As violence has continued to escalate in Gaza the tension between university administration and students organizing in support of Palestine has steadily increased.
On Thursday, Nov. 9 more than 500 New School community members walked out of university buildings at 2:15 p.m. in solidarity with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). They gathered outside of the University Center to rally around their demands to university administration.
On Nov. 14 the group held a sit-in outside of Interim President Donna Shalala’s office on the 8th floor of the Alvin Johnson/J. M. Kaplan Hall building, pressuring the administration to concede to their demands.
The next day, President Shalala directly responded to SJP in a university-wide email. The email acknowledged several of SJP’s demands such as protection over student’s free expression and peaceful assembly while also defending TNS as an international institution that doesn’t discriminate based on identity, nationality, or country of origin. Five days later on Nov. 20, SJP responded in an email to the New School community, deeming Shalala’s acknowledgment of their demands as noncommittal to the university’s role in the international conflict.
At the time of publication, TNS administration has yet to respond to SJP’s message from Nov. 20. This article will be updated as the timeline progresses.
Nov. 9, 2023: The Walkout
Led by SJP, the walkout was a part of the Shut it Down for Palestine! movement that took effect globally on Nov. 9 and is centered around internationally-coordinated actions in support of Palestine.
At TNS, the walkout and ensuing rally were centered on demanding that the university concede to a list of demands outlined in an open letter to administration.
The demands ask the university to use language that contextualizes the historical and systemic violence in Palestine, publicly safeguard the academic freedom of students to speak out about their rights, end their relationship with the Israel Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv, and be transparent with their financial ties with the State of Israel.
After a series of speeches from SJP and other community members, a moment of silence was held for lives lost in the ongoing violence. At around 3 p.m. a march began around a list containing the names of fallen citizens in Gaza. One copy of the list was taped to the ground outside the UC, spanning the length of the building entrance, while another 18-foot-long version circled high above the heads of those marching, held up by multiple ralliers. The list was printed by Emily Li, who confirmed its length.
Moving in a ring resembling a picket, the rally extended from the CVS on the corner of Fifth Ave. and East 14th St. to the end of the UC on East 13th St. Organizers led the crowd through several chants, including a specific call-out of Interim President Donna Shalala.
“Donna, Donna, you can’t hide. Stop supporting genocide,” the chorus rang out, in harmony with sporadic music from a lone saxophone, jingling bells, and a beating drum. “Being loud so that everyone around you can hear you is the most important thing,” Parsons School of Design student Nadia Benslimane said at the walkout.
An array of hand-painted signs, Palestinian flags, and “Artists Against Apartheid” newspapers were held high throughout the duration of the march which began at 3 p.m. and ended around 5:30 p.m. Several people sitting atop double-decker tour buses passing by the rally lent their voices to the chants. At the same time, a volunteer on the sidelines handed out poems about Gazan children printed on slips of red, white, and green paper.
“I think it’s super important for us as college students to shut down as much as we have control of, which in this case is our classes, our attendance at school, just to try to continue to place more pressure in solidarity with the rest of the world,” said Cooper Sperling, a BAFA student at Parsons School of Design and Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts.
Students at the walkout spoke about their role in calling for action against the ongoing violence against Gazan civilians. “The most important thing as an American that you can do is to combat the lies that there is no occupation,” Benslimane said.
TNS faculty members marked their presence with signs that read “The New School Faculty for Justice in Palestine.”
“It’s solidarity, the fact that you show publicly that you’re supporting. I’m originally from South Africa and historically identify with the oppressed … So for me, this is quite emboldening,” said Sean Jacobs, an associate professor at the Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs..
Louisa Solomon, who joined the university this semester as the student rabbi for the Jewish Culture Club, was also present at the walkout. “I am here supporting our students’ right to free speech, to protest, to critical thinking, and honoring the social justice tradition of The New School. I support their efforts to understand what’s going on in the world and to stand up for the oppressed,” Solomon said.
The walkout garnered attention from the NYPD as well. Roughly 50 officers surrounded the march from beginning to end. When asked for comment, one officer said, “we just want to keep the peace,” explaining that their presence was intended to be precautionary.
People stood on the opposite sidewalk on East 13th St. holding Israeli flags and shouting their own chants and songs. One individual in the group yelled, “these are future terrorists!” at those participating in the rally.
As the rally dispersed around 5:30 p.m., SJP organizers gathered the remaining participants in front of the UC to announce that if their demands to the university are not met by Dec. 1, they would be back “bigger and louder.”
Nov. 14, 2023: The Sit-in
At midday on Nov. 14, SJP hand-delivered their list of the demands to Shalala via a sit-in outside of her office located on the 8th floor of the Alvin Johnson/J. M. Kaplan Hall.
Seated in the lobby outside of Shalala’s office, SJP organizers from across TNS colleges, “read some of the 11,000 Palestinian names genocided by the occupation since October 8th,” according to the caption on their Instagram post from Nov. 15. This was the same list that circled above the heads of marchers at the walkout the previous week.
At the time, university security prevented The Free Press from attending the sit-in. Security guards manned the elevators and stood in front of the stairwell that leads to the eighth floor. These blockades continue to remain in place at the time of publication — the stairwell door leading to Shalala’s office is locked, and the 8th floor elevator button is currently not functioning.
The sit-in further reinforced the four demands of the open letter shared during the walkout.
The first demand asks for the university to “publicly acknowledge Israel as a settler-colony, apartheid in Palestine, and the genocide in Gaza.” Like several other institutions, The New School is yet to refer to the violence in Gaza using language that is representative of the historical and systematic nature of the actions inflicted by the Israeli government and military.
Within this first demand, SJP asks that TNS “must affirm: this is no war, this is genocide,” and requests that university administration use their credible platform and widespread reach to correctly inform the TNS community about the context surrounding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The second demand asks the university to “protect organizers from censorship and retaliation, and refuse academic penalties for speaking out.” SJP members and other students who are outspoken in their support of Palestine risk being the subject of doxxing campaigns such as the Canary Mission.
SJP asks the university to protect Arab students and pro-Palestine voices from discrimination online and on-campus, as well as support students’ exercise of academic freedom with regard to speaking at SJP’s peaceful gatherings.
The third and fourth demands both concern any possible ties the university maintains with the State of Israel, specifically asking the university to “end the partnership with the Israel Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv” and “disclose all financial ties with the state of Israel, including endowment investments in corporations complicit in the genocide.”
SJP highlights that since it is the tuition dollars of its members and other pro-Palestine students that fund TNS’s partnerships, they deserve transparency as to where university finances are being applied.
In SJP’s instagram post announcing the sit-in, they also relayed that organizers secured Shalala’s word that she would personally respond to the demands of SJP in a public statement.
Nov. 15, 2023: Administrative Response
On Nov. 15, a university-wide email was sent out from the Office of the President, containing Shalala’s response to SJP’s demands. The statement began with an expression of the university’s support for the right to free speech and assembly, as well as continued concern for innocent victims of the conflict.
The response denied the implication that any tuition money was being used to fund international conflict and stated they have no intent to disband any university organizations that operate under university policy, state and federal law. This clarification came after Columbia University suspended their chapters of SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace from operating as official student groups through the end of the fall term.
Shalala’s message also responded to SJP’s demand to discontinue the partnership with the Israel Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv: “The university will not penalize or exclude students, faculty, or staff from Israel. We are an international university with members of our community from around the world—they are all welcome here.”
The university has turned down SJP’s disinvestment demands: “The letter includes a broad list of US and multinational companies that operate throughout the Middle East and the world. It is not something we will support.”
The statement concludes with Shalala writing, “I was deeply troubled and dismayed by your threat at the end of your letter to punish your fellow students, faculty, and staff if we fail to agree to your terms.” likely referencing the final line of SJP’s demand letter that states that if the university did not meet their demands by Dec. 1, they will respond accordingly, “by any means necessary.”
Shalala signed off by writing, “Let me be very clear. We respect your right to peacefully protest and to disagree with the political, social, or economic views of any member of our community—including me. However, threatening this community’s ability to continue our educational mission is unacceptable.”
Nov. 20, 2023: Students for Justice in Palestine Responds
On Nov. 20, SJP released a response via email blast, titled “We Demand Financial Transparency: Letter to The New School Community,” once again urging the university to act on their demands, and addressing Shalala’s message from Nov. 15.
The statement hones in on the Shalala’s use of the word “threat” to describe SJP’s actions and demands, with SJP clarifying, “we never have and never will advocate for violence towards any New School community members.”
They continue to ask TNS to disclose all endowment investments into 14 specific companies they list as “relevantly invested in or complicit in the genocide of Gaza.” The statement specifically mentions 5 out of 14 of those companies — Elbit, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics — all five of which are weapons manufacturers.
The message reaffirms SJP’s promise to civil protest unless their demands are met: “Until this Administration hears our call, we promise to practice non-violent civil disobedience, and to continue to pressure the Administration to substantively respond to our demands as written, not as imagined.”
They reiterated the need for financial transparency and said students, faculty, and staff have a “fundamental right” to know what their tuition payments are funding, denying the Shalala’s claim in her Nov. 15 message that tuition dollars are not complicit in international conflict.
SJP concludes their email by writing: “The Administration to complete their due diligence in providing an independent review of the University’s assets and to provide the full disclosure of endowment investments by Dec. 1st.”