University of Pittsburgh administrators responded Monday to ongoing pro-Palestine protests on Pitt's campus, blaming protesters for incidents of vandalism to campus property and alleging demonstration organizers have no affiliation with the school.
A message released Sunday from an organization identifying itself as Pitt Divest from Apartheid said reestablishing an encampment on the University of Pittsburgh’s property on Sunday was meant to “send a clear message to Chancellor Joan Gabel, Board of Trustees Chair Louis R. Cestello, Chief Investment Officer Jeffer Choudhry and the rest of senior administration and the board.”
The statement — which also includes lists of demands — said protesters include Pitt "students, faculty, staff and community members.” But a Monday afternoon email from Chancellor Gabel to faculty, staff and students says leaders are not affiliated with the university.
“None of these leaders are students, and their affiliations are with organizations that also have no connection to the University,” Gabel wrote.
Gabel went on to describe damage and attempted damage resulting from demonstrators so far, including defacing the Cathedral of Learning, antisemitic graffiti on the Frick Fine Art Building, and a weapon thrown through a window.
“Now more than ever, we want to express our commitment to free expression and critical inquiry as core to our mission and key to a vibrant university environment … However, we have no illusions that the efforts of this group last night are directed toward free expression.”
Gabel did not address demands issued the day before for transparency about Pitt investments or divestments. Protesters promised Sunday evening to stay in the encampment until all demands are met. Gabel’s message said the Cathedral of Learning remains open to students who present IDs and that the rest of campus is operating normally.
Officers from the Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh and other police departments responded Sunday night to a demonstration that drew approximately 200 protesters to the Pitt campus in Oakland, where some of them erected barricades near the Cathedral of Learning and announced intentions to reestablish a "Palestine Solidarity Encampment" on the lawn of the campus landmark.
Protesters erected tents and chanted while massing behind barriers they made of wood and wire fencing.
"We unreservedly and wholeheartedly stand with the people of Palestine in their resistance to the Zionist regime," the group said in its statement, which also includes demands regarding university policies and partnerships and calling for the university to divest itself from investments in companies that it said "participate in and profit from" ties with Israel or support Israel in its war with Hamas. Demands also call for disarming Pitt Police and other actions regarding the university police department.
The demonstration began Sunday afternoon as two pro-Palestinian protests in Oakland. The first started at 4:30 p.m. in front of the Christopher Columbus monument in Schenley Park. The other, focused on health care workers in Gaza, started at 5 p.m. on the green space beside the Boulevard of the Allies and Zulema Street, several blocks from campus.
The demonstration came about a month after an earlier protest in April that lasted through the week of Pitt's graduation observances. That protest began as a sit-in outside of the Cathedral of Learning before organizers agreed to move the encampment to the city-owned parklet between the Hillman Library and the Carnegie Museum complex. Gabel characterized those actions as peaceful and “markedly different” from ongoing demonstrations.
As they did on Sunday, protesters in April called on university officials to disclose any investments in companies or institutions that have supported Israel in its war with Hamas, and to divest any holdings tied to Israel. (Pitt is among a group of large universities whose investments can be opaque.)
Thomas Riley contributed to this report.
