{"id":33894,"date":"2024-05-23T12:26:04","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T19:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=33894"},"modified":"2024-05-23T12:26:05","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T19:26:05","slug":"we-hope-to-be-a-model-students-faculty-at-the-new-school-secure-divestment-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/05\/23\/we-hope-to-be-a-model-students-faculty-at-the-new-school-secure-divestment-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe Hope to Be a Model\u201d: Students &amp; Faculty at The New School Secure Divestment Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u201cWe Hope to Be a Model\u201d: Students &amp; Faculty at The New School Secure Divestment Vote\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rKskKteY8YI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>MAY 22, 2024 (Democracynow.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/shows\/2024\/5\/22?autostart=true\">Watch Full Show<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2024\/5\/22\/the_new_school\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2024\/5\/22\/the_new_school&amp;text=%E2%80%9CWe+Hope+to+Be+a+Model%E2%80%9D%3A+Students+%26+Faculty+at+The+New+School+Secure+Divestment+Vote&amp;via=democracynow&amp;lang=en\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/submit?url=https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2024\/5\/22\/the_new_school\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/wa.me\/?text=https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2024\/5\/22\/the_new_school\"><\/a><a href=\"mailto:?body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.democracynow.org%2F2024%2F5%2F22%2Fthe_new_school&amp;subject=%26%238220%3BWe%20Hope%20to%20Be%20a%20Model%26%238221%3B%3A%20Students%20%26amp%3B%20Faculty%20at%20The%20New%20School%20Secure%20Divestment%20Vote\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is viewer supported news. Please do your part today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/donate\">DONATE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">TOPICS<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/topics\/students\">Students<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/topics\/new_york\">New York<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/topics\/gaza\">Gaza<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/topics\/israel_and_palestine\">Israel &amp; Palestine<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">GUESTS<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/appearances\/alexandra_chasin\">Alexandra Chasin<\/a> professor at The New School and member of the faculty encampment negotiating team.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Image Credit: National Students for Justice in Palestine<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Students and faculty at The New School, home to the first faculty Gaza solidarity encampment, have announced they reached a deal with the university to hold a vote on divesting from Israel by June 14. The agreement comes after months of campus protests, encampments and the occupation of a university building to demand The New School divest its endowment from companies arming and supporting Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank. The school\u2019s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter has said the university currently has ties to several companies that are \u201cactively involved in, and benefiting from, the genocide in Palestine,\u201d including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Google and Caterpillar. \u201cWhat this is not is an end to war or famine or occupation, and so we\u2019re keeping our eyes on the bigger picture, which is Palestine,\u201d says Alexandra Chasin, a professor at The New School and member of the faculty encampment negotiating team. \u201cWe hope to be a model, or at least to help organizers at other universities, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Transcript<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AMY&nbsp;GOODMAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;This is&nbsp;<em>Democracy Now!<\/em>&nbsp;I\u2019m Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonz\u00e1lez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We turn now to New York, where The New School Gaza solidarity encampment has announced it\u2019s reached a deal with the university\u2019s Board of Trustees to hold a vote on divesting from Israel by June 14th. The agreement comes after months of campus protests by students and faculty demanding The New School divest its endowment from companies arming and supporting Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank. The agreement also granted amnesty to those involved in the peaceful protests. The New School\u2019s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter has said the university currently has ties to several companies that are, quote, \u201cactively involved in, and benefiting from, the genocide in Palestine,\u201d unquote, including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Google and Caterpillar. The New School has been home to the country\u2019s first faculty encampment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more, we\u2019re joined by two guests. Alexandra Chasin is professor of literary [studies] at Lang College at The New School. Professor Chasin was part of the faculty encampment and the negotiating team that led the Board of Trustees to agree on divestment. And Natasha Lennard joins us, a columnist for&nbsp;<em>The Intercept<\/em>. Her most recent&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/05\/16\/university-college-professors-israel-palestine-firing\/\">piece<\/a>&nbsp;is \u201cUniversity Professors Are Losing Their Jobs Over &#8216;New McCarthyism&#8217; on Gaza.\u201d She\u2019s also associate director of The New School\u2019s creative publishing and critical journalism master\u2019s program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We welcome you both to&nbsp;<em>Democracy Now!<\/em>&nbsp;Let\u2019s begin with Professor Chasin. You were part of the negotiating team. What happened? What did you agree to? It\u2019s fascinating to go down 5th Avenue. On one side, you have the faculty encampment inside The New School. Diagonally across is Parsons. And straight across is the student encampment that was reestablished inside the school there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXANDRA&nbsp;CHASIN:<\/strong>&nbsp;So, I\u2019d like to begin by just establishing that this was a faculty-student collaborative effort. There were undergraduate students, graduate students, alumni, part-time faculty and full-time faculty in both encampments and negotiating teams. That\u2019s very important to us, because faculty really wanted to stand in solidarity with students, so that collaboration is meaningful to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I want to also say, of course, what this is not is an end to war or famine or occupation, and so we\u2019re keeping our eyes on the bigger picture, which is Palestine. We still have a lot of work to do. This isn\u2019t even divestment. It\u2019s a commitment by the investment committee to vote on divestment two-zero \u2014 and that\u2019s an important point \u2014 on some language that I hope I\u2019ll be able to read to you in a moment. It\u2019s significant also because this represents movement on the part of the investment committee, movement in response to campus activism and to the expressed will of the representative bodies at the university, faculty and student Senates, divisional bodies, unions, and the local&nbsp;AAUP&nbsp;chapter. And the language, again, which I hope you\u2019ll let me read to you, we hope to be a model, or at least to help organizers at other universities, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>JUAN&nbsp;GONZ\u00c1LEZ:<\/strong>&nbsp;And, Professor, how does what\u2019s occurred at The New School differ, for instance, from the conciliation efforts at some other universities, like Brown and Northwestern, the few \u2014 the handful of university administrators that have actually attempted to negotiate with their faculty and students over divestment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXANDRA&nbsp;CHASIN:<\/strong>&nbsp;Yeah, well, we have achieved an actual commitment to vote, as Amy said, by or on June 14th, which is unusual. And this is what the investment committee will be voting on specifically. It\u2019s a \u201ccall for complete divestment from industries implicated in military and police violence in Gaza and the West Bank, and all global militarized conflict such as companies or subsidiaries involved in weapons manufacturing, military supplies and equipment, military communication, and public surveillance technology.\u201d And we believe that\u2019s really a step forward and, again, hope that it helps folks organize at other universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And moreover, in exchange for this commitment to vote, in fact, for a public statement of the commitment to vote, we got, as was also mentioned, legal, professional and academic amnesty for all participants. And we agreed to disband peacefully, which we think is important. And moreover, if the committee votes negatively, we get a written statement of their rationale, which we also think will be a useful organizing tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AMY&nbsp;GOODMAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;And just the significance of the president of The New School, is Donna Shalala \u2014&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXANDRA&nbsp;CHASIN:<\/strong>&nbsp;Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AMY&nbsp;GOODMAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;a well-known name. She was the head of&nbsp;HHS, Health and Human Services, under President Clinton, a Cabinet member. She was the president of Hunter. She was the president of University of Wisconsin, the chancellor, president of the University of Miami. Her role in this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXANDRA&nbsp;CHASIN:<\/strong>&nbsp;Well, it\u2019s been a journey, as they say. What she did on Sunday that was significant was that she turned over, she deputized a dean at&nbsp;NSSR&nbsp;to negotiate on her behalf, and put that dean in direct contact with members of the investment committee. And that was a significant move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MAY 22, 2024 (Democracynow.org) Watch Full Show This is viewer supported news. Please do your part today. DONATE TOPICS GUESTS Image Credit: National Students for Justice in Palestine Students and faculty at The New School, home to the first faculty Gaza solidarity encampment, have announced they reached a deal with&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/05\/23\/we-hope-to-be-a-model-students-faculty-at-the-new-school-secure-divestment-vote\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33894"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33895,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33894\/revisions\/33895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}