Faculty Install Pro-Palestine Encampment at New York’s New School for Social Research

When pro-Palestine protesters at the New School for Social Research on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan were taken into custody by the NYPD last week, A.J. Medeiros managed to escape through the emergency exit.

The 25-year-old was on foot with no jacket and nothing in his back pocket but a wallet.

“I went home as soon as our student encampment was swept and home for me is Ridgewood [in Queens, New York] but I’m from Oakland, California,” Mr. Medeiros told The Epoch Times.

The 5th year student in the BA/BFA dual degree program was back at the private research university on May 8 calling for a labor strike and a pause on the use of the school’s resources online and in person.

“We will not rest until this university commits to truly protecting its students by keeping cops off campus,” Mr. Medeiros said during a press conference in front of the New School on Wednesday. “We will not rest until the institutional charges are dropped against our friends who are carrying out the moral obligation of each and every one of us to protest genocide and demand divestment.”

The New School did not respond to requests for comment.

On Friday, May 3, 59 individuals from the New School and New York University were taken into custody and slapped with various charges including resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, disorderly conduct, and criminal trespass.

Among those, 12 were released with summonses.

“It’s disgusting that the NYPD is being unleashed on children,” Mr. Medeiros said. “I think it is clear they are terrified of what is possible with our collective power.”

Despite the fact that the New School’s pro-Palestine student encampment was dismantled by the NYPD, a Refaat Alareer Faculty Solidarity Encampment, comprised of five pink and green tents, littered the New School’s lobby on Wednesday.

Mr. Alareer was a Palestinian who allegedly died during an Israeli airstrike in Northern Gaza.

“There is no reason any educational institution should be invested in genocide,” Mr. Medeiros said. “There is no reason any educational institution should be invested in scholasticide. This is why this afternoon, a group of autonomous faculty set up behind us the Refaat Alareer Faculty Solidarity Encampment, which is the first of its kind in the country.” 

Scholasticide is a reference to the systemic destruction of an educational system. 

Mr. Medeiros told reporters that part-time faculty have been told by their union that it is illegal to strike in their contract. There are more than 75 faculty members at the New School.

“At the same time, all messaging from the school has told faculty to move with whatever they see fit,” he said. “This is seeming to be a decision based on individual faculty members and departments, which is why it is so essential at this time to galvanize entire departments to support the faculty solidarity encampment and sign on to our demands.”

The protesters want the New School to divest from Raytheon, Elbit, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Chevron.

“Investments in these weapons manufacturers and surveillance companies means—at the bare minimum—complicity in the murder of Palestinians, of the people of Congo, Sudan, and Haiti,” Mr. Medeiros alleged. “Investments in these companies is an investment in the destruction of this earth and of a people. We cannot wash our hands of this.”

Down the street at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) on West 27 Street, the campus has also been the site of an encampment established by similar protesters since April 25. But on the evening of May 7, 50 demonstrators who police believe marched from Union Square Park to West 27th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue were taken into custody.

The investigation remains ongoing, according to an NYPD spokesperson.

“The NYPD maintained crowd control and tried to ensure that the rally did not escalate further,” FIT President Dr. Joyce F. Brown said in a statement online. “However, as expected, the insistence by some students to continue the occupation resulted in further action by the NYPD. I am deeply saddened by this outcome. I tried very hard to allow students and other members of our community on both sides of this issue to peacefully protest and make their feelings known. However, in the end, for some there was no room for dialogue or coexistence.”

National demands by universities for disclosure and divestment from Israel began after an Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel by Hamas.

In November 2023, Hamas released 105 of the 253 hostages they captured. Pro-Palestinian protesters contend that Israel’s response to Oct. 7 targeting Hamas in Gaza is an attempt to eliminate all Palestinians in the territory. Israel is calling for Hamas to release all of the hostages in return for a temporary ceasefire.