Organizers of pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus and university leadership announced Thursday morning that they’ve reached an agreement to end the dayslong encampment on Northrop Mall
“We were in late-night negotiations with the administration into the evening. And we received an amazing email, basically stating that five out of six of our demands would be met,” said Fae Hodges, a member of Students for a Democratic Society. “And so this morning, we’ve decided we have come to an agreement with the University to take down the encampment. We’ll be removing tents within the next two hours and getting all of our stuff out by noon.”
Among other steps, the statement also says
the U of M “will make a good faith effort to provide as much information as possible about the university’s holdings in public companies” — in response to protesters’ demands for divestment from companies with ties to the Israeli military — while noting that some investments “are protected by non-disclosure agreements or other legal constraints.”
On Monday, Northwestern University in Illinois and student organizers announced an agreement to curb protest activity in return for the reestablishment of an advisory committee on university investments and other commitments.
At Brown University in Rhode Island, administrators agreed on Wednesday to consider a vote to divest from Israel in October — apparently the first U.S. college to agree to such a demand.