Student protestors representing the encampment on Old Main’s lawn demonstrated outside of the University Leadership Team’s (ULT) meeting this morning, a meeting that decided whether President Murray would put out a statement that she met with the Students for Justice (SFJ) yesterday. At the protest outside the meeting, students displayed physical representations of children killed in Gaza and signs saying, “Palestine’s graduating class of 2045,” “10 children have died during this meeting” and “Five children die every hour.”
President Murray met with Director of Inclusive Excellence David Everett; Vice President for Institutional Advancement Heidi Fisher; Dean of Students Patti Klein-Kersten; Interim Provost Andy Rundquist; General Council Cathy Wassberg; and Athletic Director Alex Focke on Tuesday, April 30, with a new agenda item from the previous meeting between herself, Board of Trustees Chair Ellen Watters and SFJ representatives. The SFJ students requested a statement made to the community from the president’s office saying they had met and the president had heard their demands. After the ULT meeting today, Kersten and Rundquist held a meeting with the student protestors, including two of the students who occupied Old Main, June Gromis and Clare Friar, to relay the message that a statement would be made if the encampment on Old Main’s lawn vacates, a request that student demonstrators say they have no plans to accommodate.