After initially rejecting offers made by San Francisco State University President Lynn Mahoney at a public negotiation on May 6, students at the pro-Palestinian encampment came to terms with the university.
Late Tuesday, the Students for Gaza organization, which says it represents the protesters, announced it had an “initial agreement” with the university. “This is a first step,” the group said in statement posted on Instagram. “We will continue organizing and continue fighting through summer and onwards.”
The encampment was set up on April 29 and grew to about 100 tents. Tents were still up as of Wednesday, when a student press conference and rally were planned. According to SFSU’s Golden Gate Xpress student publication, the encampment was shifting to a “day camp” rather than being a full-time encampment.
“Over its history, there have been many instances in which student activism at SF State has resulted in positive institutional change,” Mahoney wrote in a statement released Monday detailing her offer to the students. “We are at such a moment.”
Mahoney first met with the students in a unique public negotiation on May 6. Surrounded by students and faculty, she sat outside in front of a large group of onlookers and addressed questions and comments from students representing the encampment. Protesters livestreamed the negotiations on Instagram.
The Xpress reported that protesters met again in private with university administrators to negotiate further, reporting that Students for Gaza had announced “the university’s commitment to divest.”
“I think everybody’s feeling pretty good,” a student leader told the publication. “Everybody’s feeling pretty pumped up.”
In her Monday statement, Mahoney said she would “support the addition of a human rights-based investment strategy, including divesting from direct investments in weapons manufacturers and limiting other such indirect investments to no more than de minimis in nature.”
She said a working group would produce a draft policy of investment revisions by the end of August and would include the launch of an investment disclosure website.
The initial agreement came as the semester winds down. Graduation is set for May 24.