Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - USC President Carol Folt said efforts are being made Wednesday to meet again with organizers of pro-Palestinian groups who have been protesting at the college campus for several days, and she wants to continue the meaningful conversations with the groups to reach a resolution to the protests.
Organizers of pro-Palestinian protests at USC met with Folt for the second day in a row Tuesday to discuss their demands such as divesting from companies with interests in Israel and suspending study-abroad programs in the area, with no reported progress toward any agreements.
USC protesters met with Folt and other university officials for about 90 minutes Monday afternoon, and they met again Tuesday afternoon. The meeting, however, did not appear to bring the two sides any closer together.
"I had a second meeting today with the same group from the encampment," Folt said in a statement Tuesday. "We brought some very specific proposals that would address concerns they had about the endowment, which they have said is one of their most important issues. I deeply respect the passion they feel for their cause and recognize the pain and suffering taking place in our own community as well as in the Middle East.
"Unfortunately, they seemed more interested in having me issue a political statement in support of their viewpoint as opposed to coming up with practical solutions to resolve the situation."
Speaking to a reporter with the independent student-led media platform Annenberg Media after the meeting, Folt said there was "a lot of conversation back and forth, so I feel like that's very meaningful."
"I hope we continue to have meaningful conversations," she said, calling the dialogue "interesting and important."
"I also feel very grateful to everyone for keeping the campus so that people can continue to go about all (their) business," she said. "... I just want that to be what we continue to do, and I'm seeing that."
It was unclear if any more meetings were scheduled, but Folt said she would try to get another set up.
In a statement Tuesday night to the Daily Trojan, the campus newspaper, the USC Divest from Death Coalition wrote it was "once again ... deeply disappointed" after its second meeting with Folt, General Counsel Beong- soo Kim and Vice President of Student Life Monique Allard.
Folt told organizers "supposedly less than 2% of USC's endowment is invested in companies actively contributing to the genocide," the statement read, which they calculated as $152 million. The Daily Trojan could not immediately confirm this number.
"The administration is aware of where its money goes, and chooses to withhold information from its communities," organizers wrote. "Transparency is within reach: they simply refuse and defer to bureaucratic internal processes that fail to meet any of our demands."
Kim, the general counsel, also said he could not confirm the administration sanctioned "unnecessary use of force" against protesters "before there's been an investigation," according to the statement.
Folt and other administrators also "refuse to acknowledge the genocide in Palestine," organizers wrote, despite negotiators in the meeting "informing her of the numerous international bodies, genocide scholars, human rights organizations, and the overwhelming majority of the world who recognize its factual legitimacy."
"We do not want a 'political statement' from USC, as Folt alleges in her inaccurate account of our meeting," the statement read. "We demand a `practical solution' in the form of divestments and disclosures."
A mass protest and march on the USC campus last week led to 93 arrest of people who refused orders to vacate Alumni Park. USC officials accused participants in that day's march of vandalizing buildings and violating university rules against camping, erecting tents and posting signs.
Protest participants insisted they were engaged in a peaceful action that was escalated by law enforcement. They have also lashed out at USC for inflaming the issue by canceling a commencement speech by pro-Palestinian valedictorian Asna Tabassum.
Protesters re-established a camp at USC over the weekend, and it has been allowed to remain in place.
USC became a focal point of Southland Palestinian protests following its decision to cancel Tabassum's commencement speech in response to complaints about online posts that critics called antisemitic. USC officials insisted the move was solely a security issue, not a political decision.
As tensions continued mounting -- leading to last Wednesday's mass protest -- the university eventually opted to cancel its May 10 main stage commencement in Alumni Park altogether, but vowed to move forward with the usual array of smaller satellite graduation ceremonies for the school's individual colleges.
Some of those ceremonies, however, could also be impacted by the debate over the Israel-Hamas war. Two dignitaries who had been scheduled to speak during a pair of commencement activities announced Sunday they were withdrawing from the events.
Author C Pam Zhang was scheduled to speak at a doctoral ceremony on May 8. Author Safiya U. Noble was set to speak during a May 10 masters ceremony.
"To speak at USC in this moment would betray not only our own values, but USC's too," the pair wrote in a letter to university administrators on Sunday. "We are withdrawing as commencement speakers. We cannot overlook the link between recent developments and the ongoing genocide in Palestine."
The letter added, "Asna's removal, the administration's refusal to engage in dialogue with student protesters, and the decision to invite LAPD forces onto campus, represent a violent and targeted refusal to allow true diversity of expression to flourish on campus. The right to free speech and peaceful protest are not only fundamental to democracy, but a particular, proud feature of American universities."