Why can’t UPenn and the protesters reach a compromise?

At Rutgers University-New Brunswick, a three-day-old pro-Palestinian encampment was peacefully taken down Thursday after successful negotiations between the government and protesters.

Brown University, an Ivy League institution like the University of Pennsylvania, and Northwestern University had similar success earlier this week.

But Penn remains in a stalemate, with protesters occupying about 35 tents on College Green, raising tensions and escalating protest activity, prompting the university to ask Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s office for additional police resources if necessary.

” READ MORE: Is the call for divestment feasible? This is why there are hurdles to Penn protesters’ demands.

Negotiations between the university and the protesters have failed and it is not clear whether there is room for a compromise.

Student protesters at Penn said Friday that the university has not really offered a reasonable compromise on their demands, which include making university investments public, divesting from financial holding companies that support Israel’s military efforts and pledging not to impose discipline against participants in the encampments.

“The university is refusing to participate in an amnesty process for student protesters, and they are still threatening disciplinary action and dissolution” of the encampment, said Taja Mazaj, 22, a senior political science and English major from Montgomery County. “We would very much like to move forward, but we hope that the university can move forward with good-faith negotiations, which we believe has not yet occurred.”

University leaders have met with student protesters twice in the past week, failing to move the needle as the camp nears the end of day nine and finals begin Tuesday.

“We have communicated that the camp must be disbanded and have offered accommodations to continue their protest in a manner that does not conflict with safety and policy,” a university spokesperson said. “We also expressed our desire to move beyond a demand versus counter-demand attitude and pursue shared opportunities that help create a more inclusive, respectful campus environment.”

” READ MORE: The pro-Palestinian encampment in Penn has become a cat-and-mouse game between protesters and administrators

Eliana Atienza, 19, a second-year environmental science student from the Philippines, said interim President J. Larry Jameson offered to form a committee “to explore the feasibility” of students’ demands, but she claimed that was not enough.

A compromise could be reached “if they continued with some of our demands and did not involve us in endless meetings, task forces, discussions and committees,” Atienza said. “It would change things if there was tangible action from the university, with a big emphasis on tangible action.”

But universities that have already made compromises are facing significant setbacks. Three Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League Midwest and the Louis D. Brandeis Center, have called for the Northwestern president to resign over the agreement there, while several Jewish students have filed a lawsuit, according to WBEZ Chicago.

ADL Midwest called the deal “reprehensible and dangerous.”

” READ MORE: Student protests over the war in Gaza force Penn and other US universities to face ‘impossible’ demands

In New Jersey, state Sen. Owen Henry (R., Middlesex) called the Rutgers deal unacceptable.

“By prioritizing the demands of protesters who disrupted academic education by spreading hateful rhetoric, they have shown glaring weakness that harms the integrity of their institution and the Jewish community,” Henry said in a statement.

Penn senior Eyal Yakoby, who was part of a group that delivered a petition with more than 3,000 signatures to Jameson this week calling on Penn to remove the camp, said the university should not negotiate with the camp’s protesters.

“It is a shame for any university that has come to terms with these unlawful encampments,” said Yakoby, 22, a majoring in political science and modern Middle Eastern studies.

He pointed out that Jameson, in his call for the dissolution of the camp last week, cited “intimidating and harassing comments and actions” by some protesters.

“I just don’t understand how you negotiate with people who… harass your own students,” he said.

An encampment settles down peacefully

At New Jersey’s flagship state university, about 75 tents were peacefully dismantled Thursday afternoon, shortly after President Jonathan Holloway and Chancellor Francine Conway warned that if the students did not leave, the university would remove them “with the assistance of law enforcement.” Earlier in the day, the university made what it called an unprecedented decision to postpone morning exams due to concerns about disruption.

The university, which has 43,859 students in New Brunswick, has also made several concessions in meeting the protesters’ demands.

Rutgers agreed, as part of the regular university process, to review the requirement that the university divest from any company with ties to Israel. In addition, the university said the president and chairman of the Joint Committee on Investments would meet with up to five students to discuss their divestment request.

Rutgers also agreed to help ten displaced Palestinian students receive their education at the university and to establish an Arab Cultural Center with a plan to hire administrators and staff for the fall semester. In addition, the university agreed to develop training on anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism for staff and to hire a senior administrator with cultural competence in those areas.

The chancellor’s office also agreed to study the possibility of establishing a Middle Eastern Studies department.

Rutgers did not commit to dropping conduct cases against students for participating in the encampment, but noted that a “commitment to terminate the encampment through this agreement will be considered a beneficial mitigating factor in the resolution of these cases.”

Earlier this week, as part of the agreement, Northwestern said it would form an advisory committee made up of students, faculty and staff to serve as a liaison to the investment committee. The university says it will answer questions about its investments “to the best of its knowledge and to the extent legally possible,” according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Brown University, another Ivy League school, agreed to form a committee to develop a divestment recommendation by September and vote a month later on whether to divest financial holding companies from Israel, the Chronicle reported.

As the protests escalate, Penn asks the city police for help

At Penn, with an enrollment of more than 28,700 students, there have been increasing clashes between protesters and counter-protesters, and some tense interactions between students and police. On Thursday, Penn Public Safety issued multiple warnings as crowds on College Green grew.

That evening, Penn, the city’s largest private employer, said it had contacted Parker’s office to ask for additional police resources to maintain campus safety, if necessary. A university spokesperson said the mayor’s office asked Penn to submit a letter of request, which they did.

The mayor’s office requested additional information and the university said it had provided the information. Neither the mayor’s office nor the university would comment on what specifically was requested or the city’s response.

Parker declined to comment through a spokesperson. Media requests to the city are forwarded to the police department.

Penn has not formally asked Philadelphia police to clear the camp, the source said, and unless things escalate dramatically, there is no plan to clear the group this weekend. However, there has been some tension between the city and the university over who would be responsible for initiating a potential dissolution: the city’s police department or Penn?

The city police are reluctant to take the lead and then face the consequences of clearing a protest site while Penn has its own police force.

Governor Josh Shapiro on Friday deferred questions about whether the camp should be disbanded to the university.

“I don’t think it’s my judgment on that that matters,” he said. “I think it’s the university’s judgment that counts. They are closer, they see it.”

Penn did not request assistance from the Pennsylvania State Police, he said.

Meanwhile, some universities continued to call in police to remove protesters and dismantle encampments, most recently New York University. According to the New York Times, more than 2,000 arrests have been made on campuses since the protests began last month.

Atienza, the Penn student, said protesters here are willing to stay.

“We are doing this for Gaza,” Atienza said. “A lot of attention is paid to the students in the camp and at the university. But we are doing this for Gaza, to re-center the conversation about genocide and to re-center the conversation about Gaza and liberated Palestine.”

Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.