by Sako Chapman of the CPJ Auxilary Team
Editors Note 5/4/24: the previous headline for this article may have left the incorrect impression that The Evergreen State College has fully divested. The CPJ emphasizes, along with the students interviewed in this article, that this is the first significant step in a longer process towards divestment.
TUESDAY EVENING, April 30th, the bargaining team of the Evergreen Gaza Solidarity Encampment emerged after 5 hours of negotiations with a signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) held high over their heads.
Cheers resounded from the crowd of supporters, who had been maintaining the rally on Red Square since 11am. Throughout the day students, staff, faculty, and community members had rotated through the encampment to take up chants of support to the bargaining team negotiations. Eventually, the crowd moved into view of the Social Justice Center (SJC) where the bargaining team and three supporting faculty had been locked in negotiations since 4:30pm. Chants ranged from support for bargaining: “TESC DIVEST! TESC DIVEST!” to ones with more direct pressure to administration, shouting: “WHILE YOU’RE STALLING BOMBS ARE DROPPING.”
photo 1: Students Encourage the Bargaining Team through the window by chanting. photo 2: Members of the bargaining team hold up a sign to communicate with the crowd reading “We are one word away– We will secure divestment.”
As the hours went on with the bargaining team inside and students eager for their demands to be met, the rally moved to enter the library. Participants circled the lobby in Evans Hall while dancing, chanting, and cheering. Their noises resounded throughout the building, as they made their support known.
photo 1: Students chant in the library lobby. photo 2: the crowd surrounds the door of the SJC to make sure their cries carry through the door.
As the night sky darkened further, the crowd returned outside to watch administrators and the student bargaining team reaching to sign a document through the window. As the crowd of supporters began to cheer, a student inside pressed the copy of the signed MOU to the glass pane, next to where the Palestinian flag had been duct taped up.
The bargaining team returned to give their deliberations to the crowd that had rushed back into the library, unable to contain their excitement. They expressed their exhaustion while translating the document out of MOU terms and into items understandable for the crowd.
photo: members of the bargaining team stand to read off the signed negotiations, next to Jon Rodriguez’s memorial.
Where pictures of the final, signed MOU can be accessed at the bottom, in summary:
The Evergreen State College has agreed to create an “Investment Policy Disappearing Task Force” by the end of this Spring quarter, which will address “divestment from companies that profit from gross human rights violations and/or the occupation of Palestinian Territories.” Their findings will be used in the implementation of a divestment policy “to begin during Spring Quarter 2025 and completed by Spring 2026.”
A “Grant Acceptance Policy” task force was also agreed upon, which would provide a policy recommendation with “criteria to include such considerations as whether grants facilitate illegal occupations abroad, limit free speech, or support oppression of minorities,” to be formed in Fall 2024 and implemented beginning in Spring 2025.
A “Civilian Oversight of the Police Department” task force was outlined to propose a new Police Services Community Review Board structure, extending to recommendations that include “updates to the Police Services Operating Procedures to include the role of the [PSCRB].” When implemented in 2025, this provision could lead to changes in Police Services that are wholly defined by Evergreen students, staff, and faculty.
An “Alternative Models of Crisis Response” task force was signed, which makes recommendations to ensure that non-police crisis responses are implemented at the Evergreen State College. This is especially significant when understanding that all crisis response systems at Evergreen currently include calling Police Services Dispatch as the first step.
The MOU comes with a provision that when implemented, the work of the task forces can’t be undone “without a similar public process.”
As the document continues, the College has agreed to make a historic statement, one that includes respecting the March 25th United Nations resolutions call for a “lasting, sustainable ceasefire.” The statement will also need to include “an acknowledgment of the ICJ’s genocide investigation and comments about US weaponry,” which will be unprecedented in college ceasefire statements.
In a following section, the college has committed to not approving study abroad due to safety reasons in “Israel, Gaza, or the West Bank,” continuing by saying “Evergreen will not approve study abroad programs to regions where our students are denied entry based on their identity as Palestinians or Jews.” This means that while Palestinians are denied the right to return to their own country, no study abroad programs will be approved.
The Free Speech and Free Association provision strongly affirms that “faculty affiliations do not bind Evergreen to policies that limit free speech.”
photo: students rush to take photos of the MOU to share with their friends
After describing the contents of the MOU in clear terms, celebrations of won divestment processes broke out in full force. Excitement filled the room, cheers of “I BELIEVE THAT WE HAVE WON” mixing with the equally powerful cries of “THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES/ LA LUCHA CONTINUA.” The CPJ asked for comments from celebrating students, who pointed out how monumentally peaceful their protest had been while getting their demands resolved. As one student shouted: “We did it… we did it without a single fucking student getting touched by police.” Others called forth the growing national student movement for Palestine and global solidarity: “Long live the student intifada!” , “Take the struggle out to UW, and then out of the universities and into the streets!”, and “We keep on fighting, we will not stop until Palestine is free.”
The students of the encampment remained energized at what they had won in the bargaining negotiations, but held onto the firm understanding that this was just the beginning of a longer fight. At Evergreen, staff, faculty, and underclassmen will need to remain involved and remain vigilant to see the success of these task forces through. As one student emphasized: “We need students to join these committees, this is the beginning not the end…It’ll take our time, energy, and continued solidarity. Not just today but forever to make sure Palestine gets free.”
video: Evergreen community runs in a circle in the library cheering “TESC DIVESTED! TESC DIVESTED!”
As an agreement of reconciliation, the encampment will conclude Wednesday, May 1 by 5pm. There have been no reports of Student Rights and Responsibilities violations.
Wednesday, at 12:30pm, the Evergreen Gaza Solidarity Encampment will host a Divestment Rally to share the historic agreement, as the 3rd divestment process commitment in the nation to come from an encampment protest.
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