Students set up encampment on SU’s Shaw Quad

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This post will be updated with additional reporting.

11:39 pm — Shaw Quadrangle
Roxanne Boychuk — Asst. Copy Editor
Protesters in SU’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment have released a statement on the “racist character” of Senior Vice President and Chief Student Experience Officer Allen Groves’ campus-wide email sent Monday night.

The email stated that while Syracuse University is committed to free expression, the university will not tolerate threatening speech or conduct. The university administration asked that a sign be taken down for speech they deemed threatening, and the protesters took it down.

In response, the protesters wrote that the Groves statement released and the sign being taken down is a practice of racism against Arabs. The statement wrote that the sign said “intifada,” which they said translates to “uprising.” They also said this misunderstanding of language should issue an additional statement of clarification and an apology from SU.

“Administrators who engage in such misrepresentation of Arabic words need to learn to overcome their political biases, unlearn the propaganda they were exposed to, and work on reducing their racist biases,” the encampment wrote in the statement. “The university, as an institution, should help them do so and prevent them from bringing their personal biases into their work.”

9:24 pm
Kendall Luther — News Editor
Syracuse University’s Student Association has, with one abstention, unanimously passed its “Resolution in Solidarity with Syracuse University Encampment and Condemnation of Antisemitism” at its Monday meeting.

“College campuses have historically been places for activism and driving forth important social and political change,” the resolution states. “This includes Syracuse University, and we believe that, to protect our student body rights, we must support and advocate for free speech rights to be upheld on campuses everywhere, including our own.”

The resolution calls for students enrolled in universities to have permission to openly “express discontent” when “they do not approve of how their tuition is being used.” The resolution also condemns and denounces “hate of any kind,” which includes “antisemitism, anti-Arab, anti-Muslim speech” on campus.

7:08 pm
Stephanie Wright — Senior Staff Writer
Allen Groves, Syracuse University’s senior vice president and chief student experience officer, wrote in a campus-wide email Monday night that administrators have spoken with encampment participants about protest guidelines.

Groves said that while SU is committed to free expression and supports students’ right to protest and assemble, it does not tolerate harassment or threats. Administrators identified one sign at the encampment that they deemed “harassing.” It was removed at an administrator’s request, Groves wrote.

“The right to protest does not supersede the rights of community members or our obligation to fulfill our academic mission,” Groves wrote. “Many members of our community maintain deeply held positions on the complex conflict in the Middle East that are often hard to reconcile. What our community does agree upon is that we treat everyone with respect, dignity and grace.”

6:33 pm — Shaw Quadrangle
Samantha Olander – Asst. Copy Editor
More than 100 people are now gathered with 20 tents set up on SU’s Shaw Quad. Syracuse University administrators Associate Vice President and Dean of Students Sheriah Dixon and Assistant Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Staff Development Kyle Dailey have spoken to organizers outside of Hendricks Chapel.

Organizers have been handing out a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment Statement” calling for “community help” as Chief of DPS Craig Stone has asked them to move their encampment, the statement reads. It also outlines six of their demands from the university, including support for a ceasefire, ethical investments, ethical collaboration and honorings, protection of student rights, protection of academic freedom and “addressing DPS racism” and requesting a “transparent, prompt and non- repressive response.”

“We, members of the Syracuse University community, are mobilizing today in solidarity with the tens of thousands of Palestinians massacred by Israel’s ongoing ethnonationalist genocidal war in Gaza,” the statement reads. “We urge Syracuse University to take immediate and concrete actions that reflect our ethical commitments and responsibilities.”

3:24 pm
Kyle Chouinard – Managing Editor
In a comment to The Daily Orange, the executive committee of SU’s American Association of University Professors chapter wrote that it supports the rights of students to peacefully protest on SU’s campus and condemned the “violent responses” to similar protests across the country.

“We are particularly impressed the protesters at SU have placed protecting academic freedom at the core of their demands, as the AAUP believes this vital principle, so central to University life, is under attack both at SU and across the nation,” the executive committee wrote.

3 pm
Kyle Chouinard – Managing Editor
Syracuse’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace released a statement of solidarity with protesters at Syracuse University’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment this afternoon. In the Instagram post, which was cross-posted with the newly established SU Students for Justice in Palestine, JVP wrote that “students are organizing to end university complicity and investment in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

“History has shown us time and time again to follow the lead of young people. It was young people who spoke out clearly against the brutal war on Vietnam and pressured their universities to divest from South African apartheid,” the group wrote. “Once again, it is time to follow the lead of young people who are calling for an end to genocide.”

Since protesters began gathering on the quad, more than 100 people have gathered and set up 20 tents. Lars Jendruschewitz | Asst. Photo Editor

2:19 pm
Dominic Chiappone – Senior Staff Writer
Student Association confirms to The Daily Orange that a bill will be introduced at Monday’s SA meeting “addressing and showing support for the students at the encampment.”

1:49 pm
Stephanie Wright — Senior Staff Writer
In a Monday afternoon post on .

1:13 pm – Shaw Quadrangle
Anish Vasudevan – Editor-in-Chief
As of 1:00 pm, 19 tents have been set up on the quad with new tents set up closer to the center of the quad. There are currently no signs of DPS or SPD activity in the area.

12.30pm
Stephanie Wright – Senior Staff Writer
In a https://twitter.com/RepWilliams/status/1784979010415481280 on X, formerly known as Twitter, shortly after noon, Representative Brandon Williams said, “I don’t care what your demands are. Get the hell out of our community and never come back,” in response to the Syracuse University Gaza Solidarity Encampment that formed on the Shaw Quad. He called those his demands to him and said “the clock is ticking.” Williams, a Republican and US Navy veteran, represents the 22nd district of New York in the US House of Representatives.

Community members participating in a Gaza Solidarity Encampment located on SU’s Shaw Quad have expressed several demands for Syracuse University. Joe Zhao | Asst. Photo Editor

12.02pm – Shaw Quadrangle
Kyle Chouinard – Managing Editor
In a statement sent to The Daily Orange, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment has made seven demands for Syracuse University.

These demands include disclosing funds that go to Israel, divesting from companies which “support, fund, or arm the genocide in Gaza” and disclosing and canceling all collaborations with Israeli institutions. The group is also demanding that SU end study abroad in Israel, provide amnesty to protesters, ban “student organizations fundraising to support genocide” and “stop blocking” the formation of a local Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

“We will conduct ourselves peacefully, orderly, and within our legal rights. We refuse to make space for Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, anti-Blackness, colonialism, and all forms of imperialist oppression,” the group wrote in the statement.

11am – Shaw Quadrangle
Anish Vasudevan – Editor-in-Chief
Several dozen community members began setting up tents and occupying a portion of the Shaw Quadrangle at approximately 10:40 am

The encampment is comprised of Syracuse University and SUNY ESF students, faculty, staff and alumni who are launching their own Gaza Solidarity Encampment and a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, according to a statement from the group.

“We establish this encampment in protest of Syracuse’s complicity in the genocide and slaughter of millions in Palestine,” the statement reads.