New York University officials will move to discipline student demonstrators who remain in a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus, the university announced in a statement on Monday.
The encampment was erected on Friday, as similar sites spread on college campuses across the country, following Columbia University’s lead. Students removed their tents on Friday as N.Y.U. demanded but continued to stay overnight at the encampment.
On Sunday night, college officials presented the protesters with two options: end the overnight stays “without consequences” or stay and possibly face “conduct charges,” according to the statement. School leaders extended the deadline to respond to noon on Monday.
By Monday afternoon, students had not responded and had remained at the site, John Beckman, a university spokesman, said in the statement. “Accordingly and regrettably, N.Y.U. is moving forward with disciplinary processes,” he said.
College officials did not immediately respond to a request for more details about what the “disciplinary processes” would entail.
Dylan Hernandez, a student who is a spokesman for the N.Y.U. Palestine Solidarity Coalition, said Monday that the university was not “arguing on a good-faith basis, even though it purports to do so.”
He said officials were saying they were negotiating with demonstrators while also “threatening” them with sweeps, sending in the police and disciplinary action.
“The position of the students is that they will not move until N.Y.U. shows good faith,” Mr. Hernandez added. “It would be an honor for us to be the targets of disciplinary measures for standing in solidarity with Palestine.”
He said the students had responded to the university’s two options through action: “We responded by staying.”
On Monday afternoon, the mood was calm as students milled about the encampment, which was nestled behind the John A. Paulson Center, a central academic building on N.Y.U.’s Greenwich Village campus in Manhattan. Nearby, a couple of dozen protesters were seated in a circle behind police barricades decorated with pro-Palestinian banners.
Student chants were directed at the president of N.Y.U., Linda Mills: “Linda Mills, we know you. You arrest students too,” the protesters chanted. Outside the barricaded area, about 40 demonstrators and passers-by looked on, chanting, chatting and snacking on pizza. Several campus security guards stood by watching.
The protesters stayed even as it rained, with some in the encampment pulling out ponchos and umbrellas. Others moved underneath a nearby awning and watched as some demonstrators held hands and danced to Arabic music in the rain.
Around 600 “parents, guardians, and loved ones” signed a letter criticizing Dr. Mills for calling in the Police Department to help remove people who were protesting in front of N.Y.U.’s business school last week. Dozens of demonstrators were arrested.
In the letter, published on Monday in Washington Square News, the school’s independent student newspaper, the signers called on Dr. Mills to resign, saying, “If you are incapable of protecting our kids’ First Amendment rights and distinguishing between legitimate protest and criminal activity, you should step down.”
