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Brown University arrested 41 students Monday night following a sit-in at University Hall, where they demanded that the university divest its endowment from arms manufacturers, The Providence Journal reported.
The students were charged with “willful trespass within school buildings” after they refused to leave by the end of the business day, according to The Hill.
“The disruption to secure buildings is not acceptable, and the University is prepared to escalate the level of criminal charges for future incidents of students occupying secure buildings,” university spokesman Brian Clark told The Providence Journal.
The protest, which was also intended as a show of support for Brown junior Hisham Awartani, who was shot and paralyzed by a gunman in Burlington, Vt., over Thanksgiving weekend, was organized by Brown Divest Coalition, a group urging Brown “to promote a permanent ceasefire by divesting from companies that facilitate the genocide in Gaza.”
Last month 20 students from Jews for Ceasefire Now were arrested in the same place for the same reason. The Israel-Hamas war has reinvigorated the national student movement for divestment from companies doing business with Israel.
President Christina Paxson met with students during Monday’s protest and received their list of demands. She responded with a two-page letter reaffirming her earlier decision not to raise such recommendations with the Brown Corporation, The Boston Globe reported, but she encouraged students to submit a new request to the appropriate committee “to examine allegations of ‘social harm’ with respect to the investment or expenditure of University financial resources.”
