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Update: This story was updated at 4:07 p.m. on May 15, 2024.

Protesters in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Syracuse University have left the Shaw Quadrangle Wednesday morning, two days following their first meeting with SU administrators, they announced in a statement sent to The Daily Orange.

Though the group has decided to exit “on (their) own terms,” GSE members will continue their organization efforts in the fall semester, the statement reads. They did not say whether they plan to establish another encampment in the fall.

“Although the university’s dogmatic and ideologically conservative attachment to the status quo prevented us from reaching the goals … our participation in the ongoing global student intifada did have effects that need to be emphasized,” the statement reads. “We managed to reveal the amount of support the Palestinian cause has that was previously hidden because of fear of retaliation.”

The decision comes after members of the GSE met administrators to discuss their six demands for the university Monday. The encampment’s statement argues that administrators were “dismissive” and “evasive” during their meeting with GSE representatives, and that they feel SU has acted “in bad faith” since the demonstration began on April 29.

Wednesday’s GSE statement established a timeline for its negotiations with the university. According to the statement, GSE members met with a group of “SU-designated negotiators” — including administrators Sheriah Dixon, Dawn Singleton, Rob Hradsky and Kyle Dailey — at approximately 11 a.m. Monday, May 13.

In the meeting, the group discussed the GSE’s demands — which include calls for SU to publicly support a ceasefire in Gaza and for it to divest from companies with ties to Israel, among others. The statement claims the university responded to GSE negotiators with “noncommittal promises” and were unwilling to take “immediate or concrete action.”

“(Administration) reacted by shifting the burden to students, and asking evasive questions that demonstrate a clear pattern of avoidance,” the statement reads. “Overall their behavior has demonstrated a lack of commitment to addressing our demands.”

According to the statement, their discussions concluded with focusing on two subcategories within the GSE’s demands: the release of an SU statement in support of a ceasefire and the formation of a working group with 50% student representation charged with investigating the university’s investments. The encampment promised to leave if administrators committed to meeting these aspects of the demands by Tuesday at 2 p.m.

On Tuesday morning, SU’s Student Experience Division sent GSE members an email responding to four out of its six demands. The email did not mention any changes to university policy. The GSE’s statement alleges that at 1:59 p.m. Tuesday, administrators emailed encampment representatives requesting for more time to consider the demands.

The D.O. has obtained this email correspondence between encampment members and the SU-designated negotiators.

GSE representatives first sent a message to the negotiators at 1:10 p.m. Monday, asking them if administrators would have a response to their demands prepared by 2 p.m. that same day. The team of negotiators responded to the email at 1:59 p.m., saying they would issue their response on Tuesday — which they did in the morning.

The D.O. was unable to verify the GSE’s claim that the team of administrators requested additional time to respond to all of their demands.

The GSE believes that the administration has not engaged “meaningfully” with their demands, according to their statement. They also claim the university has not taken them seriously, applauding other student-led and community organizations, such as SU’s Student Association, for publicly supporting the encampments’ right to protest.

According to the statement, The GSE will build a “stronger organizational structure” to continue its pro-Palestine mobilization efforts on campus in the fall semester. While they did not specify whether these efforts would include an encampment, the statement says GSE members plan to “mobilize through different means” in the future.

“We call on the university to abstain and deter administrators from engaging in any forms of retaliation aimed at deterring our allies and us from supporting Palestine through the exercise of such democratic rights in the future,” the statement reads.

This story will be updated with additional reporting.

Published on May 15, 2024 at 2:18 pm

Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu