Approximately seventy protesters associated with UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) marched to University President Paul Alivisatos’s house after rallying on the main quad this afternoon. Protesters demanded that the University “reinstate” two students that the University has placed on an involuntary leave of absence following their arrests by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) in connection with the October 11 UCUP protest.
The rally was part of UCUP’s “Week of Healing,” announced shortly after the Council on University Programming (COUP) canceled Kuvia, an annual UChicago winter tradition, in response to the arrest of COUP co-president fourth-year Mamayan Jabateh.
Jabateh, whom UCUP formerly identified as “Student B,” was arrested by CPD on December 11 and charged with two felonies in connection with their alleged obstruction of a police officer on October 11. They were subsequently placed on an involuntary leave of absence and removed from on-campus housing, where they served as a resident assistant (RA).
On October 21, the University placed an individual identified by his lawyer as “Student A” on an involuntary leave of absence after CPD arrested him at the October 11 protest.
Jabateh is the second student arrested in connection with the October 11 protest, where Jabateh allegedly intervened to prevent the detainment of a University undergraduate who was arrested by CPD and charged with felony battery of a peace officer. The Maroon was unable to confirm whether the undergraduate arrested at the October 11 protest and charged with felony battery is Student A.

Organizers from Fight Back UChicago, #CareNotCops, and the Environmental Justice Task Force—members of the umbrella coalition UCUP—led chants at the January 16 rally.
“We have the power to unite against the University, to win reinstatement for Mamayan and Student A, and to push the University to divest, disclose, and repair,” an organizer said.
Protesters marched east on the quad toward South University Avenue, followed by six deans-on-call and several UCPD officers. As they passed parked UCPD vehicles, they chanted, “UCPD, KKK, IOF, they’re all the same.”

Demonstrators gathered outside Alivisatos’s home, where UCPD officers guarded the door and lined the sidewalks. Inside, organizers said members of the College Council were holding a holiday party. Once there, they continued chanting for 45 minutes before dispersing at around 5:25 p.m. Party attendees, including Dean of Students in the College Philip Venticinque, entered the building through a side gate.
“What exactly are they celebrating at this party? Genocide? Climate destruction? Gentrification and displacement? Deploying police to brutalize your own students?” an organizer asked the crowd, which responded with loud boos.
Organizers also spoke briefly about the provisional agreement reached on Wednesday for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The agreement is currently in limbo as the Israeli cabinet’s Thursday vote on the deal was postponed to Sunday.
“Just this morning, the Israeli government announced that they will not be willing to discuss the ceasefire agreement,” an organizer told the crowd. “The Israeli government are liars, just [like] how the institution administrators like Paul Alivisatos and Melina Hale are liars.”
Protesters passed out flyers bearing the faces of several University administrators, CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling, and UCPD Chief Kyle Bowman. The front side of the flyers called on the University to “Drop the Charges” and “Reverse the Eviction.” The reverse side shared links to a petition and a fundraiser for Jabateh that has received $2,745 in donations as of Thursday night.
Bystanders stopped to video the rally, among them a member of the Chicago Thinker. Protesters pointed a sign shaped like an arrow that read “Doxxer Alert” at a Thinker member and at Maroon reporters.

The rally was part of UCUP’s “Week of Healing,” which also included a Doc Films movie screening, a Shim Sham dance workshop, and a soup night with Phoenix Farms.
On Wednesday, UCUP hosted a press conference on the Midway Plaisance during which Jabateh explained the necessity of a “week of healing.”
“This year, Kuvia can no longer happen,” Jabateh said. “Kuvia was canceled because the University of Chicago has painted me—a Black student, a queer student, an RA, and a community organizer—as a threat.”
UCUP took questions at the end of the press conference, though when a Maroon reporter attempted to ask a question, Jabateh said they would not take any questions from the Maroon.
The University declined to comment on the protest, and UCUP did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Since October, UCUP has not responded to repeated requests for comment made by the Maroon through email, social media, in person, and by phone.
Zachary Leiter and Derek Hsu contributed reporting.
student / Jan 17, 2025 at 10:56 am
maroon reporters get a job!!!
Lucas / Jan 17, 2025 at 10:47 am
no one likes you maroon!
2019 / Jan 17, 2025 at 8:20 am
I think it’s absolutely childish for UCUP and their affiliates to refuse to speak to the Maroon and label them as doxxers. Not a good look at all.
What is this, Groundhog Day? / Jan 16, 2025 at 11:29 pm
OMG!! When will the parade of D.E.I.-spawned mediocrity and performative outrage end?!
This relentless chaos comes from the usual suspects who substitute outrage for intellect, incapable of engaging in real scholarship precisely because they were admitted for grievance, not merit. Their tactics—harassment, disruption, and hollow slogans—are now as unoriginal as they are destructive.
UC student / Jan 26, 2025 at 9:10 pm
I’m trying to understand how this works. If a Black or Latino student stands up against genocide, they are “DEI admits”, while when a white or Asian student does the same, it’s a fluke — this is your cutting-edge critical take? I was at the protest in question shouting at the top of my lungs for an hour. I’m South Asian. We chanted drop the charges and no more money for Israel’s crimes — I’m not sure what’s hollow about either. You’ll have to enlighten me, O white savior, because to me these slogans are quite concrete and ACTIONABLE. I’d gladly disrupt a hundred more of Alivisatos’ fancy parties regardless of what pathetic tools of empire with half a brain cell think about it, and if you have a problem with it, get out of the comments section and come try and stop us.
U.G.H. / Jan 16, 2025 at 11:15 pm
To demand the reinstatement of criminals arrested on felony charges is not a call for justice; it is an affront to the rule of law and a tacit endorsement of mob rule.
The University has a profound duty—not merely to its students, but to the broader intellectual community—to uphold the principles of civility and order as the foundation of true scholarship. A university is not merely a collection of classrooms or a stage for performative activism; it is a sanctuary for reasoned inquiry, rigorous debate, and the unfettered pursuit of knowledge. When the environment devolves into chaos, intimidation, and ideological posturing, the very essence of scholarship is undermined. That these “activists,” cloaked in the language of victimhood, believe they are entitled to disrupt the lives of others without consequence is a testament to the entitlement bred by years of coddling under the DEI regime.
The brazen targeting of an individual in his private capacity—someone who has shown nothing but grace and restraint in the face of juvenile provocations—is an outrageous violation of basic decency and a glaring indictment of this so-called movement’s utter lack of principle. This is not the pursuit of justice; it is bullying dressed up as activism, a disgraceful display of entitlement masquerading as moral courage.
UCUP’s absurdly named “Week of Healing,” shrouded in a flimsy pretense of righteousness, is nothing more than a petulant spectacle of performative outrage. The audacity to cancel Kuvia and replace it with empty slogans epitomizes the infantile, zero-sum mentality that defines their movement: **if they cannot impose their will, they will ensure no one else can find joy.** The sheer hypocrisy of invoking “healing” while peddling division, venom, and personal attacks is as galling as it is absurd. What healing, exactly, is achieved by storming the doorstep of a University President or by shrieking childish comparisons of law enforcement to the KKK?
(The answer is: None—only the smug, self-satisfied gratification of a movement that thrives on disruption and destruction, not on progress or justice.)
Enough of this nonsense. The University of Chicago is a place of learning, not a stage for agitprop theater.
Your appalled peer in learning / Jan 17, 2025 at 2:49 pm
Amidst a genocide, you have the nerve to speak of peace activists’ “affront to the rule of law”. Shame on you: you represent the failure of higher education. And if UChicago is just a place of learning, LET ITS INVESTMENTS MATCH. All in all, 2023-2025 has taught me what respectable clothes anti-Palestinian racism can be dressed up in.
zman / Jan 16, 2025 at 10:45 pm
They march around the quad but refuse to take questions from the Maroon. What a pathetic bunch of losers. They remind me of the Sparticus (sp?) Youth League protesters of my day. B-school students would encircle their rallies and shout “Get a job!”. You students hold your own winter parties away from these a–clowns.