On the morning of Encampment Day 2, a huge Palestinian flag flies over Deering Meadow, very visible from Sheridan Road.
More signs are up on the fence, and more tents, mostly small ones where protesters slept overnight, are close together on the ground.
Despite Northwestern’s new “interim addendum” to the student conduct code, banning tents at non-University events, the small tents are on hand, along with at least several very large ones, including one apparently serving food, another with a red cross on the side, presumably acting as a water/medical location.
After the protest began on Thursday university president Michael Schill issued a statement saying that “earlier this morning, a group of demonstrators attempted to set up a tent encampment … and were informed that doing so is prohibited under University policies. After discussions with University officials, some of the demonstrators removed their tents. Others refused and were cited by Northwestern police. Their tents were removed by the University.”
It appears that those “citations” must have been for violating university rules, as NU spokesperson Jon Yates told Evanston Now on Friday morning that there have been no arrests.
Dozens of demonstrators have been arrested at other campuses around the nation.
While the NU protesters are calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, and an end to Israeli retaliatory raids following the Hamas invasion, some of the demonstrators have long-standing objections to Israel, and are calling for Northwestern to cut financial and academic links to the Jewish state.
It’s unclear if or even when NU will try again to enforce the no-tent policy. There was no visible police presence on Friday morning.
While it was hard to tell because of all the small tents on site, the number of demonstrators appears not to have grown from yesterday’s total of around 250.
A couple of dozen formed a line Friday morning and chanted slogans.
In his Thursday statement, Yates said “The University is in active discussion with the demonstrators to ensure the safety of members of the Northwestern community, while also providing a space for free expression.”
So it’s unclear what may happen next.