Princeton University officials, including President Christopher Eisgruber ’83, met with a group of students and faculty who represent pro-Palestinian protesters on Monday, May 6, according to University spokesperson Jennifer Morrill.
Protesters had been calling on Eisgruber and other administrators to meet with them and discuss demands established when they started an encampment in McCosh Courtyard on April 25. In addition, 17 undergraduate students said on Friday they were starting a hunger strike and invited others to join, even if just for one day.
Protesters are calling for Princeton to divest from companies connected to Israel’s war in Gaza, enact an academic and cultural boycott of Israeli institutions, support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions, and publicly advocate for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
In addition to Eisgruber, Monday’s meeting was attended by Graduate School Dean Rodney Priestley, and School of Public and International Affairs Dean Amaney Jamal.
“President Eisgruber explained that at Princeton, divestment is rare and only considered as part of an orderly process that includes input from across the community. Divestment at Princeton also requires a formal determination that campus consensus is possible on the issue,” Morrill said in a statement.
“He invited the protesters to engage in that process, which has led in recent years to divestment and dissociation from segments of the fossil fuel industry. A 2014 petition calling for divestment from Israel did not meet the dissociation standard at Princeton.”
Emanuelle Sippy ’25, one of the students at the meeting, said during a speech at Cannon Green that "Eisruber gave us nothing," according to The Daily Princetonian. David Chmielewski ’24 told the Prince that the protesters "feel deeply disrespected by the University administration."
A follow-up meeting was discussed, according to Morrill. She added that University officials were receptive to strengthening academic ties with Palestinian institutions and creating an affinity space for Palestinian students.
On Tuesday, Eisgruber emailed the campus community to address recent events and "the path ahead."
"My colleagues and I are now in direct conversation with the protestors," he wrote. "I have told them that we can consider their concerns through appropriate processes that respect the interests of multiple parties and viewpoints, but we cannot allow any group to circumvent those processes or exert special leverage."
Since April 25, 15 protesters have been arrested and suspended pending disciplinary hearings, including 13 who were involved in the occupation of Clio Hall on April 29.
"As the protest activity and rhetoric has intensified, I have heard from members of our community who say that they feel less welcome or secure on campus because they are encountering antisemitic language and behavior that should have no place at Princeton," Eisgriber said. "Some people believe we are tolerating too much protest on the campus and some that we are not tolerating enough.
"Finding a path forward will require that we respect all of these perspectives. That will not be easy. Never have I seen our campus more riven with passionate disagreements, disagreements that encompass the war in Gaza as well as issues about Princeton itself."
Protesters moved their encampment to Cannon Green after the Clio Hall takeover and held a town hall-style meeting there Monday night, discussing and voting on their next moves.
In an effort to show the University they have broad support among the campus community, protesters said they plan to hold a rally in front of Nassau Hall on Tuesday night. The group also voted to boycott and disrupt University events, although specifics were not publicly discussed.
In addition, 17 undergraduate students said on Friday they were staring a hunger strike and invited others to join, even if just for one day.
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3 Responses
Jim O’Donnell ’72
6 Months AgoRecalling Goheen’s Finest Hour
This would be a good time for PAW to commission a serious piece on the strike spring of 1970. Bob Goheen ’40 *48, in that turbulent moment, was everything that presidents today aren’t. If you don’t know the story of the great meeting in Jadwin Cage on May 4, 1970, it’s worth a read — probably in PAW of the same vintage. Goheen was truly remarkable in a hundred ways, but the way he kept the wheels on the car that month was probably his finest hour.
Editor’s note: Read more in “A Life at Princeton,” PAW’s Nov. 6, 2006, profile of Robert Goheen ’40 *48.
Jane Hatterer ’83
6 Months AgoLate to the Table
As an alumna and mother of a Princeton student, I have been following the administration’s response to the student protesters with great interest. I have been baffled by leadership’s unwillingness to meet with the protesters until last week after months of their repeated requests. This demonstrated a lack of compassion and respect for student voice, as well as a lack of understanding for the overall vulnerability many students feel; their need to be heard, taken seriously and have a seat at the table where decisions are made.
These students already have lived through a period of relentless trauma. School shootings, George Floyd, a dysfunctional government, growing polarization and mis- and disinformation, COVID, the attempted overturning of an election, the rollback of reproductive rights, and an ongoing climate and mental health crisis, all amplified and made even more immediate courtesy of social media.
It is with an appreciation for this larger context, that we should approach all students’ responses to the events of Oct. 7th and the ensuing war in Gaza..
As a civic education/youth civic action advocate and adult ally to youth activists, I understand the importance of respecting and uplifting student voices, and actively listening to their needs, something the administration has failed to do in a timely fashion and with great consequences to those who were disciplined, arrested, and now are starving themselves. The administration should have met with student protesters months, not days ago, so that the University’s “process” could have begun in earnest before students felt the need to occupy a hall or go on a hunger strike.
I understand the issues at hand are complex, that there are competing interests and universities, especially those as tradition bound as Princeton, are slow to change. But perhaps we would be in a different place, had the administration followed Brown’s approach. Their leadership arrived at an agreement with student protesters who renounced the encampment in exchange for an opportunity to present their divestment proposal to the university’s committee responsible for investments (who will review and vote on it in the fall).
I can only hope that moving forward Princeton’s leadership meets all of its students where they are, respects their voices, seriously considers their ideas, and lives up to its service ideals not only for the sake of humanity but for its own students.
David B. Siebert Jr. ’81
6 Months AgoInternet Brain vs. Dad Brain
Dear President Eisgruber,
I feel your heart is in a good place, but I fear your brain may be vulnerable to the gravitation pull of the black hole of the Internet Brain of your students.
I encourage you to listen to or read Greg Gutfeld’s recent Fox News recent monologue, “The adults finally showed up at college campuses.” It may help you steer Princeton on a clear path back to reality … at least it may put a smile of clarity on your face.
Good luck and God bless!