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At Northwestern University, I study journalism and history. I know how important student movements can be because I still see photos and read about the impacts they have decades later. When students formed encampments across the country demanding their universities divest from companies that profit from Israel’s war on Gaza, I knew people today and generations to come would want to understand what was happening at that moment.
I’ve seen plenty of news stories paint the encampments as violent and antisemitic. What I saw my classmates create was a community based around mutual support and calls for peace.
On Northwestern’s Deering Meadow, a small plaque commemorates student protests against the Vietnam War – prompted by the police crackdowns that killed students at Kent State and Jackson State. How will Northwestern remember the encampment for Palestine that has occupied the same usually-empty field since Thursday morning, and its gains on Monday?
As the death toll of Israel’s war on Gaza exceeds 34,000, students have intensified protests throughout the United States demanding their universities stop investing in companies they see as complicit. According to Axios, almost 2,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators have been arrested on campuses since April 12. In the first hours of Northwestern’s encampment, a similar crackdown seemed imminent.
The Northwestern University Divestment Coalition, a group of student and faculty organizations including Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, organized the encampment. Even without mass arrests, maintaining momentum through stressful days and rainy nights took more than protest chants – students, faculty and Chicago area residents attended workshops and heard speakers, prayed and picnicked, created art and built infrastructure to keep protesters supplied and connected.
At most events I cover, people are willing or even happy to be photographed – but protests at Northwestern are an exception. Although the police response was tame compared to other university protests, many students feared the university or potential employers would punish them for participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Student organizers also warned participants about doxxing by counterprotesters. On Sunday, a group of people waving Israeli flags confronted the encampment, and some tried to film protesters with their phones.
On Monday, April 29, organizers announced their agreement with Northwestern administration to a crowd at the encampment. The university’s commitments include greater transparency and input in investments, providing a permanent gathering space for Middle Eastern and North African students, and publicly condemning incidents of doxxing.
As of Thursday, May 2, per the terms of the agreement, only one large tent remains to support protesters. However, the Northwestern Divestment Coalition continues to host speakers and workshops on Deering Meadow.
Northwestern may or may not commemorate the encampment with a plaque by a tree. But student activists will not soon forget the impact of the community they formed at Deering Meadow – and neither will history.
