Protesters won’t say whether Harvard camp will continue as Garber threatens major disciplinary action | News

Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine — the unrecognized student group organizing the Harvard Yard encampment — did not say whether the occupation will continue, did not say how it will respond to the administration’s refusal to negotiate, and did not answer questions Monday evening press conference .

The news conference, which took place hours after Harvard interim President Alan M. Garber ’76 threatened protesters with involuntary furloughs if they did not end their encampment, raised more questions than answers about how long the nearly two-week occupation will last. The university board is escalating the initial patient approach now that the start is fast approaching.

The conference also came as HOOP’s deadline for Harvard to begin negotiations on the group’s demands — set for Monday at 5 p.m. — expires. In their Friday announcement of the deadline, the group did not specify what further action it would take if the university refused to come to the table, a question that remained unanswered after the press conference.

The most significant revelation during the approximately 40-minute press conference came when Violet TM Barron ’26, a HOOP press liaison, announced that more than 60 students face serious disciplinary consequences for their participation in the encampment.

It was previously reported that only more than 30 students faced disciplinary charges from the Harvard College Administrative Board.

During the remainder of the press conference, held outside Johnston Gate, HOOP organizers drew attention to the impending Israeli attack on Rafah, a city in Gaza where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering, and reiterated their criticism of Harvard’s administrators would take disciplinary measures against the demonstrators. .

Barron, editor of Crimson Editorial, said protesters “will not stop and we will not rest” until Harvard divests of companies linked to Israel — a chant often repeated at HOPE meetings.

Still, she declined to say whether that amounted to a commitment that the camp would continue. Instead, she referred The Crimson to a HOOP email in which press conference organizers said members of the media could ask questions.

HOOP did not immediately respond to questions about the duration of the encampment sent to the group’s email address.

Harvard Law School student Lea H. Kayali also suggested — but did not say outright — that the encampment could continue, portraying it as part of the “student intifada” that has “engulfed the entire country.”

“The student movement will become a problem,” Kayali said. “Here at Harvard, the administration has left the student movement little opportunity to bring about the change they advocate.”

“Make no mistake: whatever happens will be the result of the choices Harvard has made,” she added.

University spokesman Jonathan L. Swain referred to Garber’s university-wide email Monday morning in response to a request for comment on the news conference.

During the conference, HOOP organizer Eva C. Frazier ’26 denounced “Harvard’s refusal to negotiate,” which “stands in stark contrast to other universities.”

Harvard officials, including Garber, have repeatedly rejected calls to boycott or divest from Israeli companies and institutions.

In recent days, several universities have made concessions to pro-Palestinian protesters in exchange for the dismantling of encampments on their campuses, including Northwestern, Rutgers and Brown universities. Still, some have faced significant backlash for their decision to do so.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce called on Northwestern President Michael Schill and Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway to testify before Congress about their “shocking concessions to the unlawful anti-Semitic encampments on their campuses” and “despicable displays of cowardice” in a Monday announcement.

During the protest, HOOP organizer Shraddha Joshi ’24 said pro-Palestinian groups — including the now-suspended Palestine Solidarity Committee — made several failed attempts to speak with Garber and accused the university’s leadership of ignoring referendums passed by several Harvard University colleges demanding divestment from Israel’s war in Gaza.

As protesters delivered remarks at the press conference, Michael Burke, dean of student services, observed the event while half-riding a bicycle in General MacArthur Square — a small patch of grass at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Peabody Street. Burke could not hear the protesters’ speeches from where he observed the press conference.

Hibah Osman, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, also spoke at the press conference, stating that “our call as faculty is to ask the administration to come to the table and speak to the students.”

The press conference – which took place outside a locked Johnston Gate – also included a handful of pro-Israel counter-protesters holding signs with photos of Israelis still held hostage by Hamas, including one standing directly behind the speakers at the conference.

HOOP organizers asked conference attendees, including a crowd of dozens of spectators and several local press outlets, not to engage with the counter-protesters.

During her remarks, Frazier accused Harvard administrators of failing to support pro-Palestinian students who have faced doxxing attacks, saying the university “is essentially setting the conditions for further anti-Palestinian sentiment and has aided and abetted harassment on this campus.”

Swain referenced an April 8 press release that called the doxxing attacks on students “reprehensible and abhorrent behavior” that “does not represent the values ​​of the Harvard community.”

However, Frazier said Harvard’s administration has not done enough to support affected students.

“Through all of this, we have had to be there and support each other because Harvard has chosen to submit to the whims of bad faith actors and donors rather than engage and support its own students,” Frazier said.

— Staff writers Michelle N. Amponsah, Joyce E. Kim, Rahem D. Hamid, Miles J. Herszenhorn, Jo B. Lemann, John N. Peña, Elias J. Schisgall and Claire Yuan contributed reporting.