The sit-in in solidarity with Gaza on Princeton’s McCosh Courtyard has entered its second day. Student demonstrators remained on the courtyard undisturbed through Thursday night into Friday morning.
Princeton students began the sit-in early Thursday morning, after planning documents leaked on Wednesday indicated that students were preparing for an encampment. No student organization is officially sponsoring the sit-in.
As the sun rose over McCosh Hall on Thursday, protesters began to set up tents, in line with the tent encampments set up at Columbia and other universities across the country. The tents were taken down within just six minutes following a warning from PSAFE and the arrest of two graduate students, all within the first ten minutes of activity.
The action followed a Wednesday email from Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun cautioning that “[a]ny individual involved in an encampment, occupation, or other unlawful disruptive conduct who refuses to stop after a warning will be arrested and immediately barred from campus.”
The two students arrested on Thursday morning have been barred from campus but not from their University-owned housing, according to a statement sent to the ‘Prince’ by University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss.
To maintain compliance with University policy, organizers have shifted away from the encampment style maintained at other universities to a strategy of taking shifts to stay awake. The Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS) forbids sleeping “in outdoor space of any kind.”
“Morale is good. We’ve had a large number of campers at every single point in the night.” Aditi Rao GS, an organizer for the sit-in, told the ‘Prince’ in the early hours of Friday morning.
During daylight hours, Thursday, McCosh Courtyard transformed into the “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.”
A number of speakers, including students, faculty, and alumni, addressed the crowd throughout the day, and two professors held class on the courtyard. Demonstrators encouraged passersby to join chanting, “this is where class is today.”
Protestors remained in the courtyard as night fell and temperatures dropped to temperatures hovering around freezing, sitting on blankets and lawn chairs. Just after 2 a.m., a Public Safety (PSafe) officer pulled an organizer aside about a portion of Princeton’s “Forms of Expression” policy that reads “Sleeping in outdoor space of any kind is prohibited,” prompting the organizer to wake up a small number of protesters who appeared to be sleeping.
“That did not lessen anybody’s spirits,” Rao added. “We’re going strong here this morning and we're almost at 24 hours.”
Approximately 60 people remained in the courtyard deep into the night. Around 3:15 a.m., around 15 more people arrived in small groups, while others left to take their sleep shift.
About a dozen Muslim students began a night prayer, Tahajjud, at around 4:15 a.m. as dawn broke over Dickinson Hall.
Rao said that organizers had not received any communication from the University beyond interactions with PSafe officers, and said there was a bargaining team in place “trying to negotiate our way to divestment.”
Facilities workers began scrubbing chalk reading “Divest Now” on the side of Dickinson Hall around 6:30 a.m.
Friday is the last day of classes for the spring semester.
Correction: The article has been updated to reflect the correct name of the prayer observed by Muslim students at 4:15 a.m.
Miriam Waldvogel is an associate News editor and the investigations editor for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Stockton, Calif. and often covers campus activism and University accountability.
Victoria Davies is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince,’ who covers University operations.
Meghana Veldhuis is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Bergen County, N.J. and typically covers faculty and graduate students.
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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