ruter is now one of just a handful of American colleges and universities that has reached an agreement with Pro-Palestinian Pro-Palestinian students to peacefully dismantle their encampments students say the university will meet eight out of their 10 demands but didn't agree to divesting from Israel right now that's their top demand or cutting ties with Tel Aviv University the resolution is a stark contrast to campus protests elsewhere in the country where police were brought in to clear out demonstrators and have arrested more than 2,000 people total since the movement began at Princeton University today students began a hunger strike to pressure the administration to meet their demands as Ted Goldberg reports it's the latest stage in a protest that shows no signs of ending it's day nine of the Princeton encampment and after more than a dozen arrests and no movement in negotiations with University Administration over demands about a dozen students here are resorting to a hunger strike and we wanted to make clear to them how serious we are about them coming to the tables and discussing our demands which are divestment and also amnesty for uh both on the criminal um legal and also disciplinary uh charges these students say they're swearing off all food and drinks except for water until the administration meets with them and charges are dropped for the 15 protesters who've been arrested here because of the lack of attention um from the administration um I think you know Extreme Measures are needed in order to sort of have our demands met the students tell me this hunger strike wasn't exactly plan a or Plan B but a last resort to try and get the attention of the Princeton Administration the students say they've been ignored for far too long despite this encampment going for more than a week everything that we have been doing up to this day has been because we are being ignored this encampment has started because we were ignored the city at Cleo Hall happened because our demands were not being heard and now we have about 13 students hunger striking because we are still being ignored the hunger strike is also in solidarity with Palestinians Starving in Gaza we wanted to take an action that would be um a gesture of solidarity with the Palestinian people especially in regards to their um the immense suffering that they've been going through uh since October 7th with um Israeli policies one we wanted to do this in solidarity with all of the people who are suffering from catastrophic food insecurity in Gaza who have been suffering as a result of the blockade that was imposed on October 9th um and also because the university is continually refusing to meet with us about our demands after Ruckers met most of its students demands the encampment there cleared out yesterday without any arrests Princeton has defended its arrests of 15 protesters charged with trespassing for building tents which goes against school policy and occupying an office in coh Hall it's clear that they do think they have this level of influence on whether or not uh criminal proceedings will go forward and they're choosing intentionally not to use it and we think that's shameful they should care about the free speech of their students they should care about the expression of their students we have tried many many official channels to try to get material support from the University um and we got a web page Rucker's Chancellor Francine Conway touted its success by saying this resolution was achieved through constructive dialogue between the protesting students and our leadership teams this agreement opens the door for ongoing dialogue and better addresses the needs of our Arab Muslim and Palestinian student body which numbers over 7,000 students say they got eight of their 10 demands including a new Arab cultural center and 10 scholarships for displaced Palestinian students Ruckers was not willing to divest from Israel completely but they set up a meeting between student representatives and the chairman of the joint committee on investments which decides on this those at Princeton had mixed reaction to hearing about the deal though they were generally positive about it I just wish that the university admin at Princeton would would you know see what happened yesterday at rers and kind of um use that as an invitation to say like hey maybe we can do the same thing with our students and actually talk to them I me it's certainly hopeful um and you know we were hopeful before um that happened and we continue to remain hopeful um but it's important to keep in mind that you know Ruckers is Ruckers after a loud week or so protesters and counter-protesters also used silence today people marched on campus and stood silent for 15 minutes in support of the 15 arrested protesters while counter protesters set up a Seder table with signs raising awareness for hostages still held by Hamas at Princeton I'm Ted Goldberg Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News