UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) launched an encampment on the quad outside of Swift Hall at 10 a.m. on Monday, following in the steps of pro-Palestinian groups at numerous other universities that have set up encampments in recent weeks.
This article is being updated as the situation develops.
Coverage from days one, two, and three of the encampment can be read on the Chicago Maroon.
Day 4 Summary
The fourth day of the UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) encampment on the main quad was marked by a series of increasingly tense moments.
In the morning, encampment participants and a passerby shouted expletives at each other after a discussion about gentrification and the meaning of the term intifada.
In the morning, University administration offered UCUP organizers a one-hour meeting with University President Paul Alivisatos and Provost Katherine Baicker contingent on a full shutdown of the encampment, in addition to a public forum with Alivisatos and Baicker. UCUP declined this proposal, refusing to end the encampment without a commitment to meet their demands.
UCUP also held a rally at 1:40 p.m. after the University’s Deans-on-Call warned that organizing loud chants outside of the hours of noon and 1 p.m. and after 5 p.m. on weekdays would violate University policy. Organizers encouraged participants to be as loud as possible.
Facilities Services took down a Palestinian flag that had been hung in the area allocated for a registered installation from Maroons for Israel (MFI). The move was met with emphatic resistance from demonstrators, who chanted “Leave it up!” as Facilities staff attempted to dislodge the flag. In the evening, MFI released a statement on Instagram denouncing repeated attempts to remove their installation and calling for the University to shut down the encampment.
A thunderstorm in the late afternoon resulted in the University taking down the American flag on the quad. Encampment participants replaced it with a Palestinian flag, barricading the flagpole and securing the lowering mechanism in place with multiple rolls of duct tape to prevent the flag from being removed. The protesters also briefly demonstrated in front of the entrance of Levi Hall, blocking the walkway between the quad and South Ellis Avenue. Later, UCPD blocked that same walkway, where they remained into the night; tensions eased as the evening progressed.
May 2, 8:20 p.m.
The national anthem was played briefly out of the third floor of Jones Laboratory. A group of protesters walked by and booed, and the music began playing again.
— Maroon Staff
May 2, 8:12 p.m.
Maroons for Israel (MFI) published a statement on its Instagram this evening responding to the repeated removal of its displays and to the encampment. According to the statement, MFI’s banners have been vandalized and stolen six times in the six days since their installation on Friday, April 26.
In the statement, titled “Maroons for Israel’s Statement on Free Speech at the University of Chicago,” Maroons for Israel urged University President Paul Alivisatos “to take immediate action: clarify the University of Chicago’s principles, and protect all students’ free expression.”
“We recognize President Alivisatos’ decision to ‘provide the greatest leeway possible for free expression’ by Students for Justice in Palestine’s encampment,” the statement reads. “However, this decision undermines the value it claims to protect. By tolerating SJP’s encampment, the University is actively promoting an environment that emboldens protestors to intimidate their peers into silence.”
— Maroon Staff
May 2, 6:48 p.m.
In a Telegram announcement, UCUP said that a police officer informed them that individuals who interfere with police taking down the flag could be charged with assault. The organizers encourage demonstrators “who do not want to interact with escalated police” to leave the encampment for the night.
— Maroon Staff
May 2, 6:42 p.m.
Alpha Delta Phi has begun loudly playing the U.S. national anthem from their fraternity house on 5747 South University Avenue. They have hung up a large American flag that spans roughly one story from the windows of the house.
— Maroon Staff
May 2, 6:32 p.m.
Protesters have taped down the flagpole’s halyard, the rope used to raise and lower the flag.
Earlier today, after UCPD had removed the American flag from the flagpole in front of Levi Hall because of rain, demonstrators raised a Palestinian flag in its place.
“This isn’t even permanent. It’s inconvenient, and that’s the point,” one protester commented.
— Maroon Staff
-
The further taped flagpole. (Sabrina Chang) May 2, 6:13 p.m.
A performance by the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble has begun. Crowd members are clapping to music by six singers, two drummers, and five other musicians.
— Maroon Staff
May 2, 6:11 p.m.
Although students remain near the flagpole, the students who formed a ring around the base of the pole have dispersed.
— Maroon Staff
May 2, 6:07 p.m.
The number of UCPD officers underneath Levi Hall has decreased from roughly eight to three.
— Maroon Staff
May 2, 6:02 p.m.
Five members of Chabad have begun to play music through a speaker. They turned it off and moved it to the circle at the center of the quad walkway.
— Maroon Staff
May 2, 5:36 p.m.
Protesters are writing phone numbers on the arms of the protesters guarding the flagpole. The protesters are chanting, “The people united will never be defeated.”
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
May 2, 5:30 p.m.
Kent Chemical Laboratory now requires tap access to enter.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
May 2, 5:24 p.m.
Three officers approached the flagpole at approximately 5:20 p.m.. By 5:23 p.m., the officers left the flagpole and returned to Levi Hall.
Amnesty International has set up an information table and signs reading “President Biden: ceasefire now!” at the edge of the encampment. Seven non-protestors are currently standing in the middle of the drum circle.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief and Peter Maheras, News Editor
May 2, 5:17 p.m.
At least six marked UCPD cars and two unmarked white police cars with sirens are present behind Levi Hall.
As of 5:15 p.m., the two UCPD officers stationed outside of Kent Chemical Laboratory have left.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Anu Vashist, Managing Editor; and Sabrina Chang, Deputy News Editors
May 2, 5:04 p.m.
“UC FUNDS GENOCIDE” has been painted on the left side of Kent Chemical Laboratory’s front door. The doors of Kent were briefly locked and have since been unlocked. There are currently two UCPD officers stationed outside the doors.
The Palestinian flag remains at full mast on the flagpole. There are currently eight protesters around the flagpole with their arms linked to form a barricade.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Anu Vashist, Managing Editor; Tiffany Li and Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editors
The front door of Kent Chemical Laboratory has been painted. (Peter Maheras) May 2, 4:36 p.m.
The protestors have left the entrance of Levi Hall, and 10 UCPD officers have blocked the pathway between the quad and South Ellis Avenue with a retractable belt barrier.
The protesters remain around the flagpole with the Palestinian flag raised, shouting, “In rain or shine, we stand for a free Palestine.”
The rain has intensified.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor; Peter Maheras, News Editor; Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editor
UCPD officers blocked the enterance of Levi Hall after protesters left the area. Peter Maheras May 2, 4:20 p.m.
Protesters are surrounding the quad entrance of Levi Hall and occupying the passageway that runs under the building from South Ellis Avenue to the quad. Protesters are preventing pedestrians and press from walking through.
Nine UCPD officers are on the South Ellis Avenue side of the Levi entrance, blocking protesters from going through the opening and exiting the quad.
Protesters continue to chant “Free, free Palestine” and “Viva, viva Palestina.”
A group of protesters have raised the Palestinian flag on the flagpole on the quad. Around the base of the flagpole, about 10 protesters stand with their arms interlocked. The American flag ordinarily on the pole was taken down for inclement weather about an hour ago.
— Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor; Peter Maheras, News Editor; Tiffany Li and Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editors
Protestors have raised the Palestinian flag on the flagpole. (Tiffany Li) May 2, 4:15 p.m.
UCUP began their second rally of the day at 4:03 p.m. by chanting “Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
An organizer read the email from Dean of Students Michele Rasmussen aloud to the crowd, which met each statement with loud boos and drumming. She then read UCUP’s drafted response, which rejects the offer of the meeting and accuses the University of supporting scholasticide.
“Disruption will continue until the University commits to meeting all of our demands. People are dying as we speak, so let’s stop playing games,” the speaker said.
Another organizer led chants of, “Michele, Michele, you’re a liar; we demand a ceasefire” and “Paul, Paul, we know you! There is blood on your hands too!”
The protesters then marched around the perimeter of the encampment while chanting.
— Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editor
May 2, 3:56 p.m.
After the rain cleared around 3:30 p.m., Facilities Services began removing a Palestinian flag that was hanging about 25 feet in the air from a large oak tree on the quad. Maroons for Israel (MFI) had told Deans-on-Call that the flag was within the area allotted to MFI for their University-registered installation.
A crowd of protesters gathered around the tree as Facilities worked, chanting “Keep it up!” and “Shame on you!” Protesters also shouted “UCPD, KKK, IOF: you are all the same,” at a group of three Black UCPD officers who were guarding Facilities workers during the removal process. Multiple protesters shouted that taking down the flag was “a hate crime.” The Palestinian flag was removed at 3:37 p.m., did not touch the ground, and was returned to protesters.
UCPD and protesters remained in conflict on the quad after the flag came down, with Palestinian flags being waved in front of UCPD officers’ faces. A UCPD officer stepped closer to a protester and stated repeatedly, “I didn’t move [the flag].”
After UCPD officers told the protestors to step back, some protest marshals began chanting “We don’t engage with cops” in an effort to draw protesters away. After two of the officers began walking away, protesters chanted “Please go home” and “Fuck 12” at the two remaining officers. The remaining officers left the scene at 3:42 p.m, after which the crowd dispersed.
Several protesters remained below the tree waving Palestinian flags. One protester threw a water bottle on a string, which had been used as a counterweight for the removed flag, back into the tree.
– Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor; Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editor; and Austin Zeglis, Senior News Reporter
Facilities Services removing a Palestinian flag from a large tree across the quad from the encampment. (Zachary Leiter) May 2, 3:51 p.m.
After the National Weather Service announced a severe thunderstorm warning for the central Cook County area this afternoon, UCUP organizers advised protesters to cover electronics. Protesters moved to cover many tents with blue tarps. Many protesters also put on plastic rain ponchos.
The encampment and quad only experienced a few minutes of heavy rain. The University took down the American flag in the middle of the encampment, in keeping with protocol for inclement weather.
– Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editor
Eva McCord May 2, 2:03 p.m.
The individuals who set up a table with a Chabad tablecloth and a Western Wall banner yesterday have set up four banners with the headlines “The Palestinian National Movement founder was a Nazi war criminal,” “There is apartheid in the Middle East—just not in Israel,” “The Claim: Israel is committing genocide,” and “Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel” adjacent to the table.
At exactly 2 p.m., UCUP concluded its chanting and began Dhuhr prayer, the second daily prayer in Islam.
– Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editor, and Austin Zeglis, Senior News Reporter
Students observe banners raised on the quad denouncing claims that Israel is an apartheid state and that Israel is committing genocide. (Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon) May 2, 1:48 p.m.
After a rally scheduled for noon was delayed, Deans-on-Call repeatedly emphasized to UCUP that any chanting after 1 p.m. would be considered a violation of the University’s policy on protests and demonstrations. The policy permits “music, amplified sound, or other loud noise… [only] between noon and 1:00 p.m. and after 5:00 p.m. on weekdays.”
At 1:40 p.m., encampment participants began a series of chants with megaphones, including “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”
The chants were amplified over a set of loudspeakers set up at the encampment and chant leaders encouraged demonstrators to be as loud as possible.
– Anu Vashist, Managing Editor; Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor; and Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editor
A rally organizer leads chants at 1:40 p.m. on Thursday. (Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon) May 2, 1:45 p.m.
The University has offered encampment organizers a one-hour meeting with University President Paul Alivisatos and Provost Katherine Baicker in exchange for the immediate closing of the encampment and a promise of no further disruption, according to an email sent to UCUP by Dean of Students Michelle Rasmussen and obtained by the Maroon.
According to a message reviewed by the Maroon, UCUP said they would not disband the encampment and are in the process of formulating a response.
Subjects of the meeting would include “topics related to the University, Israel, and divestment.” The meeting would be conducted privately with no video or audio recording, but up to 15 student observers and a faculty adviser could be present in addition to the organizers.
The University has long declined to discuss divestment, claiming that such a policy would violate its stance on institutional political neutrality.
The email also said that Alivisatos and Baicker would be willing to participate in a public forum with the University community to discuss “the many viewpoints related to the Israel-Hamas War and divestment.”
— Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor; Peter Maheras, News Editor; Katherine Weaver, Deputy News Editor; Austin Zeglis, Senior News Reporter; and Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon, News Reporter
May 2, 12:30 p.m.
A group of individuals have set up a table with a Chabad tablecloth and a banner representing the Western Wall in Jerusalem, similar to what some of the same individuals set up yesterday. Signs posted on the front of the table read, “Hamas wants me dead” and “Do a mitzvah for our brothers and sisters held hostage.”
A UCUP rally scheduled to start at noon has not started.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor
May 2, 11:13 a.m.
UCUP released today’s schedule of events on their Instagram. It includes a rally at noon, a teach-in on Jewish anti-Zionism at 2:30 p.m., and a performance by members of the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble at 6 p.m.
— Austin Zeglis, Senior News Reporter
May 2, 10 a.m.
The quad encampment has now been in place for 72 hours. The Maroon estimates that roughly 150 tents are on the quad.
— Peter Maheras, News Editor
May 2, 9:28 a.m.
A woman walking her dog past the encampment exchanged shouted expletives with a group of protesters after a heated conversation about the meaning of the word intifada and the gentrification of Hyde Park. The woman called the protesters “antisemitic pieces of shit” and flipped them off. A protester yelled back, “Enjoy your privilege.”
— Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor; Austin Zeglis, Senior News Reporter; and Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon, News Reporter
May 2, 8:18 a.m.
Two UCPD officers on bicycles spoke with members of Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) about the orange mesh barriers that UCUP organizers placed around the encampment last night.
The officers told FJP that the orange barriers must be removed, describing them as “safety hazards.” The officers said that Facilities Services—accompanied by UCPD officers—would arrive in 15 to 20 minutes in trucks to take down the barriers. The faculty organizers then asked if encampment members could remove the fencing themselves.
At 8:25 a.m., UCUP organizers began removing the barriers.
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief; Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor; and Peter Maheras, News Editor
Encampment members begin taking down the orange fencing that once blocked walkways outside of Kent Chemical Laboratory. (Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon) May 2, 12:17 a.m.
Just after midnight on the fourth day, a group of about five individuals came from the northeast corner of the quad and entered the encampment. Marshals approached them and attempted to route them out of the area. After about 15 minutes, the individuals left the encampment.
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Zachary Leiter, Deputy Managing Editor and Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon
May 1, 11:51 p.m.
Starting at 11:35 p.m., protesters began encircling portions of the encampment with an orange plastic barrier. Starting at approximately 11 p.m., tents closest to the edge of the lawn of the main quad had begun to be folded and moved closer to the center of the encampment.
— Eva McCord, Co-Editor-in-Chief
(Zachary Leiter) 
An orange barrier has been placed in front of portions of the encampment. (Nikhil Jaiswal) 
(Zachary Leiter) 
Encampment members encircle portions of the encampment with an orange plastic barrier. (Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon)
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Alum / May 3, 2024 at 6:33 am
You can remember the Eugenics movement but can’t bother to understand the proxy issues going on here and the devastating consequences for supporting Hamas for LGBTQ people, women, and everyone who doesn’t support them. Do your homework and don’t just “support the thing” and assume “institutions are bad”. You are lucky to live in the best country in the world. FIGURE OUT WHY, YOU PETULANT INFANT.
Global economic enmeshment basically makes divestment impossible. The University is thoughtful and conscientious in its investments. If you were an adult, you would understand this. When you have a job, you can discuss it.
Again, begin by doing active work in communities that are in need. Teach refugees to speak English, feed the poor, visit prisoners. Do corporal works of mercy. Don’t just stand somewhere and yell. Get face to face with pain and need. Then read, read, and read more.
Read Aquinas, Hannah Arendt, The book of Job, and Leibniz, Dostoyevsky, C.S. Lewis.
Become subtle in thought and tender in speech. I guarantee you will be massively more successful and persuasive.
RG / May 2, 2024 at 10:11 pm
Hoping all those still at the encampment remain safe with the ongoing weather. And be careful, any damage caused to the encampment by the weather is likely to be used by admin as an argument that it’s “dangerous to the people participating and to everyone else on campus” or something like that.
EightiesAlum / May 2, 2024 at 9:41 pm
Ah, the sweet strains of our National Anthem floating over the main quad. I wish I could be there to hear it.
But, I have a better idea . . . alumni gathered for Interfraternity Sing could drop by afterwards and serenade the campers with the National Anthem as they bed down for the night after a long day of playing cowboys and terrorists.
For good measure and at no extra charge, we’ll throw in Hatikvah, the Israeli National Anthem. Don’t know it and don’t speak Hebrew but, if someone can give me an English transliteration, I’ll give it my best shot.
Alum / May 3, 2024 at 6:37 am
IFC sing has been canceled, of course! Another tradition bites the dust based on poor behavior (students) and lack of ability to handle the consequences thereof (students). People need to get over themselves.
O Tempore! O Mores!
Questioning / May 2, 2024 at 7:31 pm
Why do zionists lie about the motivations of their ideology?? People in the comments frothing at the mouth because these students had the wherewithal to crack open a BOOK and read and understand the zionist mission, something current zionists don’t seem to. Quote 1: “The main reason for the immigration of Jews to Palestine is the consolidation and colonization of the land.” (Menachem Ussishkin, Speech at the Zionist Congress, 1923)
Quote 2: “”Our work is a colonization movement in all its aspects.” (Arthur Ruppin, “The Jews in the Modern World,” 1934)
“Every native population in the world resists colonists as long as it has the slightest hope of being able to rid itself of the danger of being colonized.” Ze’ev Jabotinsky “Iron Wall”-1923
So…who were the “natives” Jabotinsky is referencing here if the Jewish people (not just the religion I guess) are actually indigenous to the land??? What was meant by colonization here??? There are influential figures of zionism being quoted here.
Questioning / May 2, 2024 at 7:54 pm
Just say you’re a colonizer! Why be shy??? Are you scared of something like admitting colonization is brutal and genocidal and that what’s happening in gaza was always the goal!!! Racists have become soft over the years….
Joe / May 2, 2024 at 8:04 pm
Pretty stupid comment. Jews have longest to RETURN to Israel for centuries. Long before Jabotinsky and Ushishkin Jews were returning to Israel and the Arabs were fighting them.
Colonizing means taking back our land, that is not the same as a country taking over a country, e.g. Great Britain taking over India etc.
A dog / May 2, 2024 at 8:08 pm
Wait till you find out what Hamas has said.
Hamas member, Ghazi Hamad on October 24, 2023: “Israel is a country that has no place on our land […] because it constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation.” (October 24, 2023, LBC TV (Lebanon)). He also vowed to repeat the October 7 attacks “time and again until Israel is annihilated,” and expressing a desire to “sacrifice martyrs” (referring to Gazan civilians) for Hamas’ ideological aim of destroying Israel.
Hamas official, Hamad Al-Regeb in an April 2023 sermon: He prayed for “annihilation” and “paralysis” of the Jews whom he described as filthy animals: “[Allah] transformed them into filthy, ugly animals like apes and pigs because of the injustice and evil they had brought about.” Al-Regeb also prayed for the ability to “get to the necks of the Jews.”
question / May 2, 2024 at 8:14 pm
Why are you quoting Hamas to me…what does that have to do with anything I said????
A dog / May 2, 2024 at 8:26 pm
Gee I wonder
James / May 2, 2024 at 7:28 pm
Thank you Students! FREE Palestine! UCPD, IOF, KKK, are definitley all the same! U of C simply needs to meet the Students’ demands to Divest in the decades long genocide against Palestinian people NOW.
Chicago is behind these Students despite all the chuds commenting here tonight.
Beth P / May 2, 2024 at 8:00 pm
All of the students depend on the UCPD to keep them safe from the crime in hyde park — but as soon as the encampers don’t get their way all of a sudden the UCPD is the KKK. How in the world did these students get into UChicago and still be so ignorant?
Questioning / May 2, 2024 at 8:11 pm
Did you miss the brazen robberies that happened in the MIDDLE OF THE SAME DAY!? Who tf is UCPD keeping safe??? As the Supreme Court ruled, cops DO NOT have to protect you so who or what do they protect? Well it seems that’s completely up to their discretion!
Questioning / May 2, 2024 at 8:29 pm
I’ll tell you where UCPD was when the robberies happened. On their cellphones with their earpods in and flashing their red and blues to run red lights!!
A dog / May 2, 2024 at 8:31 pm
Good job diminishing how evil the KKK was and is. Are you their press agent?
UIUC Rocket Scientist / May 2, 2024 at 9:35 pm
So long as you keep chanting “Free Palestine”, your demands are going absolutely nowhere.
The UC held a wonderful graduation ceremony on the Quad last year.
I predict the Quad will be completely available for graduation this year as well and the students, their parents, the faculty and the University will not be embarrassed by anyone during the ceremonies.
Larry / May 2, 2024 at 6:52 pm
All of the updates so precisely list the numbers of people, tents, musicians, etc. It’s like I’m with my autistic cousin at the zoo.
Adam M / May 2, 2024 at 6:44 pm
“Protesters also shouted ‘UCPD, KKK, IOF: you are all the same,’ at a group of three Black UCPD officers who were guarding Facilities workers during the removal process.”
Unfathomable. Shameful. These are the people whose demands the university is expected to address?
Whatever / May 2, 2024 at 7:49 pm
Do you think black people care if the cops are black or white….? No we care about the origins of police, which is the slave patrols, these black cops are simply overseers so no the protesters aren’t wrong in calling them what they are! Unfortunately America has corrupted our people to the point of believing we have some sort of equal rights despite being one of the most mass incarcerated populations in this country. Black Americans constitute an internal colony and every colony has its native informants!
Terry / May 2, 2024 at 5:09 pm
Nuke the quad. Raising the palestinian flag is the proof we need that covid ruined an entire cohort.
Student / May 2, 2024 at 4:52 pm
Where’s our frat bros coming to raise up Old Glory again like they did at UNC? Every second they occupy the flagpole is a disgrace.
Francis Scott Key / May 2, 2024 at 9:22 pm
Don’t worry brother it’s happening tomorrow. I refuse to let another flag go on that pole.
Yasmine / May 2, 2024 at 4:43 pm
Credit where credit is due: I think the students are getting stupider. Taking down the Palestinian flag is a hate crime? Maybe we can get Charli Dimelio to explain the concept with a new dance.
Anon Minority / May 2, 2024 at 5:20 pm
“I think the students are getting stupider”
We have affirmative action to thank.
Alum / May 2, 2024 at 4:27 pm
This is why civics is required. “support the thing” is not an intellectual stance that holds water. Hamas doesn’t care about you, you sweet useful idiots. Keep it up. Remember what country you live and study in and be grateful you are free and the secret police isn’t knocking your door down. Freedoms aren’t free. Go back to the common core and realize if China/Hamas/Iran/Russia get what they want, everything you know and love will be gone and you will likely be eaten for meat. Read some history and then go do some actual volunteer work and stop letting yourself be used.
Here Endeth the Lesson.
Name required / May 2, 2024 at 7:14 pm
“secret “police”…..you understand the nazis were inspired by American race science right? America has a secret police, it’s called the CIA and FBI!! Anti-Zionist Jews, are being beat and arrested as we speak in the open with little to no acknowledgement, is there no antisemitism in the American media erasing an entire subset of Jewish Americans?
Beth P / May 2, 2024 at 4:08 pm
An encapsulation of the narcissim of these encampers:
“A crowd of protesters gathered around the tree as Facilities worked, chanting “Keep it up!” and “Shame on you!” Protesters also shouted “UCPD, KKK, IOF: you are all the same,” at a group of three Black UCPD officers who were guarding Facilities workers during the removal process.””
How dare they shoult at the black facilities workers that they are the same as the KKK? The entitlement and privilege of these student protestors to attend a top university, and then berate the staff that keeps the grounds clean by calling them the name of a hate group that lynched people who looked like them. These students are not allies of Palistinians, black or brown people, or other minorities. They are privileged narcisstic toddlers who will leave their mess behind for others to clean up after they move on to the next trendy thing to shout about. The administration needs to do their job and clean up this mess ASAP.
Student / May 2, 2024 at 1:57 pm
The school says it’s delaying to preserve speech. Would it ever do this for a Trump rally on the quad? Doubt it. Protecting free expression means giving everyone access to the same means to speak out, but also punishing everyone equally when they break the rules.
Alum / May 2, 2024 at 3:17 pm
Of course not. Try occupying a piece of the campus on behalf of immigration restriction or the conservation of Western culture. You’ll be expelled in 20 seconds.
student / May 2, 2024 at 6:50 pm
this sort of take is so incredibly separated from reality
it isn’t that the uni would treat conservatives on campus differently if they held protests like this, it’s that conservatives on campus don’t have to do hold protests like this to get heard in the first place — the uni has seemingly preferentially taken their side as often as possible!
questioning / May 2, 2024 at 8:00 pm
it’s giving “why don’t we have a white history month?????”
Melmoth / May 2, 2024 at 1:48 pm
I can’t begin to express how deeply all of this saddens me. But allow me a moment to try.
There is a version of these protests that in another, better lifetime I would have supported. We could have joined hands and called for peace, for healing, for a hopeful Palestinian state beside a wiser Israeli one. Instead, I sit and wonder where it all went so terribly wrong, where in our own lonely grief we learned to so disdain that of our neighbors. How could a movement so concerned with the hurt that can language can inflict, so callously chant words taken directly from Hamas’s constitution? How could they paint the words “globalize the intifada” and look past the 1000 faces murdered in the name of that very phrase during the second intifada?
Every morning I force myself to look at the images of suffering in Gaza alongside the faces of the hostages, all so grey and hollow now. Every morning I walk past the physical manifestation of an ancient hatred unfurl its wings and lick its lips. And every morning, I wonder what is it that we owe to each other? Because surely, it is more than this.
Unlike many of the angry faces that, as I passed this morning in silence, saw the tears on my face and turned away, muttering “ don’t forget the first rule- never talk to zionists”, I watched all seven hours of the ICJ trial. I watched the videos of October 7th, I read about the children forced to endure amputations without anesthesia in a decimated, devastated Gaza. I listened to those who argued that there was never a Palestinian people, despite a wealth of evidence and history . I have tried to imagine the terror of the child who does not exist as she awaits her “ martyrdom”, as men crouch in the tunnels beneath her home and praise the God that will come so eagerly to take her . I have tried to imagine her terror, and I have failed.
I have heard still others claim that the Jews, her apparent murderers, who had held onto a longing for their homeland across millennia of genocide, pogroms, and forced conversions, and against all odds allowed that dream of return to keep them alive- were in fact nothing more than white European apartheidists and colonizers unworthy of a moments sympathy. But of course, this is not antisemitism, it is merely anti Zionism. For The 5% of good Jews who stand beside them will be kept safe. Safe, as they watch as the 95% of bad Jews are dragged into the streets. As their broken bodies are paraded in front of crowds of grinning civilians with such good intentions, as candy is passed out to children, and Palestine is terribly, horribly, free.
If I could say one thing to the encampment it would be this: there is no “ right side of history”. There is only now, and no amount of righteous fury will save you from this moment. So take off your masks. For I would very much like to stand face to face again, and speak instead of scream.
Alum / May 2, 2024 at 1:31 pm
As a man in his prime and an alum, I think it’s worth explaining to the younger crowd what is at stake here. I suppose nobody reads classic lit at UChicago anymore, only race-gender things, but I invite you to pay attention to The Picture of Dorian Grey. Like Dorian’s picture, with each bizarre act of shrieking, screeching and “occupying” we lose something of ourselves. And everybody feels it inside, and everybody who looks at you knows it. The screaming she-protester will most likely never be a mother – she’s gone too hard; the frenzied SJW-bro will never have a normal career – too volatile; most likely no stable marriages, no supportive family relationships, only looking from the outside in with rage, upon the world of nice, pleasant, normal people.
bruh / May 2, 2024 at 2:37 pm
Yeah, it’s super “normal” and “pleasant” to spend your time as a grown-ass adult commenting on your college newspaper, saying that literal 18-year-olds will never be mothers. You’re being sooooo normal right now dude.
Seriously, I think this same guy has commented something like this every single day. I’m begging you to get a life! Go outside! Play with your kids or something!
Anon Minority / May 2, 2024 at 2:59 pm
Affirmative action.
Affirmative action.
Affirmative action.
I have a sixth sense. We know what you are.
Begone with your bad writing and ad hominems.
bruh / May 2, 2024 at 4:22 pm
Your “sixth sense” needs recalibrating—I’m white and I went to a private boarding school. (No, I was not a scholarship student, before you try that one.) So unless that’s who affirmative action benefits now, you’re dead wrong.
Let me explain my rhetorical tactics: I was merely using the grammar and parlance of the Internet (e.g., “grown-ass,” “sooooo normal,” “dude,” “get a life”) in order to strike a flippant but dismissive tone, with the aim of contrasting my youthful vernacular with that of the “man in his prime.” Is that better?
(On top of that, may I point out that commenting “Affirmative action” three times is itself an ad hominem attack? Talk about irony.)
Anon Minority / May 2, 2024 at 8:22 pm
You’re a poser, and a bad one at that. No mention of gender.
We know what you are.
Alum / May 3, 2024 at 6:44 am
Great Ad Hominem, bruh. Minus 2 points for lack of effort.
EightiesAlum / May 2, 2024 at 9:32 am
Reunion is in two weeks. Hopefully, someone will clean this up by then. Can’t enjoy the beer tents and catching up with my classmates if I have to see (and smell) this.
Anon Minority / May 2, 2024 at 1:57 pm
“According to the message, UCUP said they would not disband the encampment and are in the process of formulating a response.“
Of course they won’t. These affirmative actioners don’t know what’s good for them. Incapable of reason, fueled by emotion and hysteria, hence they dribbled their way in or played up their pigment for special consideration. This is the result.
As a minority, I’d like to apologize again for these disruptions. Our campus deserves better.
Alivisatos, there is no reasoning with these filthites. Arrest. Expel. And let’s get on our way. Call in the excavators…
Affirmative action.
Affirmative action.
Affirmative action.
Connor / May 2, 2024 at 9:24 am
“Marshals approached them and attempted to route them out of the area.”
Wait, am I interpreting this right? Did cup leadership establish a border patrol?
anon / May 2, 2024 at 12:18 pm
No, the encampment has its own Marshals who wear yellow safety vests. So it wasn’t university leadership but encampment leadership that attempted to divert the students.
Anon Minority / May 2, 2024 at 9:12 am
Affirmative action.
Affirmative action.
Affirmative action.
Day four of this siege of campus by affirmative action admits. Do not forget how we got here.
The administration is only sanctioning these cosplay activists because it has been invaded by bleeding-heart wokertati who empathize with token admits and allow them to act with impunity. Imagine if the KKK attempted to do this; it would be shut down in seconds.
I would not be surprised to find one of those woke-brained administrators dwelling in the filth.
As a minority myself, I would like to apologize on their behalf. Many of us are outraged at how these filth magnets are representing us. I repent every day for their antisemitism, and my complicity in the normalized discrimination against whites, Jews, and Asians on this campus and throughout academia.
Quotaism has utterly diluted the intellectual caliber of the average UChicagoan today. How unfortunate.
Affirmative action.
Affirmative action.
Affirmative action.
Do not forget how we got here.
Alum / May 2, 2024 at 1:19 pm
Much of this applies to the staff as well. We’ve had our share of eccentrics back in the day, but now every other she-professor looks like a classic SJW, nose piercings and all. Gradually, then suddenly, UChicago is becoming a woke madrasa. Nothing anything Fermi or Milton Friedman would recognize.
Laura / May 2, 2024 at 8:57 am
Down with the Cuppers!
Alum / May 2, 2024 at 8:56 am
A pale, grayish sun rises again upon the campus’s eldritch assemblage of dysfunctional freaks. A Lovecratiah horde of Babylonian screeches and mongrelized frenzy. O UChicago, fallen how low!
Anonymous / May 2, 2024 at 11:17 am
Great. From one blatantly racist group of protesters to a blatantly racist response. These ill-conceived and ill-executed protests will lead to Trump — who will expedite climate change (most serious of all), block all Muslim immigration, and send Netanyahu into Raffa immediately with a wink and a nod. They are so ill-informed about the Middle East, and so very counterproductive for the suffering there. Shame. Shame. Shame.
Kent State Lab / May 2, 2024 at 8:47 am
I want to say how much I appreciate the CM reporting on all these live blogs. It’s informative and neutral, all the people working on this 24/7 reporting are doing a terrific job. Keep up the good work.
John Doe / May 2, 2024 at 5:16 am
How many days is the administration going to cower and allow this illegal takeover of University property that violates University rules?
The Presidents message now is beginning to sound hollow
Alum / May 2, 2024 at 9:02 am
The administration naturally agrees with the protesters. There’s just one phase behind – the socialists attempting to restrain the Bolsheviks. The slowness to react is not a sign of stupidity or incompetence, but a sign of general agreement. If this were about BLM or whatnot, everybody would be protesting together without complaints.
Jack / May 2, 2024 at 2:46 am
Orange construction fencing. Nice. What’s next? Scaffolding? Hmmmm…might be time to buy some Home Depot stock!