Brown University arrests 41 student protesters at sit-in calling for divestment

Forty-one Brown University students were arrested and charged with trespassing during a Monday night sit-in at University Hall where they demanded the school divest from weapons manufacturers amid the Israel-Hamas war.

It is the same place that 20 students were arrested last month while delivering the same call.

This time, more than 200 people converged on the campus green outside the building, singing, chanting, holding homemade signs and wearing keffiyehs, the traditional Middle Eastern scarf that has become ever-present at pro-Palestinian protests.

"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," said university spokesman Brian Clark. "Given that this is the second prominent incident in recent weeks of students trespassing in a secure, non-residential building after operating hours, the University fully expects to recommend more significant criminal misdemeanor charges for any future incidents after the Dec. 11 sit-in."

This marks just over 60 student protesters arrested in recent weeks. Brown Public Safety made the arrests and Providence Police aided with processing.

The action was organized by the Brown Divest Coalition, which describes itself as "a multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious coalition of students from diverse backgrounds and traditions, which demands that Brown promote a permanent ceasefire by divesting from companies that facilitate the genocide in Gaza."

The protest was also a show of support for junior Hisham Awartani, who was shot and paralyzed by a gunman in Burlington, Vermont, on Nov. 25 alongside two other men of Palestinian descent who were also injured.

Activists called on university to divest from nearly a dozen companies

"I want to share this with my parents, particularly my mother: I didn’t tell you that I was going to do this because I knew that you would worry," said Kate, an arrested student who did not provide her last name. "But then I thought of all of the mothers in Gaza who have not had a moment since Oct. 7 when they have not been worried about their children’s lives."

The group said they would not leave University Hall until President Christina Paxson committed to endorsing a 2020 report from the Brown University Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Practices. The report called out a long list of companies from which the committee wanted Brown to divest: AB Volvo, Airbus, Boeing, DXC, General Dynamics, General Electric, Motorola, Northrop Grumman, Oaktree Capital, Raytheon and United Technologies.

More: Brown University celebrates legacy of activism, but today's protesters feel ignored

Paxson refuses to endorse report calling for divestment, says it lacked proper analysis

Earlier in the day, Paxson sent a letter to the activists refusing to endorse the report and bring its recommendations to the Corporation of Brown University because it "did not adequately address the requirements for rigorous analysis and research." Paxson said the report also didn't explain how divestment addressed social harms.

Clark offered some clarity on the school's finances. He said Brown's endowment "is almost entirely invested through external specialist investment managers, all with the highest level of ethics and all whom we believe share the values of the Brown community."

"This includes the rejection of violence," he added. "The endowment is not directly invested in defense stocks or large munitions manufacturers. This can be clearly seen through Brown’s [Securities and Exchange Commission] filings, which are publicly available."

More: Hundreds of Brown U faculty call on university to drop charges against student protesters

Will charges against students stick?

In November, when 20 students of BrownU Jews for Ceasefire Now were arrested for sitting in at University Hall, the school eventually asked the city to drop trespassing charges against them. That was after more than 200 faculty put pressure on the university to scrap the charges, avoid penalizing students and hear them out. It was also after Awartani was shot.

The administration's latest move raises the question of whether it is serious about moving forward with charges or whether they, too, will be dropped.

"It’s essential to highlight that arresting students is not an action that Brown takes lightly, and it’s not something the University ever wants to do," Clark said. "The students were informed that staying in the building after business hours poses security concerns. In addition, after the arrest of 20 students Nov. 8 for willful trespass, the implications of remaining in the building were very clear."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Dozens of Brown University student protesters arrested during sit-in