Nearly three weeks after encampments were erected at San Francisco State University (SFSU), university leaders agreed to meet three of four demands made by student protestors.
“We will support the addition of a human rights-based investment strategy, including divesting from direct investments in weapons manufacturers and limiting other such indirect investments,” said university President Lynn Mahoney in a statement.
“This timeline was a lot shorter than we thought,” said Brian Y., a media liaison with the encampment. He did not give El Tecolote his last name because of fear of retaliation. “Most other schools have not been able to get divestment at all. So to do it in just over two weeks, that’s been a huge thing for us.”
SFSU joins other colleges in Northern California that have also agreed to divest from Israeli investments amid the nationwide protest movement across campuses.
“These are wins that will make material change for those who are currently going through hell in Gaza,” Ali Noorzad said. “These wins were fought for and won by every single one of us [who] marched, organized and camped out here.”
Encampment leaders said they are now focusing on pressuring the university meets its fourth demand: for the university’s president to declare the ongoing war in Gaza a genocide.
Currently, organizers are converting the encampment into a “day camp” where pro-Palestinian activists could continue protesting without staying overnight. Brian Y. also said protesters plan to travel to Long Beach to join students from other California State University (CSU) campuses to protest a Board of Trustees meeting planned for May 21.
“What’s happening in Northern California at the CSU campuses where working-class students are the majority … is evidence of what can happen when working-class students are active and organizing,” said Ziniab Imtair, an encampment leader. “Real material divestment is possible from the state of Israel here, at the CSU-wide level.”
Other encampment leaders vowed to continue their movement until the CSU Chancellor, Mildred Garcia ensured divestment from Israel-tied investments.