Western Washington University’s new agreement with protesters outlines a path towards meeting student demands following a two-week pro-Palestine campus encampment.
This includes creating committees to review contracts for socially responsible investing and divestment and study-abroad policies; establishing scholarships for students displaced from universities in Gaza; and steps to ensure a smooth launch of an ethnic studies program.
While the agreement released Friday, May 31 only immediately fully meets one of the demands — a request for a public apology to Arab students which President Sabah Randhawa issued on Friday — it outlines a path towards meeting the remainder. Students decamped on Thursday, May 30 by 5 p.m. as part of the agreement.
The protesters had five demands when they set up the encampment on May 14: they wanted Western to acknowledge harm and correct wrongs to Arab students in its response to the war in Gaza; full financial disclosure of investments in companies connected to Israel; a complete divestment from those companies, including Boeing; an investment in community by ensuring the launch of the ethnic studies program; and an emergency Board of Trustees meeting to meet the demands.
Western will create three separate committees to consider the proposals.
First, the university will establish a Board of Trustees advisory committee to develop policy recommendations on socially responsible investments.
Western will also form a Committee on Ethical Contracts to review and make recommendations on the continuation of contracts and agreements.
Additionally, the provost will establish a faculty committee to review study-abroad programs to ensure alignment with Western’s principles, and pause or discontinue participation in programs that inherently exclude students from specific counties, communities or identities.
The agreement states that Western “opposes and condemns all acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other activities that violate safety, security, and fundamental human rights,” and that university policies, procedures and practices should align with that fact.
Randhawa also committed to meeting with the ethnic studies program chair to ensure a smooth launch of the program.
In addition, campus dining services will review their products by fall 2024 — student organizer Madden Tavernise said Randhawa assured student negotiators that Sabra, a company that makes hummus that is on a national Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) list, will be removed from campus immediately.
Western also committed to developing full-tuition scholarships for students displaced from universities in Gaza.
Randhawa said in a message to the community that the agreement reflects the “good faith discussions” administration has had with the protesters.
“It has been extraordinarily difficult to navigate the pressures we have faced over the past several weeks and months,” he wrote, “and while tensions have run high at times, our focus has always been and will always be to deliver on the educational mission of the university, while doing everything we can to maintain a safe environment and staying true to the principles of free speech and academic freedom.”
Tavernise said that before the encampment, the administration “refused” to consider the students’ demands.
“The creation of the final memorandum of understanding was made possible by the outpouring of support for our movement,” Tavernise said.
Students met with Randhawa on May 3, according to organizers and an Instagram post. Randhawa did not immediately agree to the demands, which is why the protestors set up the encampment.
In letters published on Western’s website during the encampment, Randhawa publicly addressed some of the students’ demands, including citing “academic freedom” as a reason to maintain ties with private industry, including Boeing.
Randhawa wrote May 17 and reiterated May 31 that Western supports a ceasefire, the safe return of hostages and peace in the region.
“The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is tragic and demands urgent attention, with the most recent estimate from the United Nations projecting the current death toll of Palestinian civilians to be over 35,000,” Randhawa wrote May 31.
At its peak, the encampment had over 70 tents, supportive protests drew hundreds of students and community members.
The inclusion in the agreement of an explicit message of the BDS Movement was deemed a “nationwide, historic win” by Tavernise. But Western did not commit to the “full financial disclosure” of investments, declined to immediately “sever ties” with Boeing and did not refer to what’s happening in Gaza as “genocide,” Tavernise said.
“We believe that this memorandum of understanding represents the maximum of what the administration is willing to offer us as students at this point in time,” Tavernise said.
If the protesters had not decamped by 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 30, the university would have likely disciplined students involved, according to the agreement, and may have called in law enforcement. Because the students decamped, all received amnesty.
“It is important to recognize well this agreement is a win,” Tavernise said. “This is not the end of student action for Palestinian liberation. We are committed to working with the university to accomplish our long-term goals of complete divestment from Israel and other entities that benefit from and commit acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing.”
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
