The New School professors create Gaza Camp, refuse to submit grades in solidarity with students

The first college faculty-led Gaza Camp went up on Wednesday afternoon with the university staff refusing to submit grades.  

According to the New York Post, the faculty-led encampment is inside the college's University Center where a handful of faculty members have set up tents to protest The New School's connections to Israel by demanding the school divest from 13 companies that they claim are aiding the Jewish state in the war, similarly to other Gaza Camp protests. 

”The movement started by our brave students must continue, and it is incumbent upon us as faculty to heed their calls, and help finish what they started," an anonymous representative organizing the Gaza Camp said in a statement.  

The faculty has named it the Refaat Alareer Faculty Solidarity Encampment, named after a Palestinian writer and poet who died in an airstrike in Gaza in December. It comes after more than 40 students in The New School were arrested following a student Gaza Camp being disbanded by the police on campus.  

“From the brazen lies spouted by administration in the face of violent NYPD repression to the suspension of students and tactics used to prevent students from accessing their essential needs after arrests, it is clear the President, Board members and Administration have no interest in protecting students or listening to their demands, only in protecting themselves and their own profits,” an unnamed faculty members stated.  

The faculty have been urged not to submit final grades in protest with the encampment.  

“This is the first faculty-led encampment in the US,” the faculty said. “We hope it will not be the last. We thank our students for showing us the way; for being our teachers.”