California State University, Los Angeles President Berenecea J. Eanes on Thursday heard demands from students and faculty, and expressed a commitment to transparency in the first in-person negotiation since protesters set up a Gaza solidarity encampment on campus.
The meeting, which was also live-streamed, was held inside the encampment, just days before commencement ceremonies are set to take place at the LA Convention Center. It included Eanes, members of her administration and a crowd of about 100 people.
“What we want to accomplish in this meeting is outline a path forward to putting Cal State LA on the right side of history just like the dignified institutions which divested from South African apartheid in the 1980s,” a protester who did not share their name during the meeting said to the administration.
During the session, an encampment spokesperson laid out a list of demands, which include the school’s disclosure of financial investments and the severing of ties with companies that technologically support the Israeli military because of the country’s invasion of Gaza strip.
Eanes tried to reassure the crowd that data collection on investments was in progress and that striving for more transparency was paramount. She said the school planned to add a human rights-based approach in investment policy statements in the future and would review current investments to align with the new policy. But, she said, these things would need more time.
“Let me emphasize that the transparency, communication, collaboration, and shared governance of the university has to be connected. We need to have increased communication and transparency on all fronts.” Eanes said. “But that takes time. It takes time and community. I am who I am. I’ve been very clear about what I want. I just got here, and some of this predates me for a long time. It takes time.”
The encampment, now in its 16th day, was established by the CSULA chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The demonstration, like many others across the country, are students’ latest form of protest against the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, where more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched a counterattack following the killing of close to 1,200 Israelis by Palestinian military group Hamas last October.
As part of their demands, protesters at the meeting also called for a declaration of acknowledgement of genocide happening in Gaza and asked Eanes to issue an immediate ceasefire statement.
“We call on you, President Eanes, and your administration, to heed the students’ demands and end our complicity in the atrocity that is the genocide of Palestinains at the hands of the Israeli apartheid state,” said Alejandro Villalpando, a Latin American Studies professor and member of Faculty for Justice in Palestine.
Eanes agreed to disclose what she could regarding ties and investments as soon as her team had the appropriate data but did not promise much else. She underscored the encampment’s right to protest, and offered to hold a second public meeting Friday, ahead of the school’s main commencement ceremonies Monday and Tuesday. No details have been disclosed on time and place for that meeting.
A media spokesperson for the encampment said the conversation was a good start but wasn’t as productive as they hoped.
“There hasn’t been the disclosure we’ve been requesting. It’s going to take a while and it all depends on her. We’ve been making these requests even before this meeting and they’ve fallen short. It’s disappointing,” they said.
Another student in the crowd said they were glad that they got to that point and acknowledged the amount of work it took to get the president to hold in-person dialogue with the protestors.
“It was a lot of nothing. For all the work we put in, it felt like the effort was one sided,” they said.
Despite feelings of disappointment, many students and faculty were hopeful that if a second meeting did in fact take place Friday, movement towards disclosure might be in store.
“I’m deeply moved as a human being,” Villalpando said, congratulating students for their organization of the public meeting. “But the divestment and disclosure is still important. And we aren’t going to let that go.”
