< Back to 68k.news US front page

MIT president says pro-Palestinian encampment on campus needs to wind down - The Boston Globe

Original source (on modern site)

The video address drew a response from the MIT Coalition for Palestine, which said in a statement that the group had met Friday with university leaders, and had another meeting scheduled for Saturday afternoon to discuss demands that the school cut ties with the Israeli military.

But a short time before Saturday's session was scheduled to begin, MIT administrators canceled, the coalition's statement said.

"The MIT administration has chosen to exit the negotiating table, in bad faith, without offering any legitimate counter, and coupled with threats against the students and workers of the encampment," the statement said. "They alone chose to shut down the door on negotiations."

Earlier Saturday, demonstrators gathered at the MIT encampment for a "speak out" during which the crowd was briefed on negotiations between protesters and university leaders.

"We will not stop until our demands are met," said Shara Bhuiyan, a senior who told the crowd she's a member of the team negotiating with MIT administrators.

Mohamed Mohamed, an encampment organizer at MIT, said the arrests at other campuses make their mission more important and asked the crowd to donate to a bail fund for people arrested at Northeastern.

"They have endured brutality from the administrations, brutality from police," he said.

Ingie Baho, a graduate student, said there's a lot of talk about arrests on other campuses, but that protesters don't plan to leave.

"The people here are steadfast and they will not be moved," she said.

Student demonstrators at MIT established the encampment last Sunday amid growing national protests demanding that colleges cut financial ties to Israel and its military.

Encampments have also popped up on the campuses of Harvard and Tufts universities. Early Thursday morning, officers dismantled another encampment at Emerson College, where more than 100 people were arrested.

Student protesters say they have set up the encampments to bring attention to the plight of civilians in Gaza, where more than 34,000 people have been killed as a result of Israel's bombardment and invasion during retaliatory operations following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7. More than 1,200 people were killed and another 250 were kidnapped in that attack.

In her video message, Kornbluth addressed the conundrum facing colleges nationwide over campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war and said she and other MIT leaders have spent hours meeting with people "across a broad range of views."

"We are being pressed to take sides, and we're being accused of taking sides. We've been told that the encampment must be torn down immediately, and that it must be allowed to stay, that discipline is not the answer, and that it is the only answer," Kornbluth said. "I can only describe the range of views as irreconcilable."

In a note accompanying her video, Kornbluth said she had intended to share her message on Friday, but paused because MIT leaders were in talks with student demonstrators about the encampment and they were hopeful "progress was possible."

Then Saturday morning, she said there were two developments: Students "made clear on social media" that they don't intend to compromise on their demands and some students disrupted an official MIT event.

Kornbluth said she appreciated that the campus has remained peaceful, but said the encampment violates MIT rules and that rule-breakers will face "disciplinary action." Campus police are at the encampment around the clock, she said, and warned that it "is creating a potential magnet for disruptive outside protestors."

She also said she is not "going to compromise the academic freedom of our faculty, in any field of study."

"Faculty routinely work with colleagues around the world, including in Israel — and all sponsored research on our campus is openly shared, publishable, and freely available to investigators everywhere," she said.

At Harvard, the university has restricted outside access indefinitely to Harvard Yard, where a student group established an encampment Wednesday.

Only people with university identification cards will be allowed to enter the yard, a school spokesperson said Saturday in an email. The restrictions were first reported Friday night by The Harvard Crimson student newspaper.

At Tufts University, Students for Justice in Palestine said on the group's Instagram page that demonstrators have had a presence on the academic quad for three weeks and asked donors to make contributions to Gaza Mutual Aid Collective.

"Our Gaza Solidarity Encampment grows despite administrative pressure to take it down," the Tufts student group wrote Saturday on its Instagram page. "We will not move until our demands are met."

The group didn't respond Saturday to a request for comment sent through its Instagram page.

In an email, Patrick Collins, a spokesperson for Tufts, said there are 10 tents on a portion of the academic quad and a "similar number of demonstrators."

"We continue to actively and closely monitor the situation," Collins said. "While students are permitted to express their views, including demonstrating on campus, we will hold accountable any community members who engage in conduct that violates university policy, including disruption of education or research activities or the conduct of university operations."

Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her @lauracrimaldi. Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter.

< Back to 68k.news US front page