Student protestors demand St. Kate’s disclose and divest in support of Palestine
Administration agreed to respond to the St. Kate’s Students for Justice in Palestine’s demands by May 17
By Natalie Nemes and M Yeager
On Friday, May 3, the St. Kate’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) held a protest and subsequent sit-in on the steps of Derham Hall. The protest called for the university administration to meet the SJP leaders to discuss the organization’s demands to disclose, divest and ensure amnesty for students, staff and faculty.
A Palestinian flag waving in the wind next to the steps of Derham on the day of the protest
The protest began with various chants outside the front doors of Derham, including, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” and, “Admin, admin, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”
After the opening chants, students occupied the lobby and first-floor hallways of Derham. There, St. Kate’s Muslim chaplain Dr. Imam Dardery started with a khutba or speech, followed by dua, a prayer for Palestine, and lastly jummuah, the collective Friday prayer.
After the prayer service, one student protestor read the demands of the SJP, which were split into three categories: disclose, divest and amnesty. The SJP also made their demands available via a Google Doc on their Instagram, which The Wheel has quoted from here.
The demands first called for the university to “disclose any investments or endowments tied to the occupation of Palestine” and for the Center for Spirituality and Social Justice (CSSJ) to “discontinue any ties to any religious organizations that promote or affiliate with Zionism or [Z]ionist programming.” Instead, the SJP calls for the CSSJ to “invest in spiritual or religious collective liberation.”
The demands under divest called for the university to “continue to not financially invest in the illegal occupation and genocide of Palestinians.” The demand also reserves the right for SJP to change this demand as more information is available pertaining to the investments of the university.
The final section of the demands list surrounds the topic of amnesty. The first demand in this section calls for the university to condemn “the disproportionate killing, starvation, illegal occupation, and torture of the Palestinian people.”
A protestor’s sign reading, “I will not be silenced by child murderers.”
In addition, it demands that the university not discourage or reprimand students, staff or faculty for speaking about “this academically applicable ongoing genocide in our current history” in the classroom.
At the end of the list, the student stated, “These demands are not asks — they are morally imperative.”
After the demands were read, protest leaders asked all members of administration available to listen to students during an open mic session. President ReBecca Koenig Roloff, CSSJ director Sharon Howell, Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students JoNes VanHecke and Senior Vice President for Academic Operations and Student Success Denise Baird were asked to take a listening role as students voiced their concerns.
After the open mic session, protestors called for Roloff, Howell, VanHecke and Baird to respond to their demands according to their appropriate domains.
Becky Roloff responding to the SJP’s demands
Roloff promised to share the details of the university’s Social Responsibility Investment, which commits St. Kate’s to not investing in weapons.
Roloff also called lighting up the bridge at Dew Drop Pond in blue and yellow a “mistake” in response to protestors who criticized the university for showing support for Ukraine but not Palestine. “I see that now because it did pick a side, right,” she added. “And I never imagined it would translate this way, but it did, and for that I really apologize.”
Roloff continued, “I think there’s enough hurt in the world to go around, whether it’s in Ukraine or it’s in Yemen or it’s in Gaza, or any other part of the world where there is terrible, terrible hurt being inflicted on innocent people because collateral damage happens in every war.”
One protestor responded by saying, “Humans are not collateral damage,” and others called for Roloff to use the word “genocide” instead of “war.”
Roloff initially responded by saying, “I thought I was speaking and you were listening,” although she eventually apologized for her wording.
Roloff additionally asked the protestors for more specific things that the university could do to help Palestinians, such as donating food or menstrual products.
Protestors then asked Howell to respond to the demands for the CSSJ to discontinue ties with Zionist organizations.
Howell began by apologizing to CSSJ student staff, stating that she was sorry they felt like they couldn’t come to her and tell her about the issues they had with the CSSJ’s connections to Hillel International, a Jewish campus organization that supports Israel’s statehood. However, Howell added that the CSSJ would not bar students from associating with Hillel.
Howell also apologized for not including connections to external religious organizations besides Hillel on the CSSJ website, and she apologized to the university’s Jewish students as well after a protestor called on her to do so.
After Howell finished speaking, VanHecke came forward and said she was sincere in her interest in having a conversation with protestors and invited students to engage with her individually.
“I also really look forward to working with your group of leadership from today’s protest, to make sure that we’re thinking together about the things that are of most importance to all of you,” VanHecke added. According to a Google Doc from the SJP, VanHecke has reached out to student leaders to schedule a meeting to discuss their demands.
Finally, a protest leader called Baird forward to discuss why conversations about Palestine were not happening in the classroom. “There is no prohibition from speaking about the matters of importance — geopolitically and otherwise, and those issues that matter to you as our students — can and will be invested in the classroom.”
Baird also clarified that the university’s status as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which prohibits it from endorsing or opposing political campaigns, does not prohibit conversation surrounding political matters in the classroom.
After all members of administration spoke, protestors asked if they could expect a response by the end of the school year, and VanHecke agreed administration would respond to each demand with a yes/no answer by May 17.
