The Johns Hopkins University student activists leading a campus encampment negotiated with university administrators for six hours Tuesday without reaching a resolution, the Hopkins Justice Collective said Wednesday as the university set another deadline for students to sign a pledge to leave.
The group of students, alumni and community members said President Ron Daniels presented a “weak” offer to consider their demand for the university to divest its endowment from companies that support Israel. University administrators want protesters to remove the encampment that has grown to include 70 tents since April 29.
Protesters also want the university to publicly disclose all its financial ties to Israel, along with its lobbying efforts to increase militarized spending and an account of the use of weapons and military technology developed at Hopkins.
The group said Wednesday that university officials gave protesters two hours to accept an offer or face “immediate discipline in the morning,” including suspension. About 20 demonstrators milled about the quiet encampment Wednesday morning after the midnight deadline.
By the afternoon, university officials gave demonstrators a 6 p.m. deadline to sign a letter pledging not to disrupt the university’s upcoming commencement, leave the encampment and not return. In exchange, the university will defer disciplining students in the encampment unless they violate the institution’s “student code of conduct” at future protests.
The identities of students who sign the letter will be kept confidential and not be held against them during their academic career, Jennifer Calhoun, associate vice provost for student affairs, student living and community standards, wrote in the letter. Demonstrators strongly rejected the idea, calling the letter a “shameful fear tactic” and an attempt to collect identifying information.
“Hopkins is desperate to identify student resisters against genocide and divide us,” Hopkins Justice Collective wrote on social media, urging students not to sign the letter.
The group’s negotiations with administrators ended without a clear resolution. Administrators proposed considering divesting and cutting the lengthy process to 18 months, the group wrote in a news release. The university’s Public Interest Investment Advisory Committee received a request to divest from companies that support Israel. The request is the first part of a process that’s ultimately decided by the board of trustees, which has a fiduciary responsibility for the institution, a Hopkins spokesperson said Tuesday.
“Consideration is not divestment, it is a tactic to delay and pacify us — especially when those voting on the board of trustees are affiliated with the defense contractors themselves,” the group wrote.
University board of trustees member Gary Roughead, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, is also on the board of Northrop Grumman, one of the companies the group wants the university to cut ties with. Other companies include Elbit Systems, BlackRock, Palantir, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Google.
“Hopkins continues to invest in and develop knowledge for weapons companies which produce bombs that kill Palestinians,” the group of demonstrators wrote on social media.
A Hopkins spokesperson said Wednesday that the university is offering students “an opportunity to leave the encampment with reduced disciplinary consequences” if they sign a pledge by 6 p.m. Wednesday to leave and not return. University officials want to end the encampment due to the “serious risk of conflict and harm” to the university community “as seen here already and at peer institutions around the country,” a spokesperson said.
“We are pursuing other avenues for those who remain and would remind everyone that participation in the encampment is a trespass,” Megan Christin, a Hopkins spokesperson, said in a statement.
About 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students attend Hopkins, which has multiple campuses. The university’s May 23 commencement is moving forward as planned, a spokesperson said.
In Washington, D.C., police cleared an encampment Wednesday at the George Washington University and arrested 33 people.
![Carroll County’s public school system spent $5.6 million more than anticipated on employee medical insurance last fiscal year, which was counterbalanced by less-than-budgeted spending on teacher salaries due to an ongoing staffing shortage. Superintendent Cynthia McCabe said at a county school board on June 12 that cost-saving solutions would be considered to reduce the amount spent on employee health benefits. “We have been monitoring this situation throughout this fiscal year, given last year’s history, and are carefully considering cost-saving solutions to be discussed during the FY 26 budget development and next year’s budget process,” McCabe said. “It is complex, from […]](https://www.baltimoresun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/CCT-L-CENTURYGRADUATION-0603-p26.jpg?w=568 "Carroll County’s public school system spent $5.6 million more than anticipated on employee medical insurance last fiscal year, which was counterbalanced by less-than-budgeted spending on teacher salaries due to an ongoing staffing shortage. Superintendent Cynthia McCabe said at a county school board on June 12 that cost-saving solutions would be considered to reduce the amount spent on employee health benefits. “We have been monitoring this situation throughout this fiscal year, given last year’s history, and are carefully considering cost-saving solutions to be discussed during the FY 26 budget development and next year’s budget process,” McCabe said. “It is complex, from […]")
