KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Over a month ago, WMU student demonstrators took down their Gaza solidarity encampment. After ongoing talks with the university, and a recent statement put out by the university president, the group says they are frustrated.
"We thought that we would be able to make a little bit more progress by now," said Roland Bissonnette, a member of the WMU Divestment Coalition.
The April encampment lasted four days before it was taken down. "The university after some back and forth, they agreed to have a sit-down with students and hear us out," Bissonnette said.
According to Bissonnette, they set up a joint student administration committee and have been meeting for five weeks.
"We began discussing sort of the divestment process, potentially putting out a statement calling for an end to the violence in support of the people of Gaza." He said the bulk of the meetings focused on the university releasing a statement similar to the one put out after the invasion of Ukraine.
"We wanted specific numbers put in; if they can't use the word genocide, we wanted specific numbers of things listed. This is how many Palestinians have been killed..." he explained.
This was the statement the university released on June 18:
Dear campus community,
Last fall I wrote to you in the wake of the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel to offer support for those members of our campus community who may have been impacted. Unfortunately, over the past seven months, violence has continued, resulting in a mounting number of injuries and fatalities in the region and widespread destruction of critical infrastructure.
While this humanitarian crisis is unfolding at a great distance from campus, news outlets and social media bring us daily images of the suffering, impacting many of our students, faculty, staff and alumni, some of whom have personal connections to people in the Palestinian territories and in Israel. Our hearts ache with them at the loss of any innocent lives as this conflict continues to unfold.
These are difficult times. We urge anyone in need of support to avail themselves of counseling resources, such as WMU Counseling Services and Uwill for students and the Employee Assistance Program for faculty and staff. Please also lean on your personal network of family, friends and colleagues.
The causes and solutions to the hostilities abroad are intensely debated both in the region and right here at home. This includes some students and others in our community who have voiced their concerns. Central to our mission as a university is to seek knowledge and build understanding so that we can pass it on to current and future generations. As such, we are committed to the free exchange of ideas. It is also part of our obligation to ensure that those exchanges are informed by facts and context.
When we return in the fall, we will build on our We Talk series by hosting dialogues on this as well as other important issues that may also be divisive. We strongly affirm the right of our campus community members to peacefully and lawfully express their beliefs—whatever those beliefs may be—about the ongoing war or other topics. That said, we categorically reject all acts of anti-Semitism, anti-Arabism or Islamophobia and reaffirm our belief in our shared humanity.
As an institution that celebrates this shared humanity, in the face of the ongoing crisis, we yearn for real and lasting peace.
Bissonnette feels the statement didn't say much, while "using a lot of very nice words."
WMU sent a statement saying they've been reviewing demonstrators' demands and provided a list of actions they've taken so far, such as providing the group with university financials and committing to open discussion in the fall.
Four WMU senior leaders have been meeting with four demonstrators for Gaza as a joint committee since early May with several outcomes, including sending out a second statement on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which was one of their demands.
The University has been reviewing demonstrators’ demands with the aim of balancing responsiveness to their concerns with Western’s core mission to produce and disseminate knowledge in an environment that fosters the free exchange of ideas. WMU leaders have been engaged in the meetings with the understanding that the University is a large community with a wide array of diverse viewpoints.
The leaders’ work with the demonstrators has led to several actions so far:
-The formation of the joint committee
-Meeting every other week, beginning in early May
-Hosting an interfaith gathering at the student center on May 7
-Providing WMU financials on May 22 for their review
-Issuing to the WMU campus a statement on June 18 about the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel
-Committing to a series of open discussions on campus this fall to explore the current conflict in Israel and Gaza as well as other complex issues.
The topic of Wednesday’s scheduled meeting, which demonstrators canceled, was to discuss the complexities of divestment and boycotting, considering their legality, feasibility and consistency with the University's fiduciary obligations.
While the group feels this is a setback, it will not stop them. "This is still a cause that is extremely important and worth fighting for," Bissonnette told FOX 17.
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