Harvard University announced Tuesday it had struck a deal with protesters to wind down an on-campus encampment that occupied its iconic Harvard Yard for nearly three weeks.
The agreement will see students suspended during the demonstration be reinstated, and university officials have agreed to discuss student questions about a potential divestment from Israel amid its ongoing conflict against Hamas in Gaza.
University spokesperson Jonathan Swain told WBUR that those talks will be attended by its interim president, Alan Garber, and Hopi Hoekstra, its dean of the faculty of arts and sciences.
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The coalition who ran the encampment, Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP), said in a statement that it had “democratically voted to end its encampment after 20 days.” As part of the deal, HOOP said Harvard will consider the establishment of a “Center for Palestine Studies” at the university.
HOOP said previously that more than 20 students were suspended during the demonstration, and another 60 were referred for additional disciplinary charges. It announced the demonstration’s end on Instagram, indicating in a statement that it only did so after the university agreed to make some concessions—but not enough to fully satisfy the organization.
“We are under no illusions,” HOOP wrote in a statement. “We do not believe these meetings are divestment wins. These side-deals are intended to pacify us away from full disclosure and divestment. Rest assured, they will not.”
The encampment’s closure comes on the heels of most students leaving campus for the summer, with finals and commencement having wrapped up last weekend.
The arrival of summer appeared to significantly diminish the size of the demonstration. With the closing of the dorms that lined Harvard Yard, and the nearby Lamont Library no longer operating around the clock, protesters lost access to bathrooms and had resorted to using kitty litter.
With the campus restricting access in-between semesters, protesters also saw themselves lose access to Harvard Yard with their student ID badge in recent days. That meant protesters could no longer leave the encampment and return. If they wanted to continue at the encampment, they would have to stay at Harvard Yard overnight and throughout the day—a sacrifice a majority of demonstrators appeared to opt against.
The protest had dwindled to as little as four people by Monday morning, Harvard Magazine reported, and appeared to be on the brink of shuttering even without a deal being reached.
