HYDE PARK — Over 200 people rallied at the University of Chicago campus Friday, joining nationwide protests at college campuses calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Organized by student coalition UChicago United for Palestine, demonstrators called on university leaders to “divest, disclose and repair.” Organizers want UChicago to cut ties with Israeli companies and the Israel Institute, publicize its investments in weapons manufacturers, and commit to a program of reparations “from Palestine to the South Side,” among other demands.
Owing to longstanding issues surrounding the university’s relationship with the community it inhabits, students also called on the school to abolish its private police force, fund South Side housing and education programs, stop new construction projects in the area, and more.
Students, faculty and supporters demonstrated at the main quadrangle before marching throughout campus, calling on the university to divest from certain companies. The coalition of organizers behind the demonstration includes members of Students for Justice in Palestine, Care Not Cops, UChicago Against Displacement and the Environmental Justice Task Force.
“We as students, faculty and staff at the University of Chicago are complicit with our money, with our tuition, with our taxes,” one organizer said to a crowd outside the Keller Center. “We have directly funded policies … that have led to the decimation and genocide of others.”
The university historically has resisted academic boycotts and demands of divestment, saying it does not endorse social or political stances in order to preserve academic freedom.
Leaders rebuffed calls to break with companies doing business in Israel in 2016 and opposed calls to boycott Israeli institutions in 2013. The university also resisted calls to divest from companies doing business with the Sudanese government during the war in Darfur.
The rally comes as pro-Palestine student protesters nationwide have set up encampments — including in north suburban Evanston, where Northwestern University students spent a second day Friday camping out at Deering Meadow.
Friday’s rally and march at UChicago ended after about 90 minutes. Students wouldn’t say whether they planned to establish their own encampment at a later date, but “I wouldn’t be surprised,” UChicago United for Palestine organizer Hassan D. told Block Club.
Students from the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago and Roosevelt University also rallied Downtown, according to the Sun-Times.
University leaders and police have cracked down on demonstrations and encampments at Columbia University, the University of Southern California, Emerson University and others.
Northwestern’s president on Thursday announced a last-minute change to the school’s code of conduct to prohibit tents, and threatened students with suspension, expulsion and criminal charges for violating the new rule, according to the Tribune.
“These unarmed, grassroots collectives are filled with youths like us who aren’t afraid to put their bodies on the line to dissent,” Hassan D. said outside the Harris School of Public Policy’s Keller Center.
UChicago United for Palestine organizers have been active in calling for a ceasefire — and for the university’s divestment from companies that support Israel and profit from the war in Gaza — since the early weeks of the war.
Last fall, they gathered daily in the main quad to raise awareness about Palestinians’ struggles and give passersby context on the war that centers Palestinians.
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