The Daily Emerald is providing live coverage of the University of Oregon’s pro-Palestine encampment, which began on April 29 at 7 a.m. All of our coverage on the encampment can be found here.
Below is the Emerald’s coverage of May 2, the fourth day of the encampment.

The fourth day of UO’s pro-Palestine encampment continued to see steady growth, with roughly 130 tents set up on the Knight Library quad by the day’s end. Student demonstrators re-organized the camp to accommodate the growth, moving tarps with essential items such as food and community donations from the northernmost end of the encampment to its center for easier access.

UO faculty members including sociology professor John Foster and law professor Michael Fakhri addressed the encampment. Foster was part of a “teach-in,” while Fakhri — the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food — spoke about hunger and malnutrition in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.
Despite the May 1 notice from UO administrators that those in the encampment were in violation of university policies, there have been no efforts to remove students from the encampment, and demonstrations have remained peaceful. The relative peace stands in contrast to other demonstrations across the country, including at Portland State University, where at least 12 demonstrators were arrested Thursday after occupying the university’s library.
Instead, the university seems to be taking other precautionary measures. A surveillance camera, connected to the university’s security feed, was moved from the roof of Chapman Hall to the Lillis Business Complex. The Knight Library closed to the general public at around 3:30 p.m., almost six hours earlier than normal, and required UO IDs for students and faculty to enter. A UO spokesperson said that early closures and/or modified hours are determined separately for each building.
The encampment’s six-person negotiating team had a preliminary 90-minute meeting with university officials, including Dean of Students Marcus Langford, a university provost, a UO professor and an official from UO Safety and Risk Services. UO Students for Justice in Palestine co-president Salem Khoury said that “nothing really came of it.”
Official negotiations will begin at 11 a.m. on May 3, according to student organizers in the encampment. Student negotiators have made several requests of “proposed ground rules,” including anonymity for the negotiating team during “public facing” communication and a commitment not to break up the encampment while negotiations are ongoing. According to students in the encampment, the university has asked them to be open to “creative solutions” during the process.
The Daily Emerald has not received comment from the university on the substance of the meetings. 
Read below for the Emerald’s live updates.
Updated 10:36 p.m.
Daily Emerald reporters have left the scene of the encampment and will resume coverage at around 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. 
Conditions will be cold tonight, but dryer than the night before, with little to no rainfall expected in Eugene until tomorrow afternoon.  

Updated 8:37 p.m. 

Events have wound down at the encampment this evening with approximately 130 tents set up on the Knight Library quad. 

The UO Coalition for Palestine held a meeting to update the encampment participants about negotiations, what demands they would put forth to the university in future meetings and what the university has asked of them.

Negotiators from the encampment will be meeting with the same administrators — Dean of Students Marcus Langford, a Safety and Risk Services administrator, and a UO professor — again at 11 a.m. tomorrow. This will begin official negotiations. 
A speaker at the camp said the negotiations team and university failed to agree upon ground rules and thus will resume negotiations tomorrow at 11 a.m.

The UO administration has asked that the coalition have a set negotiations team for their meetings, and be open to “creative solutions” during the negotiations process. 

A negotiator from the UO Coalition for Palestine is sending a formal list of “proposed ground rules” to the university this evening in advance of tomorrow’s meeting.  

 The coalition’s primary requests include the following:

• A second room reservation for “caucusing” during negotiations, to allow for private communication with the coalition’s negotiating team  

• Anonymizing the names of all negotiators in “public facing” communications from the university

• To abstain from dispersing the encampment during “good faith” negotiations

• For all participants to be protected from “institutional reprisal,” including suspension, expulsion, and the removal of scholarships and/or university housing. 

The speaker encouraged students to keep up with their schoolwork and responsibilities while negotiations are underway. 

 
Updated 6:39 p.m.
There were few takeaways from student organizers’ 90-minute meeting with Dean of Students Marcus Langford, though another meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m. tomorrow, according to SJP co-director Salem Khoury.
“Nothing really came of it,” Khoury said, indicating the university told them they weren’t “structured enough.”
In addition to Langford, the meeting also included a provost, a UO professor, and an official from UO Safety and Risk Services. They met with six individuals on the student demonstrators’ negotiating team — three undergraduate and three graduate students.
Students in the encampment met for a mass meeting, which discussed different committees in the camp and the process for selecting chairpersons. Another mass meeting will be held tomorrow at around 6 p.m. to discuss proposals to improve the camp’s democracy system.
The Emerald is awaiting comment from the university on the meeting with Langford and other administrators.
Updated 5:39 p.m. 
The student organizers’ negotiating team has concluded their meeting with Dean of Students Marcus Langford.
The meeting lasted about 90 minutes, according to SJP co-director Salem Khoury.
Khoury said there is another meeting scheduled tomorrow at 11 a.m. because today was not “structured enough.” The Emerald has reached out to the university for confirmation.
Roughly 150 students are gathered at the encampment for a mass meeting.
A UO spokesperson said that there was no set policy on early building closures or modified hours. Instead, hours are being set “building by building and will change daily.”
Updated 4:43 p.m.
UO spokesperson Angela Seydel confirmed that the Knight Library’s early closure is due to “an effort to help ensure safety for our community while also meeting academic needs.” Seydel said some buildings are “moving to modified hours, or limiting access to students, staff and faculty.”
The Emerald has reached out as to which other buildings will be closing early tonight.
Updated 4:07 p.m.
The Knight Library is now closed to the general public and will close early at 9 p.m. for students and staff.
Carl Peaster, director of physical security for the UO Police Department, confirmed that student identification is necessary to enter the building. Entrants have been asked by Peaster and other security officers to present UO IDs since around 3:30 p.m.
Typically, the Knight Library is open to the general public until 9 p.m. and to students until 12 a.m.
The Emerald has reached out to the university for comment on reasons for the change and whether other buildings on campus will close early tonight as well. 
[Editor’s note: A previous version of this update referred to “UO IDs” as “student IDs,” which is misleading. Students, staff and faculty with a UO ID can access the Knight Library.]
Updated 3:27 p.m.
Students in the encampment have established a basic hierarchy for decision-making. Over the first four days, the encampment has established a hierarchy system to organize participants by their “willingness to be arrested,” according to media liaison Teagen Holmquist.

There are three levels participants can voluntarily choose from during the onboarding process. Each level of participant holds varying responsibilities, with the top level — the level most willing to be arrested — holding final say in the decision making process. 

All three levels of participants are equally involved in the process of decision-making, but the top level has final say, according to multiple students in the encampment. 

Media liaison Tea Bland reiterated that the different levels are “entirely voluntary” and are chosen based “on their [participants’] own comfort level.”
Updated 2:32 p.m.

The encampment now consists of between 110 and 120 tents, compared to an earlier count of 110 tents. 
Demonstrators are currently hosting a “teach-in” with UO sociology professor John Foster. Approximately 70 people were in attendance for the talk.  
Ahead of the scheduled 3 p.m. meeting between the demonstrators’ negotiation team and UO Dean of Students Marcus Langford, UO SJP co-president Salem Younes said “our team is not willing to concede for anything.”
The camera that was previously hung from a ladder atop Chapman Hall yesterday were removed from the building. Workers were later seen installing a similar camera on top of the Lillis Business Complex.  
UO spokesperson Angela Seydel told the Daily Emerald that the camera was placed on Lillis by the university. The Emerald could not immediately confirm why the cameras were moved before publication.

Updated 1:40 p.m.

Several more tents have been added to the encampment today, and student organizers are expecting further growth. The encampment now consists of at least 110 tents.

UO student and media liaison Valentine Bentz said that the student organizers in the encampment are changing the layout of the encampment in response to the rapid growth of tents and protesters.

“We’re moving the things like food and the things we need to keep us safe to the center of the camp,” Bentz said. “So when students are camping on either side it’s easier to access them.”

Previously, resources like food and community donations had been located on the northern end of the encampment close to Lillis Hall. Bentz said the layout was intended to encourage additional growth.

It was unclear whether the encampment would be expanding its borders based on the changed layout. Another student protester, going by Cedar, said that the camp would push south on the Memorial Quad towards the Knight Library if necessary.  

Updated 1:16 p.m.

Student organizer Salem Khoury, co-president of UO Students for Justice in Palestine, addressed encampment members with a speech around 1 p.m.

“We are here as dignified students,” Khoury said. “We are here as a community full of love and compassion that wants to promote that to the wider community. We are not here for any other reason than nonviolence.”

A bystander whose name could not be verified was seen filming Khoury’s speech. The bystander also spent time walking around filming the faces of various encampment participants and other observers.

“Put down your phone, look at the world,” Khoury said in response. “Phone storage is something that runs out at some point.” 

Protesters have been encouraged not to engage with outside counter-protesters or agitators.

“We’re here, we’re ready to fight and stay here,” Carolyn Roderique, a UO student and media liaison in the encampment, said. “One of the community guidelines is that we don’t engage with outside agitators. Clearly he’s not doing this to have a conversation with people.”
Updated 12:39 p.m.

Guest speaker Dr. Michael Fakhri, a law professor at UO and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, spoke at the encampment about his work regarding hunger and malnutrition in Gaza.

U.S. and U.N. officials have warned about the potential for famine in Gaza, where the vast majority of its population of 2.3 million civilians have been displaced since October by the Israel-Hamas war.

“We’ve never seen the civilian population go hungry so quickly and so completely,” Fakhri said. 

Fakhri said Israel is destroying Palestinian access to food by damaging fishing boats, orchards and poisoning soil.

Reporting from The Guardian in March indicated that nearly half of Gaza’s tree crops had been destroyed, as well as large percentages of its greenhouses and orchards. At the time, an Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson denied claims that this damage was done intentionally. 

Fakhri said he is asked “how do you know it’s genocide? How do you know starvation was intended?” by media frequently, and his response is “because Israel told us they were going to do it.”  Fakhri and other U.N. experts have made similar statements  in recent months, stating that the Israeli military is using starvation as a weapon of war.

Fakhri said change does not just happen by changing the law, but by engaging with people in new ways and rethink existing relationships and beliefs.

“You have already won no matter what happens after this moment, because you’ve created new relationships with each other and forced all of us to create new relationships,” Fakhri said. “You’ve already changed the game. You’ve already changed the University of Oregon. You’ve already changed the world in solidarity with all of you.”
Updated 12:12 p.m.
Other organizations expressed support for UO’s encampment as its fourth day continued.
The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, a labor union representing UO’s graduate employees, issued a statement supporting student protesters “in light of the campus protest events taking place locally and globally.”
The statement condemns “the use of police violence and other forms of repression” against student protesters, and demands that “the University of Oregon and local police act peacefully” towards the encampment.
The Oregon Student Association, a nonprofit advocacy group representing Oregon college students, condemned “the use of excessive force, mass arrests, or other forms of violence and intimidation” against student demonstrators and said it would assist students with legal resources and investigate “what bail funds or legal representation may exist” for arrested students.
Earlier today, 12 demonstrators — including 4 students — were arrested at Portland State University after occupying the Millar Library. Portland police entered and cleared the library. The protests there have made national headlines.
Updated 11:40 a.m.
The UO Coalition for Palestine released a letter on social media in response to yesterday’s statement from President John Karl Scholz on the protesters’ demands. The letter describes the encampment as “an act of nonviolent civil disobedience” and asks Scholz to have a “shared discussion” of protesters’ demands before the encampment ends.
“We are looking forward to such a dialogue and remain committed to maintaining our encampment until then,” the letter reads.
The letter makes seven demands of the university, which are similar to — but not an exact version of — the eight demands made previously by protesters. One of their demands, calling for a statement in support of “Arabs, Muslims, Palestinians, and Jewish community members,” was addressed in Scholz’s statement yesterday.
Notably, the letter expands on the coalition’s previous demands for “education for students that exposes the true nature of Israel’s occupation of Palestine,” calling for “a Middle Eastern Studies department, specialists on the Palestinian crisis and enhanced course offerings on the geopolitics of the Middle East.”
The letter also demands that no protester face “charges or institutional reprisal” for “exercising their right to free speech and assembly in relation to the encampment.”
Some of the demands were rebuffed by Scholz in a University Senate meeting yesterday, including academic boycotts of Israeli universities and the UO Foundation’s potential divestment from Jasper Ridge Partners. 
Updated 11:15 a.m.
The Knight Library and Lillis Hall, two of the buildings surrounding the encampment, closed early last night for the “safety and security of the campus community,” UO spokesperson Angela Seydel said. The Emerald had previously reported on the early closures of Chapman Hall and the Erb Memorial Union due to graffiti found in a Chapman Hall bathroom.
The Emerald has reached out for comment as to whether campus buildings will maintain early closures tonight.
Meanwhile, students in the camp are finding various ways to deal with the rainy conditions.  Joey, a student in the encampment, said that students work communally to distribute supplies and have received equipment and tarps from community members.
“The conditions of what it’s like for us is obviously nothing compared to the people we’re out here to support,” Joey said. “All those thousands of people in Gaza… who are out there risking their lives every single day just to exist.”
Updated 8:05 a.m.
It’s the fourth day of UO’s pro-Palestine encampment. Conditions were cold and wet overnight, with roughly one-third of an inch of rainfall in certain areas. 
The encampment expanded southward on the Memorial Quad yesterday, growing to over 100 tents. Student leaders of the encampment are expected to meet at 3 p.m. with Dean of Students Marcus Langford.
Daily Emerald reporters are on the scene and will continue to provide live updates throughout the day. 
Editor-in-Chief Evan Reynolds, News Editor Tristin Hoffman, Associate News Editor Mathias Lehman-Winters, Social Media Editor Alicia Santiago, photographer Alex Hernandez, and news reporters Ysabella Sosa, Tarek Anthony, Reilly Norgren, Stephanie Hensley, Hanna Kalan and Jasmine Saboorian contributed to this reporting.