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 13, the 15th day of the encampment.
As UO’s pro-Palestine encampment entered its third week on the Memorial Quad, it was unclear how negotiations with the university would progress. Negotiations have not occurred since May 9. On May 10, encampment representatives requested a public negotiations session, which the university declined to engage with citing “agreed-upon ground rules.”
UO spokesperson Eric Howald said that “the door remains open” for student negotiators to meet with university officials. Tea Bland, a media liaison for the encampment, said that “we’re waiting for the university to reach out to resume negotiations for now so they can meet with us in good faith.” The parties did not meet on Monday.
University officials, including President John Karl Scholz, have not been receptive to demands over divestment or issuing a statement on a ceasefire in Gaza. And in a sit-down interview with the Daily Emerald and KLCC on Friday, Scholz did not discuss potential police involvement despite being asked three times.
University of Oregon Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine sent a letter to President Scholz, touching on points that UOFSJP feels President John Karl Scholz has handled incorrectly in regard to the encampment and the Israel-Hamas war.
“Generally, ever since October, your remarks miss the fact that Israel is currently committing genocide against the Palestinian people, as has been established by over 400 leading genocide and Holocaust scholars along with UN human rights experts,” the letter reads.
The letter accuses Scholz of misrepresenting the encampment’s goals in public statements, criticizes his declared policy of “institutional neutrality,” and states the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement is effective.
It was an otherwise quiet day at the encampment. A “camp clean-up” took place at 10 a.m., followed later in the day by other events including “BDS 101” and a Zoom call with leaders of another pro-Palestine encampment at San Francisco State University.
Read on for live updates as they happened.
Updated 4:31 p.m.
University of Oregon Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine have sent a letter to President Scholz in response to his community message sent on May 10.
The letter, posted on Instagram, at 4:19 p.m., touches upon points that UOFSJP feels President John Karl Scholz has handled incorrectly in regard to the encampment and the Israel-Hamas war.
“Generally, ever since October, your remarks miss the fact that Israel is currently committing genocide against the Palestinian people, as has been established by over 400 leading genocide and Holocaust scholars along with UN human rights experts,” the letter reads.
The letter states that there are three points that UO FSJP has found “alarming, distorted or flawed” regarding Scholz’s message on May 10.
The letter says that many in the encampment felt Scholz insinuated that encampment members were supporters of the Hamas militant group, responsible for the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.
“In the distressing absence of progress on the ground, it is tempting to use the power of language to bolster a moral argument,” Scholz’s statement said. “However, it is unproductive to do so in defense of an organization that has enshrined in its founding principles the call for the obliteration of a people.’”
In a follow up conversation following the statement, UO spokespersons Angela Seydel and Eric Howald attempted to clarify that Scholz was not insinuating encampment members were pro-Hamas.
According to Howald, in the statement Scholz was attempting to clarify his reasoning for not taking a political stance in the Israel-Hamas war. Scholz allegedly believed that making a statement condemning the Israeli response to Hamas’ October 7 attacks could be viewed as supporting Hamas. Therefore, according to Howald, Scholz remained neutral.
A media liaison in the encampment going by Kermit said the statement was a “misrepresentation of what this encampment stands for, including its values.”
Kermit said that Scholz could issue a statement condemning both the Israeli government’s military action in Gaza as well the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, saying that the two are not “mutually exclusive.”
“The students have been clear since they formed the encampment that they are supporting Palestinian self-determination, human rights, and the end to their institution’s complicity in the genocidal mass slaughter, mass displacement, and mass starvation of Palestinians in Gaza and settler violence in the West Bank,” the UOFSJP letter reads.
The letter also argues Scholz is not maintaining a position of institutional neutrality, as he has stated on multiple occasions. “Institutions – but especially universities – have the responsibility of holding a mirror to history and maintaining a neutral position on geopolitical events,” Scholz’s May 10 statement read.
Yet UOFSJP argues that UO has taken stances in previous historical and ongoing political events.
“‘While you have distanced yourself from your predecessor’s decision to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, your words and actions are continuing Michael Schill’s policy of non-neutrality: since you issued your first statement on October 13th, in which you used your power and platform to frame the attack against Israel as “genocidal,” you have never maintained a neutral position,” the letter reads.
The letter also states that the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement is effective and that UO’s investments are political, in contrast to Scholz’s previous statements.
According to the UOFSJP letter, BDS has been effective in the past during the global movement to combat South African apartheid and they have stated their opinions on investment dollars and how they are spent.
“Relatedly, framing the university’s investment system as neutral or apolitical conceals the ways that actively investing in companies that support or profit from genocide is already political,” the letter reads. “Investing in companies that provide services and technology to the military committing violence is not neutral. Investing money in companies, like Jasper Ridge, that invest billions of dollars in war is not neutral.”
The closing of the letter invites President Scholz and administration to meet with the students of the encampment to negotiate and engage with their demands.
Updated 3:54 p.m.
At 2:56 p.m., the UO Students for Justice in Palestine Instagram page posted a link on their story to an Action Network website that allows students to send letters to President John Karl Scholz and the administration to push for the movement to divest.
As of this writing, 2,520 letters have been sent through the website.
A media liaison going by Kermit said that they hope the act of sending letters will make the administration more aware of how serious the encampment’s demands are.
“I think the main idea is to let administration know that we need to be taken seriously and this isn’t just something that should be pushed aside,” Kermit said.
Updated 11:42 a.m.
Members of the encampment took time this morning to do a “camp cleanup.”
“We’re waiting for the university to reach out to resume negotiations for now so they can meet with us in good faith,” Tea Bland, a UO student in the encampment, said.
Bland said that entering week three, despite little progress in negotiations, students are still dedicated to staying in the encampment for as long as divestment takes.
“You can’t really ever predict how long these things are going to last for certain,” said Bland. “I think a lot of people were maybe hoping we would have been able to leave by now because the university met with us. But I [also] think some people were expecting to be out here for maybe the long haul.”
There is a “BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] 101” session scheduled for 12 p.m., followed by “solidarity sports” time at 3 p.m.
Updated 10:35 a.m.
Media liaisons commented on the weather and the overall status of how students have been faring under the increase in temperature over the weekend and on any ongoing negotiations with the university.
“We are doing a pretty good job of making sure people are hydrated. We’ve gotten a lot of water and donations of ice,” a media representative, only going by the alias TB, said.
According to TB, there have not been any students leaving the encampment due to the increase in temperature.
“The negotiation team meets with them most days of the week for hours at a time. It kind of depends on the day. Sometimes they don’t meet, sometimes they do,” TB said.
TB alluded to Friday afternoon, when members of the encampment’s negotiation team hoped to meet with university representatives in a “public negotiation.” University representatives did not show up to that negotiation meeting, but rather to a different location in Hendricks Hall, which they said aligned with “agreed-upon ground rules.”
“You get a lot of people talking online about protests remaining peaceful and all that sort of thing about student behavior. I think we want people to remember why we’re here exactly. We are here to protest our university’s complicity in genocide,” TB said.
Updated 9:01 a.m.
It’s day 15 of the University of Oregon’s pro-Palestine encampment as roughly 140 tents on the Memorial Quad begin their third week of camping.
Over the weekend, warm weather and the Native American Student Union’s Mother’s Day Powwow kept events light. Many students either attended the Powwow or remained in or adjacent to their tents.
The UO Coalition for Palestine has posted a schedule for the day that includes a “camp clean-up” at 10:30 a.m. At 7:15 p.m., organizers will host a Zoom call with leaders of the encampment at San Francisco State University, which also began April 29.
As the camp enters its third week, it’s unclear where negotiations with the university may go from here. Negotiations have not occurred since May 9. On May 10, encampment representatives requested a public negotiations session, which the university declined to engage with citing “agreed-upon ground rules.”
University officials, including President John Karl Scholz, have not been receptive to demands over divestment or issuing a statement on a ceasefire in Gaza. And in a sit-down interview with the Daily Emerald and KLCC on Friday, Scholz did not discuss potential police involvement despite being asked three times.
The Daily Emerald has reached out to the university for comment on ongoing negotiations. Emerald reporters are on scene and will continue to have live updates throughout the day.
