Northwestern's deal with students sets new benchmark for negotiations

For five days, the shouts of student protesters and supporters rang out from Northwestern University’s Deering Meadow as they joined demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza unfolding on college campuses nationwide.

But the meadow on the suburban Chicago campus fell silent hours after student organisers and the school announced an agreement late on Monday to curb protest activity in return for the re-establishment of an advisory committee on university investments and other commitments.

By Tuesday, only two tents remained, surrounded by abandoned folding chairs, cases of bottled water and other supplies. By quickly defusing the protests in Evanston and avoiding the longer standoffs that happened on other campuses, the agreement at Northwestern offered an example of successful negotiations between anti-war demonstrators and administrators.

Brown University announced a similar deal on Tuesday, while administrators at Johns Hopkins University focused talks on limiting student protests to daytime hours.

Demonstrators agreed to dismantle their encampment at Brown, which had been removed by Tuesday evening, and university leaders said they would discuss, and later vote on, divesting funds from companies connected to the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.

"De-escalated path forward"

Northwestern deal lets protests continue through June 1 but bars all tents except one for aid supplies. The pact also prevents people without ties to Northwestern from participating and requires school permission to use loudspeakers or similar devices, according to copies made public by the school and the student organisers.

University administrations across the country have used a variety of strategies in response to the protests. In some places, police have arrested dozens of people. Elsewhere campus leaders have sought to negotiate over protest strategies while allowing them to continue.

Northwestern said the terms include penalties for students who fail to comply, including suspension.

“This agreement represents a sustainable and de-escalated path forward, and enhances the safety of all members of the Northwestern community while providing space for free expression that complies with University rules and policies,” said a statement from President Michael Schill, Provost Kathleen Hagerty and Vice President for Student Affairs Susan Davis.

The pro-Palestinian tent encampments began sweeping across the country after a crackdown at Columbia University when police arrested more than 100 protesters on April 18. On Tuesday night, Columbia called police back again to clear protesters who had occupied a campus building.

Around the country, protest organisers at US universities say they are building a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war. One of several groups that planned the anti-war protests at Northwestern was Jewish Voice for Peace.

In Instagram posts about the deal, protest organisers said the reestablishment of the advisory committee is a first step toward divestment — an original demand that the school stop investing in all companies profiting from the war.

The protest organisers also noted Northwestern's commitment to build a house for Muslim student activities and to raise money for scholarships going to Palestinian undergraduates.

"Frank and constructive conversations"

“We have seen incredible momentum grow in support of our movement in these past few days and will not let it go to waste,” a post on the NU Divestment Coalition's Instagram account read. “We consider this to be a prime moment to take stock, recharge, plan, and build power. But we have much work ahead of us and we will not stop now.”

Eden Melles, a graduate student among the Northwestern protest organisers, said Tuesday that reestablishing the advisory committee is “huge," but she also understands criticism of the agreement.

“I know that a lot of students and people, community members, are disappointed in this agreement,” Melles said.

“But I just want to say that there’s things in this agreement that I think a lot of Palestinian, Arab, Muslim students have been fighting for a long time. But this agreement by no means, you know, suggests that this movement is dying or that we’re stopping.”

She said organisers on each campus have to make their own decisions when negotiating with administrators, not follow an exact model created by another school.

Brown University on Tuesday became the second school to announce a deal aiming to end student protests.

Administrators and student organisers of the protest on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus said President Christina Paxson had committed to an October vote by the school's governing board on the students' divestment proposal. Protest organisers removed their tents on Tuesday.

In Baltimore, leaders of Johns Hopkins University announced on Tuesday that they had reached an agreement with student protesters who started setting up an encampment on Monday evening. After several hours of discussion, they said, students agreed to clear the encampment and resume protesting only during daytime hours.

“Our conversations were frank and constructive,” university President Ron Daniels and Provost Ray Jayawardhana wrote in a message to the school community. “We are immensely relieved at this peaceful and productive resolution.”

But protesters with the group Hopkins Justice Collective released statements saying their demonstration continued through the night and wouldn't end “until demands are met.”

“We are not letting Johns Hopkins shut down our encampment,” they wrote in a social media post. “We are still here.”