On Thursday, May 9, 8AM, RISD SJP Organizers sent President Crystal Williams and Provost Ghadessi an email: “We hope you are doing well. In line with our conversation three nights ago, we strive to maintain clear and open communication with you. Please find a PDF of our annotations of your email attached below. We hope to hear from you soon and talk with you in person about RSJP student representatives presenting a divestment proposal in front of the Board of Trustees and initiating a vote on divestment. We remain steadfast with our de-occupation until our demands of disclosure, divestment, establishment of a student oversight committee, and condemnation of the genocide in Gaza are met.” Both never responded to the email.

At 11:41AM, President Crystal Williams issued an email to the RISD students de-occupying the second floor of Fathi Ghaben Place (20 Washington Place) and bcc’d all RISD students, staff, and faculty. She stated: “The barricades on the second floor of 20 Washington Place violate multiple Rhode Island Fire Codes. We need you to create a means of egress and ingress by 12:00 p.m. We are sending RISD facilities and maintenance staff to help you create a means of ingress and egress that is in compliance with Rhode Island state law.” She announced, “Fire Marshals are waiting to ensure that means of ingress and egress are in evidence.” Students earlier had communicated with Public Safety officers to facilitate the moving of Furniture Students’ projects through the barricade, but President Williams and Public Safety denied that offer.

At 11:51AM, a De-occupier emailed back: “In order to facilitate safe egress, we will not further resist facilities from entering and clearing the barricades.” The email was never responded to. At 12PM, after De-occupiers told Public Safety officers that they themselves dismantled a barricade for egress, Public Safety officers continued to push through and dismantle all of the barricades and remove the chairs and tables to the first floor. Over one hundred students, faculty, and community members gathered around the building, specifically at a side entrance on South Main St. Protests continued with chanting and drumming as the head of RISD’s Public Safety Department and other officers blocked the 100+ students and faculty from entering the building. While inside, Public Safety officers pushed at least 3 De-occupiers and student protesters down the stairs.

At 1:30PM, approximately 30 students entered the building and reunited with the De-Occupiers inside the building. All students and De-Occupiers exited the building safely and joined the students, faculty, and community members rallying outside the Waterman St. Entrance. After all exited the building, at 1:43 PM, President Crystal Williams issued another email to the RISD community: “Facilities and maintenance staff have helped clear ingress and egress, and we thank the students for allowing us to ensure that we operate safely..”

Williams then went on: “Now, we are notifying students on the second floor of the following:

They may vacate the space by 2:30 pm and undergo a restorative justice process. This process is designed to be fair and just, ensuring that all parties are heard and respected. Students will be responsible for returning the space—including all furniture, walls, projects, bathrooms, etc.—to its original state by tomorrow (Friday) afternoon, meet with students and faculty whom their actions have immediately negatively impacted, listen to the impact of their actions and engage in respectful dialog, and reimburse those who have spent personal funds on no longer viable projects as a result of the occupation. If students vacate by 2:30 p.m. and the above restorative justice conditions are not met, students will be held accountable under the current conduct codes.

If students do not vacate the space by 2:30 pm, we will proceed with expulsion from Rhode
Island School of Design.” Students announced the threat of expulsion to the rally of now over 300 students, faculty, and community members to outcries of “shame!” The rally and strike still continues with drumming and chanting outside Fathi Ghaben Place (20 Washington Place). The De-Occupying students have communicated with President Williams and agreed to the “restorative justice” process in lieu of student conduct proceedings. This all comes after Monday, May 6, when 21 RISD students and community members began a sit-in at the Providence Washington building and refused to leave until their demands were met. Students, faculty, and community members participated in teach-ins by RISD and Brown faculty, art builds, dabke dancing, and picketing throughout the day.

RISD SJP demand RISD President Crystal Williams:

1. Provides total fiscal transparency of RISD’s investment portfolio;
2. Commits to a holistic divestment from companies, corporations, and institutions that are
   implicated in sustaining Israeli Apartheid;
3. Establishes a student oversight committee for future investments;
4. Publicly condemns the Israeli Occupation of Gaza as a genocide.

Faculty from the Theory of History of Art and Design, Teaching and Learning in Art and Design, Graphic Design Department, and the Sculpture Department have issued statements in support of the students and their demands.

At the rally today, one student protestor reiterated: “This is not the end.” RISD SJP stands by the legacy of Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, who was Narragansett and African-American and the first female graduate of color from RISD,

“[we] will not bend an inch.”

[New Britain, CT] – We are inviting any and all media to our rally at Central Park in New Britain on April 22nd 2024 at 3:30 pm to bring attention to the gentrification unfolding in New Britain and around CT, as well as the gentrification yet to come. It is also to call out one luxury developer in particular, Jasko Development LLC and its CEO Avner Krohn. He and his company have been described as leading New Britain’s “comeback” (translation: bringing rich people in and kicking poor, homeless, and long time residents out). Like all luxury developments that have been built in once poor and underdeveloped areas across the U.S, the 3 luxury developments Jasko is building downtown will release the floodgates of gentrification. As more wealthy people, who can afford Jasko’s $1650 / month rent for a studio, move to New Britain, as more landlords in the surrounding area speculate that they can charge more for rent with the influx of rich people, the homeless, poor, and long time residents who can’t afford the rent increases and housing costs will be displaced. They will either end up homeless or be forced to move to an area with cheaper housing. It’s a process and story that has unfolded in San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and Boston. Look at the changes in New Haven over the past 10-15 years!

We are here to say enough! Jasko Development LLC and Avner Krohn are the face of gentrification in New Britain whether they intend to be or not. If they want to be helpful to the New Britain community, where plenty of people are desperate for housing they can qualify for, then they should meet the following demands from the community:

1. Cut the rent in 1⁄2 and don’t raise it
2. Remove 3x income requirements, disregard prior evictions, credit history, and criminal records,
   no application fees
3. Prevent police harassment, especially of homeless and poor people, on your property
4. Only rent to New Britain residents, employ residents of New Britain with a living wage
5. Subsidize rents with your estimated $7.5 million tax break

If they are unwilling to do the above, then they make it clear they are not for the people of New Britain in these desperate times, they are only about their money, and we need to evict them before they evict us!

EDITORS NOTE: This statement was released by the New School Students Occupation on 12/8/22 and is reproduced here exactly as it was released, with their permission.

In light of recent attacks by the New School administration on all school employees including faculty and students, as well as the blatant refusal to meet ACT-UAW 7902’s demands or even negotiate in good faith, the students have decided it is the time to escalate direct action. The University Center will be occupied until the administration resumes pay, full healthcare protection, and retirement benefits to all striking employees and a fair contract is reached with part-time faculty.

New York, NY: ACT-UAW 7902, composed of Part-Time Faculty at the New School, has been on strike for 23 days—this makes the strike the longest strike of adjunct faculty in the nation’s history. Part-time faculty are fighting for a fair contract that truly compensates them for their labor, their care, and their commitment to their students—which the New School administration has refused to offer. Not only has the administration prolonged this strike, showing a complete disregard for its students, staff, and faculty it claims to care for, it offered nothing of substance.

They have retaliated violently. As of yesterday, ALL striking workers at the New School have their wages withheld, no access to healthcare benefits, as well as no added funds to their retirement plans. This decision risks the lives of our faculty—many of whom are caretakers, primary insurance holders, some even pregnant or have upcoming surgeries—and this is all happening while New York City experiences a Covid-19 surge with over 40k cases as of the last two weeks. Students who work at The New School have also been notified that if they don’t cross the picket line they will be without pay as well. This applies to Federal Work Study employees—a disgusting move by the administration upon students who qualify based on financial need for the FWS grant.

The administration has also attacked Full-Time faculty who are in solidarity with PTF, notifying them that they must sign “work certification” forms that they will hold class, and if they do not or are found to have not fulfilled what they sign on the form—they risk termination. At all points, the administration of the New School is trying to break the solidarity that ALL faculty and students have fostered—but we will not let them.

This abuse of power by the administration is exemplary of a long history of the New School betraying its founding mission, radical history, and declared values. We no longer recognize the administration as representative of The New School.

The violent, manipulative, and cruel attacks from the administration upon every part of the New School community have left us with no choice but to escalate student action—We are now occupying the University Center.

We will peacefully occupy the building day and night until the administration resumes pay, full healthcare protection, and retirement benefits to all school employees and until the university reaches a fair contract with part-time faculty. We do not take occupation lightly, this is a necessary response to the administration’s violent escalations.

We students will stand in solidarity with faculty who we love and trust, and demand that they are treated and paid not only a living wage and benefits—but that they are respected. The administration would like to believe they can divide us, that we will allow them to exploit our faculty and our friends, but if anything this strike has shown us and the struggle for fair working conditions around the world, the UCs, in HarperCollins, in UCU in UK, that ‘Solidarity is Forever.’ These Administrators have nothing on us and cannot be allowed to continue operating as such. We will win.