One of the Strongest Communities FIT Has Ever Seen
13 days of peaceful protest at the Fashion Institute of Technology have ended after the administration turned their back on previously negotiated promises.
On Friday, May 3rd, at the pro-Palestine/ Israel divestment encampment for students at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) I sat down with a member of student leadership to discuss their experience with the camp so far, and their reaction to recent events involving other encampments in NYC.
On April 30th, both Columbia and City College of New York (CUNY) encampments were dismantled by the New York Police Department, invited onto campus by their respective administrations. Also on April 30th, Brown University, announced that they had reached an agreement that would lead to the end of the encampment there by student organizers.
Shortly after an initial interview, FIT became the only college with an encampment left in the city, and on May 7th, it also fell to a violent NYPD force, similarly invited onto campus by an administration that had previously stated that they would not be inviting cops onto campus.
I interviewed two representatives of FIT’s Students for Justice in Palestine, Tammi of the Class of 2025, on May 3rd, and Mustafa of the Class of 2027 on May 9th (Will not be identified further to prevent doxxing.) They spoke to me about how the encampment started, what it meant to them, and the administrations sudden change in heart 13 days in, leading to the camp’s destruction.
The encampment was spurred on in solidarity with Columbia’s encampment, and mimicked the calls heard around the country for divestment. It was organized in 36 hours, and students set up an encampment within the school’s museum, before shortly switching to an outdoor encampment about 48 hours later. A central courtyard of the campus on 27th street placed them in a central position to not only be seen by passing people and students, but also allowed them to come and go as they pleased. With only two nonchalant security guards to watch over them, almost every student at the encampment was attending class regularly, and not everyone was sleeping in the camp every night, making it by far one of the most optimistic encampments that NYC had.
This low security, peaceful environment was possible with assurances brought on by the administration early on in negotiations with encampment leaders. “Right off the bat they told us, suspensions, and police were off the table… Building this without that fear has been really great,” Tammi said on Friday, May 3rd. “And it’s because of that that we have a pretty solid 50 person count here at any given time, which for our school’s size has been amazing to see.”
The encampment quickly became one of the strongest communities on FIT’s campus. A college that according to Tammi is not known for not having the most approachable students. She spoke to how unifying the experience has been saying, “There’s a lot of people here that I’ve seen on campus that I never thought I would approach or talk to, and we’ve been connecting and sharing stories.”
What follows is a conversation between Tammi, and I, while sitting in the encampment.
What do you talk about while you’re here?
“This might be surprising, but it’s actually not Palestine. I mean, of course we talk about Palestine everyday in some way, but if you’re here at the encampment, everyone is on the same page about it, which is so great, and we get to spend time getting to know each other, and we share our work too. Finals are happening right now, so a lot of people do their work together here when they can.”
And everything has been peaceful while you’ve been here?
“99%. We did have one incident of someone from the encampment being punched in the face by a zionist.”
They came here? Was it as a counter protester?
“I’m not sure if they were passing through or if it was their intention to come to the encampment that day, but they are a member of the student body here actually, and as of right now the administration hasn’t done anything to discipline them that we know of. Which I think is important to note because another reason why we are here is for those students that have been punished.”
Tammi was referencing an incident back in March at the school. 2 students, and an RA, were punished for handing out a flyer saying, “If SUNY divested from South Africa, they can do it again.” Most notably the RA was fired for having the sign on their posting board in the dorm, where they are actually asked to have something political in place, and they were also billed for the remainder of the time that they were going to spend in the dorm for that semester.
So while punishment in the form of suspensions, was supposedly off the table, this incident was looming in the background.
Do you get a lot of agitators?
“No not really. If anything we actually have too many people showing up to support. We had to stop posting on our instagram for supplies because we were receiving way too much food from community members.”
Has it ever gotten out of hand with how many people have been here? I know the WOL (Within Our Lifetime) was here a couple of days ago for a rally.
“Well if you ask anyone here they would say that it was really organized, and safe, but the administration doesn’t seem to think so. We actually had a great picture that was taken during that rally. The FIT president, her apartment is right there, and we caught her poking her head out.”
But can you speak more about the administration's attitude towards the rally?
“Well, of course they aren’t a fan of the attention that it brings. That’s why we are here, to put pressure on them to end their part in this genocide, but it really was a model protest, something we are proud of.”
With this pressure on the administration from the encampment, do you still trust the administration's claims about having no police on campus, especially with the action at Columbia and CUNY this week?
“Based on what we’ve heard in our negotiations and from faculty, we aren’t worried about that right now.”
You’re sure?
“Absolutely.”
How long do you believe you can keep this going? I’ve heard some talk from students here about finals and the future of the protest.
“Based on discussions I have had with students here, we believe that about half of the 50 we have here now would be committed to keeping it going. A lot of people can’t because they go home after graduation, some across the country, but the people here in NYC, they’re here.”
You’re protesting for divestment, but there have been some successes recently on other campuses. What did you think of the announcement about Brown University’s deal to end their encampment? Would a similar deal make you close yours?
Brown University’s deal to end their student protest encampment was met after the school’s administration agreed to schedule a meeting where they would talk about divestment in October.
“I’m happy for their success, but that's not the level of success that we are looking for here at FIT. The Brown deal is just an agreement to talk about divestment in a couple months, and for us to shut this [camp] down, we want a commitment. We have a board posted on the side of the encampment, and it has our demands, which have always been disclosure, and divestment.”
That was May 3rd
On May 9th, I called Mustafa over zoom to speak to him about the encampments removal, and the statements being put out by administration.
President Joyce F. Brown, in a letter that went out school wide on May 8th 12:15am titled, Message to the Community, claimed that the protest encampment was unsafe, and that the student organizers created an environment that left, “no room for dialogue or coexistence.” A far cry from what I had experienced at the camp just a few days before. The letter also said that student leadership declined an offer, and it was this that led to FIT administration giving the final go ahead to NYPD to remove the 25 or so students present at the time, from the encampment.
Mustafa clarified for me that the warning they were given that the camp was going to be removed came at 5:35 in a negotiations meeting, and that there was no rejection of the school’s offer.
The offer from FIT was that if the camp closed, they would schedule a meeting to talk to the people in charge of the issues being protested, which includes the Vice President of Finances, Sherry Brabham, and, “a representative from the FIT foundation.” They also offered things that were unrelated to the student encampments demands, such as a prayer room asked for by the Muslim Student Union, and introducing Middle-Eastern and North African studies to FIT’s offered classes. To decline this offer would mean the removal of the camp by doing, “Whatever it takes.” That was the language of Corie McCallum, Dean of Students, one of FIT’s negotiators.
Such a rapid escalation, and a new extremely close deadline, from the student’s perspective, was something that they didn’t expect because of the level of trust that they had in their administrators to stick to their word. Mustafa remembered how they left the meeting, “We told them we didn’t see this as any form of commitment towards divestment, but we were still going to be bringing it to the students because they delivered this deal with an ultimatum. Its shameful to see that President Joyce is pushing the narrative that we said no to them.”
With this, the administration allowed an extension to the deadline past 7pm, but the next and final notice the students saw was an email stated that they were not suspended if they left by 9PM, but in the same email at the bottom, said they had a suspension effective immediately, so no one knew what their current status was. FIT-SJP organizers had also put out on social media what they had been told, that there was now a deadline for removal of their encampment, so a huge crowd from a rally at Union Square had showed up to support, and the NYPD followed them uptown as well.
A little over 20 students remained in the camp at 9:00 when NYPD began making arrests. Violently handling the remaining student protesters who had locked arms in front of the camp, and were chanting slogans. They were arrested and placed inside a white NYC prison bus, and at 9:30 it was all over. The tents were dragged away, and the only proof of what remained were a few bits of trash, and yellow police tape.
What does it feel like the school’s message to you that night was?
“The school’s actions are just a continuation of doing what it has been doing for this entire year, which is ignoring the SJP, and simply refusing to acknowledge us, or the genocide officially. They’ve shut all manner of events down if anything related to our cause is mentioned, or if any protest makes its way here.”
Has there been a noticeable shift in the attitude of the student body towards the administration?
“For the students I can say that it has shifted us. Believing that we are the school of unconventional minds ushering in the next generation of designers, and journalists, is now really hard. Its upsetting.”
The school’s administration is now in the process of dealing with final decisions on the new suspensions, and hosting their yearly industry gala, and while for the students, spirits are low, they are not gone. Asked about the future of the Pro-Palestine movement at FIT, Mustafa had this to say,
“I can strongly say that whatever happened on May 7th, does not silence any student at FIT. We are not going to be subjugated to these terms of ‘anti-semitic,’ or ‘terrorist,’ because that's obviously not who we are, but also because we know that our goal is forthcoming. We will within our lifetime free Palestine, and not only that but FIT will disclose and divest. That's our goal, and that's what we are gonna work towards.”
We will within our lifetime free Palestine, and not only that but FIT will disclose and divest. That’s our goal, and that’s what we are gonna work towards. — Mustafa
Written by David Valentine for ON THE WALL
