Two open letters by Princeton affiliates, one by professors and another by student organizations, condemned the university, accused it of racism, and defended the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who occupied a building at the Ivy League school.
The letters come after two Princeton graduate students were arrested and accused of trespassing at the university last week. They were among the roughly 50 people attempting to establish an encampment. Thirteen people were arrested at Princeton on Monday after occupying a campus building, which university president Christopher Eisgruber called “completely unacceptable.”
Rochelle Calhoun, the university’s vice president for campus life, sent an email on Tuesday to all undergraduates condemning the “unlawful behavior that created a dangerous situation” at Clio Hall. The arrested individuals face university discipline — including suspension, withheld degrees, and expulsion — as well as possible criminal charges, she added.
“As protestors entered Clio Hall, our staff found themselves surrounded, yelled at, threatened, and ultimately ordered out of the building,” Calhoun wrote. “Princeton staff serve the teaching and research mission of the University by providing support that makes the work of faculty and students possible. The way they were treated yesterday was abusive.”
In response to Calhoun’s email, four professors who were inside Clio Hall during the protest — Ruha Benjamin, Naomi Murakawa, Divya Cherian, and Dan-el Padilla Peralta — signed a letter stating that “what we witnessed inside Clio Hall bears no resemblance to VP Calhoun’s letter.”
“No one yelled. No one made threats. There were thirteen Princeton-affiliated sit-in participants and one student journalist, and not one treated Princeton staff in an ‘abusive’ fashion,” the letter claims. “It is possible that accusations of ‘abusive’ behavior reference that fact that protesters often chant/shout the word ‘Shame’ at the increasingly frequent sight of police patrols,” the professors added.
The faculty who signed the letter identify themselves as “faculty witnesses” of the protest. However, outside of Clio Hall, professor Max Weiss, a protest supporter, had announced that Benjamin “occupied” the building as a political effort.
“Fourteen students have occupied this building in solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza,” Weiss said, leading a chant to a crowd of roughly 100 people. “One faculty member has occupied this building in solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza. Her name is Ruha Benjamin.”
An open letter released late Wednesday and signed by 19 affinity associations at Princeton accuses the university of racism and calls for it to revoke all disciplinary charges against the students who participated in “all forms of peaceful protest” over the last week.
“We … condemn in the strongest possible terms the University’s utter disregard for the safety and wellbeing of its students of color, the ongoing racist policing of students of color, and a total dismissal of the demands for divestment that our communities have made through peaceful demonstrations,” reads the letter. Signatories of the letter include the Black Student Union, the Pride Alliance, Sri Lankans of Princeton, and the Latinx Graduate Student Association Leadership Committee.
The letter notes that the two graduate students arrested last week were people of color, and the five undergraduates arrested on Monday were all people of color and four were pursuing degrees in the African American Studies department.
The African American Studies department was a certificate program that became a full department offering a major specialization after the Black Justice League student organization occupied Eisgruber’s office for thirty-three hours in 2015. The Black Justice League’s other demands included cultural competency training for faculty and the removal of Woodrow Wilson’s name from buildings.
“In recent years, the University has enthusiastically advertised its efforts to recruit students from more diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds,” the student letter reads. “It is clear now that this agenda of diversity, equity, and inclusion is merely cosmetic, as the University recruits these students, while also policing them.”
Students who occupied Clio Hall on Monday held a press conference on Tuesday, during which one student cited the “precedent” of the Black Justice league that “similarly waged sit-ins” by occupying the president’s office.
Other student groups have independently released statements in support of the arrested students.
“These arrests, in response to a sit-in occupying administrative officers within Clio Hall, have proven to be harsh consequences that do not follow the precedent set by previous sit-ins,” the Muslim Advocates for Social Justice group wrote in an email distributed through various university email listservs. “Furthermore, these arrests have been disproportionately impacting Black and brown students, reflecting a known bias among Police officers. Both graduate students and nearly all of the arrested undergraduates were People of Color.”
The Black Student Union board released a statement condemning the university’s response to the pro-Palestine protests, and further urging it to “refrain from using excessive force on or arresting any students engaged in these protests.”