UNC Charlotte forces removal of tents placed for war protest
UNC Charlotte officials forced students to remove a collection of tents on the school’s campus this week as tensions increase at colleges nationwide over the Israel-Hamas war.
Students began setting up the encampment in a plaza across from UNC Charlotte’s student union Monday morning. By noon, university officials told them to remove tents from the lawn. The school says the demonstration violated its policies.
UNC Charlotte students removed their tents but a group continues to gather daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., which was first reported by the school’s student newspaper, Niner Times. UNC Charlotte’s board of trustees is meeting Thursday, and student protesters said they planned to demonstrate during the meeting.
The demonstrations come after the school’s student government adopted a resolution in March calling on UNC Charlotte to divest from
Israel. The school’s administration said it would not act on the resolution.
The protests at UNC Charlotte are joined by others at college campuses across the country in response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas War, which began Oct. 7 when Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, launched a terrorist attack that killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians, with 240 hostages being taken. Since then, Israel has dropped thousands of bombs in Gaza. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed since October, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Police arrested more than 100 Columbia University students last week while attempting to dismantle an encampment the student protesters set up on campus. On Wednesday, armed Texas state troopers arrived at the University of Texas at Austin to disrupt a nonviolent protest, arresting 54 people.
A small group of students were gathered Wednesday at UNC Charlotte when a Charlotte Observer reporter visited. The students declined to give their full names, but said the protest was inspired by similar efforts at other college campuses across the country.
University officials contend the encampment violated its policies.
“Students were asked to remove tents that had been placed on campus because they were in violation of University Policy 601.9. This policy governs erecting structures on campus, which includes tents,” Christy Jackson, deputy chief communications officer for UNC Charlotte told The Observer. “It requires at least a 10-day advance notice for the University to consider such a request and to make a determination, which is based on safety, space availability and other criteria.”
After removing tents, students returned to the plaza Tuesday morning with blankets to sit on. However, members of the student organization that planned the demonstration, Social Justice for Southwest Asia and North Africa, said they were told their blankets also violated the university’s policies.
Jackson denied that university officials told students to remove their blankets and said students remained there into the evening.
Students said Wednesday morning they moved the demonstration further back from the spot it occupied – in an area highly visible from the road and student union – because university officials put a petting zoo in its place.
The university regularly has a petting zoo for students in the week leading up to final exams. But students who spoke to the Observer said they think it was an intentional attempt by the university to hamper their demonstration.
HOW IS UNC CHARLOTTE INVOLVED IN ISRAEL
The student government resolution adopted in March called for a total stop to investment by UNC Charlotte in any activities in Israel “until at least the time in which the State of Israel arranges a ceasefire in Gaza and there are proper measures in place to hold the State of Israel and other party actors accountable for their role in the Palestinian genocide.”
That includes the university’s Mount Zion Archeological Project in Jerusalem, which has been funded and staffed in part by UNC Charlotte students and staff since 2008. The school remains the only non-Israeli university with a license to dig in Jerusalem, which was provided by the Israeli Antiquities Authority.
The university declined to act on the resolution, citing a state law which stipulates public universities in North Carolina “may not take action, as an institution, on the public policy controversies of the day in such a way as to require students, faculty, or administrators to publicly express a given view of social policy.”
Students at Wednesday’s protest said they believe the university’s stance is hypocritical. They are calling on the university to “show true neutrality” by pulling out of the Mount Zion Project.
It’s not clear how many Palestinian students there currently are at UNC Charlotte. There are approximately 200-300 Jewish undergraduates at the school, according to North Carolina Hillel.