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Washington University terminated all its residential advisors when dorms were shut down.
Last Friday, the Coalition of WUSTL Students for Palestine sent a list of demands to top school officials in a letter that warned of a walkout if the university "refused" to act on their three demands. And while the university has offered a conversation with a vice chancellor to discuss those demands, the students say they will still walk, saying they're skeptical that administrators are ready to "seriously engage" with what they're asking.
The demands focus on two public statements by high-ranking Wash U officials and also a recent recruitment event on campus.
On October 10, Chancellor Andrew Martin issued a statement on the conflict in Israel and Gaza and said, "The violence perpetuated by Hamas against the Israeli people is beyond horrific; the terrorist acts we have been witnessing are nothing short of heinous."
Students interpreted that statement as an implicit endorsement of "Israel's ongoing genocide against Palestinians" and "a racist double standard." Their first demand is for the university to publicly denounce the genocide of Palestinians and apologize for Martin's rhetoric.
The students say Martin's statement and a widely-circulated tweet by Seth Crosby, a professor and high-ranking director within WashU's medical school, have contributed to an increasingly unsafe environment on campus.
"Many Palestinian, Muslim and brown students have reported being threatened and harassed on social media, as well as being subjected to an increased number of racist interactions," the students wrote in their letter to administration.
On October 13, Crosby wrote from his since-deleted X account that appeared to condone the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Crosby later said he was fired for the tweet, but Wash U has not confirmed that.
A Wash U spokesperson told the Post-Dispatch that Crosby's opinions did not represent that of Wash U, but the students who submitted their demands are looking for words with more teeth.
"In conjunction with Chancellor Martin's ignorant statement, the administration's failure to condemn this fascistic language shows an absolute disregard for the safety of its students," their letter reads. "Calling for violence is not covered by academic freedom of expression. Beyond a public condemnation of harmful language, Wash U has an obligation to hold perpetrators accountable for the harm they cause."
The protestors want Wash U to publicly denounce Crosby and "protect the lives of its Palestinian, Muslim and brown students by holding students and employees accountable for Islamophobic actions."
Students' third and final demand is for Wash U to cut ties with Boeing. They described the St. Louis-area aerospace company as a war profiteer and condemned the company's involvement in a recruitment event held on Wash U's campus after reports of Boeing expediting delivery of kits used for guided bombs.
"By using the university's people and resources to create knowledge for Boeing, Wash U actively contributes to the company's ability to arm a genocide in Palestine," students wrote.
The Coalition of WUSTL Students for Palestine received a response to their Friday letter on Monday. It said university administration would facilitate a conversation for students to discuss their letter through Vice Chancellor Anna Gonzalez, who was not one of the administrators named in the students' letter.
"Chancellor Martin has seen the letter," spokesperson Julie Flory wrote to students. "He is fully supportive of our students engaging with the administration via Dr. G."
Student Maclean Kelley says the coalition will take up the university's offer on that conversation, "but we understand this response as a predictable tactic to dismiss our demands rather than seriously engage with them."
The walkout will being at 10:15 a.m. at Wash U's Mudd Field. Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.
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