By Hank Russell
A group calling itself the Stony Brook University Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP) has camped out in front of the university’s Staller Center for the Arts since April 30. They are calling for the administration to disclose all their financial investments, divest funds from companies that do business with Israel, “a complete academic boycott,” “condemn the genocide” and provide “amnesty” to those pro-Palestinian protestors who were arrested and those who joined the Stony Brook University Gaza Solidarity Encampment.
On May 1, SJP posted a press release on their Instagram account announcing the encampment entered its 24-hour mark, with “approximately 50 students” taking part in the encampment in front of the Staller Center, which the SJP renamed “The Peoples Steps.” SJP said they would not leave the area until all their demands were met.
“[The] SBU administration has been hiding in their offices in an attempt to save face for the past 24 hours,” the SJP press release read. “Not a single conversation has been made in good faith between [the administration] and students regarding our five demands. Instead, the administration is using the UPD [university police department] as a buffer between students, having them approach students and act of their own free will.”
According to the press release, members of the university’s police department entered the encampment on April 30 at approximately 11:30 p.m. and approached students with “tarps as blankets and shelter from the impending rain,” and told the students they were using the tarps as “an unauthorized enclosed structure equivalent to a tent.”
The SJP went on to say, “Rather than ensure that students were provided adequate protection from the elements, UPD officers resorted to intimidation tactics and jeapordized [sic] the health of the student protestors.” After the students “stood their ground,” university police officers “relented” and “acknowledged that the tarp is not a structure.”
Long Island Life & Politics reached out to the administration for a response. In reply, Kelly Drossel, Stony Brook’s senior director of media relations, forwarded a letter from the university’s president, Maurie McInnis. In. the letter, she thanked the students for complying with the rules when they were asked to dismantle their tents “in accordance with university guidelines.” However, McInnis said SJP should not “impose an ideological or political litmus test on those who seek to enter the space,” adding, “The latter is antithetical to our very purpose as a university.”
“The university has consistently honored our community’s First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceful assembly,” McInnis said. “At the same time, the university’s expectation of compliance with its rules governing demonstrations stems from our commitment, no less important, to safeguard our community, to protect the institution from disruption, and to maintain a campus where all voices have an opportunity to be heard. We will continue to take appropriate steps to protect our students and others on campus, and we again call on all members of our community to treat each other with civility and respect.”
LILP also reached out the Suffolk County Police Department to see if they responded to any reports of violence or destruction of property at the encampment. A SCPD spokesperson replied, “We have not responded.”