students of new york university respond to a statement given by vice chancellor charlie jeffreys that misrepresents their demands and undermines the promises they received during negotiations.
Just as a small note: this is not from NYU, it's actually from the University of York. As on many campuses, there's an ongoing encampment in support of Palestine here. In case anyone happens to be interested in the letter to which Jeffery's email purports to respond, I'm copying it below:
Dear Charlie,
We are members of staff, students and alumni of the University of York. Many of us have had an opportunity to visit the encampment for Palestine outside Heslington Hall and to meet with the members of our community who are protesting. All of us support their demands for the following reasons:
We are a University for public good - Cut ties with arms manufacturers
Our teaching and research at the University of York are directed towards life-improving and life-saving goals. Any ties with the arms industry - the inescapable consequences of which are life-deterioration and life-loss - are fundamentally incompatible with our University’s vision for public good. In times of financial pressures, such as the ones we are witnessing today, our principles are tested - it is now that we must demonstrate steadfast commitment to our vision.
We are a University for public good with international reach - Support Gaza’s educational institutions
UNICEF, the UN’s Children's agency, reports that 87% of all schools in Gaza have been damaged and destroyed. Students, teachers, and university lecturers have been killed, injured and displaced. The reverberating effects will take decades to address. As UN independent experts remind us: “We owe it to the children of Gaza to uphold their right to education and pave the way for a more peaceful and just future.” As a University for public good with international reach, we indeed owe it to the children of Gaza to add our institutional voice and contribute with our efforts to addressing the reverberating effects of war.
We are a University of Sanctuary in a City of Sanctuary - Scholarships for Palestinian students
“When schools are destroyed, so too are hopes and dreams.” As a University of Sanctuary, we understand this reality and have made an institutional commitment to welcome those who are displaced. Providing scholarships for Palestinian students means actuating this very commitment.
We are a University for public good responding to society’s biggest challenges - Statement condemning genocide
On 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice ordered legally binding provisional measures in the case brought by South Africa against Israel “concerning alleged violations in the Gaza Strip of obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”. The order obliges Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of genocidal acts, including ensuring “with immediate effect that its military forces do not commit any of the above-described acts.” (para. 78).
York for Life - Support Fadi Hania and support his GoFundMe
As a University we have launched the York for Life programme to extend the links with our students beyond graduation and thus strengthen our community of values, interests, and action. For Fadi Hani, who graduated from our University in 2012, York for Life has another meaning - the most basic, organic, vital meaning. Fadi and his family, including his 11-year son who was born in York, have been trapped in the midst of armed conflict in Gaza. We have a responsibility to act. We must support our community members.
Beyond our support for the goals of the protest, we write this letter to draw attention to the urgent need for the University to take immediate action to ensure that the campus remains a safe and enabling environment for such acts of protest. In a context in which such protest is too often restricted, stigmatised and criminalised, we call on you to take the following action to ensure that our University remains a place where activism can occur.
First, we all have the right to peacefully assemble and the freedom to express our views. These rights are particularly important on the campus of a university located in a Human Rights City and that proclaims itself to be both a University of Sanctuary and a University for the public good. It is manifestly for the public good that those who witness atrocities can hold those who lead our community to account and can press them to take greater action. We call on the University to publically and unequivocally articulate its support for its members’ right to protest, to express their views, and to encamp themselves at the University. This includes a public statement by the University that, based on the situation at the moment, it has no plans to evict the students and staff from their encampment.
Second, as members of the University community, we are all held to high standards of conduct. The students and staff are peacefully assembling and expressing their opinions in a respectful and orderly manner. Their actions are not injuring or impairing other members of our community. We see no argument that the students or staff are partaking in non-academic misconduct according to the rules and conventions of our community. We call on the University to communicate directly to the students and staff involved and to publicly declare that no investigation for disciplinary procedures is underway or anticipated.
Third, we are concerned with the responses to similar encampments at other locations. In recent days, encampments have been met with violence from organised groups of counter-protesters, causing distress, injury and property damage to those who are encamped. We strongly believe that the University should be a safe place for all members of its community, especially those engaging in such important acts of protest. The University has a duty of care to protect members of its community - it has a positive obligation under the Human Rights Act 1998 to facilitate the right to protest. We call on the University to ensure that all of its actions in response to the encampment have as a primary concern the well-being and safety of the protesters. This includes ensuring an appropriate response to threats from those seeking to disrupt the encampment and open discussion about risk assessments and protection protocols with the students and staff who are encamped.
Our friends and colleagues who are encamped are members of the University. They are manifesting through their protest a commitment to the cause of social justice that is foundational to our community. Their encampment is a response to one of the biggest contemporary challenges which we face as a global society. We are proud of their action and express our solidarity with them. But, above all, we call on the University to unequivocally support our campus being a safe and enabling environment for such activism and protest and to take the aforementioned concrete steps to support the rights of our students and their security and safety.
In solidarity,
[signatures of students, staff, and alumni]
