University of Utah students joined nationwide pro-Palestinian rallies Monday as they set up colorful tents and tarps on the lawn in front of the school’s administration building. Around the perimeter of the encampment, campus police officers paced and carried zip ties.
The students vowed to stay until the leadership of Utah’s flagship university agreed to divest its $1.47 billion endowment from any ties to Israeli companies and weapons manufacturers benefitting from the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
“Disclose, divest. We will not stop. We will not rest,” they shouted, echoing the same chant heard at Columbia University and Yale, in California and Texas and Wisconsin. Hundreds of students across the country have been arrested for camping in solidarity with Palestinians. Schools have also suspended those participating.
As of 7 p.m. — three hours into their rally — no Utah students had been cited. But a school spokesperson noted a Salt Lake City ordinance that bans camping. Officers also walked around, talking with each other about taking down tents before midnight.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, about the First Amendment not protecting “violence, threats to public safety, property damage, camping or disruptions to our learning institutions. We will protect protestors and arrest those who violate the law.”
The Utah Department of Public Safety also issued a statement repeating that and said any criminal activity during a protest would be “swiftly addressed.” The insignias for University of Utah police and Salt Lake City police were included on the message.
We fully support everyone’s civil right to express themselves through freedom of speech. Yet, we do not tolerate the acts of any criminal activity, including but not limited to: property damage, unlawful assembly or camping, threats, or violent acts. pic.twitter.com/Lrgs4yzajf
— Utah Public Safety (@UtahDPS) April 30, 2024
U. police Capt. Jason Hinojosa added in his own comment: “As heated as the rhetoric has been about the war between Israel and Hamas, we are here, first and foremost, to preserve public safety, and then to make sure people are able to express their opinions.”
At least 800 students at the university, along with some faculty, attended an initial rally on the steps of the Park Building. Inside is U. President Taylor Randall’s office. The students called on him to come out and negotiate. They wrote “Free Palestine” in chalk, in the hope that Randall would see it from his window.
“Our demands are firm and unwavering,” said U. student Alondra. The Salt Lake Tribune agreed not to include her last name as she fears repercussions from the school for speaking out.
She added: “The university owes it to us as a public institution.”
The University of Utah and its campus police did submit reports in December to prosecutors for criminal charges to be filed against eight students. The school said those students disrupted an event critical of the transgender community being held by a conservative club on campus, forcing officers to shut it down. But the students have contended that the charges were retribution for a previous Palestine rally earlier in the fall; the U. has said that’s not the case.
It was the same student group — Mecha, which is largely led by and for students of color — responsible for those two earlier protests that planned what they called the “emergency” rally and encampment Monday. Some of the students facing misdemeanor charges spoke at the event.
After the speeches, a few students rushed onto the grass with tents, and they popped up the poles. Students circled around, linking arms and chanting.
They held hands and posters. They played hacky sack on the lawn. Inside their circle, they had first-aid kits, granola bars and megaphones. Backpacks were scattered on the surrounding sidewalks, next to signs that said, “Bombs made in Utah are killing kids in Gaza” and “Cut ties to Israel.”
Students waved small and large Palestinian flags as they chanted: “Gaza, Gaza you will rise. Students are by your side.”
Since the Israel-Hamas war started in October — when the militant group Hamas attacked — more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed and 1,200 Israelis.
The students specifically called on the U. to divest from Lockheed Martin, which has a Utah location, and 47G; both are aerospace and defense companies. The U. also has a research partnership with 47G that was announced in 2023 and which it pays memberships due to be a part of.
The school did not immediately issue a statement Monday about divesting from Israel and weapons companies. A spokesperson referred to a previous 2021 divestment report prepared by faculty that examined what it would take for the school to eliminate holdings in oil and gas companies — which the U. has set goals for.
The students said the university should not only divest from “participating in a genocide” with the Israel-Hamas war — but it should also disclose all of its financial connections with its endowment.
“I’m sorry we have to stand here today to beg our university to divest from an apartheid state,” one student said who declined to give her name.
“Our university is extremely implicated,” added Christopher Loera-Peña, a fourth-year student.
Additionally, the students asked for amnesty for all protesters participating in the event — anticipating later arrests — and for campus police to be permanently disbanded. They passed around papers listing what rights students have and advising them to stay quiet if detained.
More tents were pitched as the hours passed, with added pops of neon green and orange nylon rising in what they called the “Solidarity Camp.” Some students left after the initial rally. But hundreds remained in the encampment. They wheeled wagons in with food and water, sleeping bags and pillows.
They sang, too, and prayed. “This is the people’s university now,” they said. Most wore scarves and masks covering their faces.
Passing cars and a few campus buses honked in solidarity. There were signs nearby for the U.’s upcoming graduation ceremony.
The rally and encampment is unprecedented for Utah in recent years, which generally hasn’t seen large student gatherings; many students here live at home and commute to school, which tends to dampen mass protests. And the state is largely conservative.
But the U. has in past decades seen large rallies on campus — with calls to divest from Apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s and against the war in Vietnam in the 1960s. Both of those also came as students at colleges nationwide were speaking out.
“Do not let go of this moment,” said student Julio Irungaray at the rally Monday. “Make it bigger. … You are part of something massive. You are on the right side of history.”
The students said they felt a responsibility to stand up and speak out at their university because the universities that once stood in Palestine are now in rubble.
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