The live updates on day three of the sit-in have concluded. Follow live updates of day four here. Coverage of day one and day two can be found here and here.
The Princeton sit-in for Gaza continues into its third day after a quiet night in McCosh Courtyard.
The Daily Princetonian observed no warnings from PSAFE overnight. At 11:01 p.m., Daniel Shaw ’25 sent an email to residential college listservs encouraging students to sign a petition “to call upon the University to uphold our right to freedom of speech and protest.”
The encampment began in McCosh Courtyard in the morning of Thursday, April 25. Two graduate students were arrested in the sit-in’s opening minutes as protesters attempted to pitch tents. Afterwards, protesters transformed the courtyard into a “Popular University for Gaza,” referring to a movement organized by the national wing of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which aims to “counter the bias of the educational system while building the movement for Palestinian liberation.”
On Friday, the second day of the sit-in, some tensions arose between protesters and counter-protesters during speaker events. Throughout the afternoon, a series of professors visited the sit-in to speak and provide mini-lectures. Rabbi Gil Steinlauf ’91 of the Center for Jewish Life (CJL) and Rabbi Eitan Webb of Chabad addressed the sit-in through emails sent to their respective listservs.
All quiet on Prospect Avenue as sit-in continues, Lawnparties looms — April 28, 3:30 a.m.
About 35 protesters remain in McCosh Courtyard, some wiping off tables and rearranging food supplies after a period of drizzling earlier in the night. A short walk away from the sit-in, Prospect Avenue was deserted after a busy night of semis and formals. Some of the clubs are set to host live music for Lawnparties in the morning.
On Frist North Lawn, the stage was set up for Lil Tecca to perform at 3:15 p.m., with Weatherboy opening. A few “Boycott Lawnparties” flyers adorned the back fence of Campus Club, where wristbanding for Lawnparties is supposed to take place.
Protesters present for the 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. shift were also tasked with laying down tarping under the supply tables at the encampment, after concerns that heavy foot traffic was raising dust.
Organizers announce U. authorized them to use McCosh tents – April 28, 12:43 a.m.
As it started to drizzle, an organizer announced that they had been authorized by the University to go inside the McCosh courtyard tents in the case of active rain. Organizers began to cover their supplies with a tarp and move toward the tents.
The ‘Prince’ was able to independently verify the communication. After the rain stops, the organizers must vacate the tents.
After it stopped raining, organizers left the tents. There was a moment of confusion as it began to drizzle and organizers contemplated re-entering the tent. They decided to remain uncovered.
“We want to follow rules,” an organizer said to the crowd.
USG closes late-night meeting to the public — April 27, 10:47 p.m.
At a 10 p.m. special session, members of the Undergraduate Student Government approved a motion to move to a closed-door executive committee meeting. The motion was called by Senator Samuel Kligman ’26. Approximately 15 members of the campus community were in attendance — they were asked to leave after the vote. It is unclear when members of the USG will reemerge from Robertson 016.
In total, 23 voting members were present at the meeting, including at least two proxies. A two-thirds majority vote is needed to move the meeting to a closed door executive committee meeting.
In his opening statement, USG President Avi Attar ’25 noted the importance of transparency, saying, “I think in USG, it’s always important to be transparent. That goes without saying and is unwavering.”
The USG meeting started shortly after 10 p.m. There was no Zoom meeting option for those who could not attend. After Sustainability Chair Quentin Colón Roosevelt raised that some members would have liked to attend in person, Attar replied, “Yeah, I totally get that. Thanks for letting me know.” No Zoom option was made available by the time the meeting was called to order.
The petitioners who called the meeting were Roosevelt, U-Councilor Isabella Shutt ’24, Campus and Community Affairs Chair Genevieve Shutt ’26, U-Councilor Karen Villanueva ’27, Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) Executive Committee Representative Aishwarya Swamidurai ’26, and Senator Jack Ganley ’26.
However, Attar also said that he heard from various members of the Senate that “they see this meeting beginning most productively with an executive session, which can be attained and being voted on by the Senate.” The motion passed with 18 in favor, 4 members opposing and 1 abstaining. Roosevelt, Isabella Shutt, Genevieve Shutt, and U-Councilor Judah Guggenheim ’25 opposed, while Villanueva abstained. Guggenheim was unseated in the recent USG elections. His term is still ongoing.
Before formally calling the executive meeting to order, Attar once again spoke, saying that he appreciated the engagement, and that “USG always wants to be transparent and student-facing and community-facing.”
USG calls special meeting for 10 p.m. - April 27, 9:38 p.m.
This afternoon, members of the Undergraduate Student Government began to circulate a petition for a special meeting. At least five members need to sign the petition for an official special meeting. The request for a meeting petition was circulated by Quentin Colón Roosevelt ’27, Sustainability Chair. As of publication, nine members of the USG have signed on.
An official email was sent to the Senate at 8:49 p.m., stating that at least 5 Senate members had signed onto the petition. The attached agenda had three items: a Lawnparties discussion, a student protests discussion, and a statement vote. Earlier in the day, organizers with the Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest (PIAD) sent an email to the student body calling on the USG to cancel Lawnparties.
The meeting will be open to the public. However, through a two-thirds vote, the meeting can become an executive committee meeting, meaning it will be closed to the public.
The meeting will take place in Robertson 016, from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Faculty protest U. offering May 13 date for special meeting — April 27, 8:11 p.m.
Molly Greene, a professor of history, spoke to the crowd, clad in graduation regalia with a blue stole, about a request from herself and six faculty members to call a special meeting with University administrators present in light of the sit-in. Greene read out the entirety of the reply to their request from Dean of the Faculty Gene Jarrett ’97 in which he proposed a “more general discussion” on May 13, after the regularly scheduled faculty meeting.
The ‘Prince’ was unable to independently verify the contents of Jarrett’s email.
In the email, Dean Jarrett suggested adopting a more informal approach, previously used during the Global Financial Crisis, in which faculty are invited to stay after the regularly scheduled faculty meeting to have a general discussion without the formal constraints of Robert’s Rules, which normally apply.
“This is not acceptable,” Greene said after reading the email.
The faculty meeting Dean Jarrett proposed will provide faculty the chance to directly interact with members of the administration. University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 generally presides.
Dean Jarrett did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
“Rules and procedures of the faculty specify that special meetings shall ordinarily be set for Monday. All important proposals shall be delivered in writing to the clerk not later than the second Wednesday before the meeting at which they will be introduced,” Greene quoted from Jarrett’s email, to the laughter of the crowd.
Greene spoke into a megaphone, but PSAFE did not intervene.
Later in her speech, Greene referenced a letter sent to University administrators on Wednesday morning calling for “the immediate and full reinstatement” of Achinthya Sivalingam GS and Hassan Sayed GS, the two graduate students arrested early Thursday morning at the beginning of the Gaza solidarity sit-in in McCosh Courtyard.
“These are not ordinary times,” Greene said. “Governance at this university, as with all universities, is meant to be shared. A substantial number of the faculty wants to hear from, and to speak with, President Eisgruber,” she added.
Any six faculty members can request a special faculty meeting. The other five faculty members are Ruha Benjamin, Dan-El Padilla Peralta, Lidal Dror, V. Mitch McEwan, and Curtis Deutsch.
Organizers call on University to cancel Lawnparties — April 27, 4:50 p.m.
Organizers with Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest (PIAD) sent a message to residential college listservs calling on the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) to cancel Lawnparties, which is currently scheduled for tomorrow.
“To allow these festivities to occur as normal would be a complete disgrace to the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been murdered in the ongoing genocide,” organizers wrote. Their message also included an email template to send to members of the USG social committee.
“I am writing to demand that USG cancel all upcoming Lawn Parties events due to the horrific circumstances surrounding the genocide in Gaza and the violent criminalization of peaceful student protests at American universities, including our own,” the beginning of the template reads.
USG Social Chair Enzo Kho ’26 told the ‘Prince’ prior to the listserv message that wrist-banding for Lawnparties — normally held in McCosh Courtyard — would take place in the backyard of Campus Club.
Orange Key tour guides have been explicitly instructed not to take tours through McCosh Courtyard, according to a message sent to guides on Saturday afternoon obtained by the ‘Prince.’
Speech by Linda Sarsour — April 27, 2:00 p.m.
Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American organizer and former chair of the Women’s March, spoke for more than half an hour at the sit-in. Sarsour also spoke at Yale’s sit-in on Friday.
“There would never have been an end to the war in Vietnam, or South African apartheid, if it wasn’t for people like you,” she said on Saturday. “And they too, got arrested. And they too, got vilified. So please, always look back to the ancestors.”
“Don’t let anybody tell you that you being outside [protesting] is hurting your future. One day somebody will be honored to have an employee with conviction,” she told the crowd.
Sarsour also urged people to vote “Uncommitted” in the New Jersey Democratic primary on June 4 to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel. She referenced the earlier uncommitted vote in Michigan in February, which won more than 100,000 votes.
Rain expected: sit-in to continue — 1:30 p.m.
Rain is expected at 1:45 p.m. An organizer used a megaphone to ask protesters to help set up tarps to cover the “Liberation Library,” all papers, food, speakers, and any electronics. “We are not going anywhere,” they added.
The organizer was allowed to finish speaking without PSAFE intervention. Protesters worked to cover all materials with tarps.
Orange Key tour heckled and daily schedule posted — April 27, 12:50 p.m
At 12:37 p.m., in response to counter-protesters, organizers chanted, “I will not respond to counter-protesters. They are too lame for my time.”
The first Orange Key tour group to head through McCosh Courtyard since the beginning of the sit-in was heckled by protesters shouting, “Shut it down” and banging on drums.
Earlier, the daily schedule was posted on a tree. Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour is set to speak at 1:30 p.m. Sarsour was co-chair of the 2017 Women’s March, the 2017 Day Without a Woman, and the 2019 Women’s March. Sarsour, along with two other leaders, stepped down from the Women’s March Group in 2019 after controversy over antisemitism within the organization. She formerly served as executive director of the Arab American Association of New York.
At 12:16 p.m., organizers urged protesters to “call your friends” and invite them to join the sit-in. Roughly 65 people are currently at the sit-in.
Faculty letter sent to top University administrators – April 27, 11:32 a.m.
A couple of hours ago, 145 faculty and postdoctoral researchers sent a letter to top University administrators, calling for “the immediate and full reinstatement” of Achinthya Sivalingam GS and Hassan Sayed GS, the two graduate students arrested early Thursday morning.
The letter demands “that any and all punitive measures taken against the students be immediately reversed and expunged from their university and public records,” and calls for the University to “provide a public and transparent accounting of how disciplinary measures are going to be taken with students moving forward.” It reads, “We … condemn in the strongest possible terms the capricious, wrongful, and disproportionate punishment on April 25” of the two students.
The letter was sent to University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83, Provost Jennifer Rexford, Dean of the College Jill Dolan, Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun, Dean of the Graduate School Rodney Priestley, and Dean of the Faculty Gene Jarrett.
List of Gazans killed in conflict printed and displayed — April 27, 10:26 a.m.
As the sit-in continues into its third day, protesters have printed a list of the names of 7,000 of the 35,000 people who have been killed in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and placed it on a tree in front of McCosh Entryway 4. The list snakes around the tree and sits atop a bed of shrubs.
The list of names at the sit-in.
Miriam Waldvogel / The Daily Princetonian
On other college campuses, administrations have had a variety of responses to similar protests. The University of Pennsylvania told encampment protesters on Friday night to disband or face sanctions. Meanwhile, following the arrest and suspension of over 100 students by the New York Police Department, Columbia University has pivoted to negotiating with students to clear the encampment in time for graduation on May 15, and Barnard has ended many of the suspensions. Columbia has also called for an inquiry into the student leaders of the encampment and has barred multiple from campus.
At Emory University, 28 people were arrested but were granted bond, including economics professor Caroline Fohlin, who was thrown to the ground by police. According to the Emory Wheel, the College Senate of the Emory College of Arts and Sciences, the elected representative body for faculty, has approved a motion to hold a vote of “No Confidence” for Emory President Gregory Fenves. The vote will occur next week.
Police in riot gear cleared an encampment at Northeastern University on Saturday morning, detaining more than 100. University officials said that antisemitic language had been used at the protest, and that “What began as a student demonstration two days ago, was infiltrated by professional organizers with no affiliation to Northeastern.”
Princeton is one of at least 18 colleges where pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested.
Day three begins — April 27, 7:36 a.m.
Around 6 a.m., organizers began the first announcements of the day, encouraging protesters to bundle up and eat food for warmth and to prioritize their health and wellbeing.
Once again, there was a frost advisory last night, issued by the National Weather Service at 3:38 a.m. and lasting until 9 a.m. this morning.
“We are officially at 48 hours, everybody,” organizer Aditi Rao GS announced to the encampment at 7:08 a.m. “The administration is waiting for everyone to go home,” she chanted.
Organizers spent about an hour preparing for the day, tidying the courtyard, assessing their food supply, and adjusting the location of the tarps that protesters have sat on throughout the week.
This story is breaking and will be updated as further information becomes available.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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