a campus building during a pro-Palestinian protest.

The students, who took over University Hall on campus Nov. 16 and remained overnight, were summoned to disciplinary hearings with the Harvard College Administrative Board, The Harvard Crimson reported Tuesday. Several confirmed the development to The Crimson at campus protest on Monday.

The board is “the committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) responsible for the application and enforcement of undergraduate academic regulations and standards of social conduct,” according to its website.

Violet Barron, a Crimson Editorial editor and participant in the sit-in, told the paper she will appear before the board on Tuesday.

“Tomorrow, I will not walk into my Ad Board meeting with fear, but with a whole lot of faith — faith in the power of solidarity and the capability of student organizing,” she said.

Barron also stated that the university administration had not responded to their demand that Harvard call for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire, among other orders.

“On Friday, we left University Hall with the same three demands, which remain utterly unanswered by our cowardly administration,” she said. “So to the Harvard administration, I hope this rally is proof enough that for every time you do not listen, we will come back 10 times louder.”

The occupying students were affiliated with Harvard Jews for Palestine, an unrecognized student group, The College Fix reported Nov. 17.

In addition to the call for a ceasesfire, the students demanded “the creation of an investigative committee on the presence of Islamophobia on campus, and a University statement asserting that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are not the same,” according to a Nov. 17 article in The Crimson.

Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana spoke to students inside the building just before 11 p.m. on Nov. 16 offering them the chance to leave without facing the Administrative Board, which handles student disciplinary action.

Khurana also gave the demonstrators Twizzlers. Earlier that evening, Adams House Faculty Dean Salmaan Keshavjee brought them burritos.

The protesters gave Khurana three conditions under which they would leave the building: a written response to their demands, a meeting with University President Claudine Gay, and a guarantee that the Administrative Board would not publish them.

Khurana could not accept the offer, he said.

“What did we come here for? We came here to get f—–g arrested or Ad-Boarded if our demands weren’t met,” one occupier announced through the basement window late Thursday, according to The Crimson.

MORE: Pro-Palestinian Stanford students stage ‘Sit-In to Stop Genocide’

IMAGE: @harvardj4p/Instagram

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