Stanford administrators told Sit-In to Stop Genocide participants to cease overnight protest by 8 p.m. tonight or face consequences through disciplinary or legal processes, according to a letter to organizers obtained by The Daily.
Last Thursday, the Sit-In to Stop Genocide, along with two other demonstrations in White Plaza, the Blue and White Tent and the newly-established Sit-In to Stop Islamophobia, were mandated by the University to vacate White Plaza between the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. over physical safety concerns. Both the Blue and White Tent and Sit-In to Stop Islamophobia complied with the mandate, disassembling their demonstrations Thursday evening.
The Sit-In to Stop Genocide organized an “emergency rally,” drawing several hundred supporters.
The next day, administrators sent a letter “to memorialize the conversation between students from the Sit-In to Prevent Genocide and representatives of VPSA.” The letter, reviewed by The Daily, stated that the University would not be using law enforcement or disciplinary action against sit-in organizers until Monday.
However, the University ordered sit-in organizers to participate in a Santa Clara County Fire Marshal inspection on Saturday.
The University also invited demonstrators to meet with President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez on Monday — if they agreed to conclude overnight activities at 8 p.m.
Sit-in organizers agreed to meet with fire marshals, but refused to countersign the initial University letter and accept the demand to close the overnight portion.
They requested to extend the “reprieve period” to 8 p.m. this Friday. They agreed to meet with Saller and Martinez “with the stated goal of ending the overnight components of the protest in exchange for satisfactory progress on [their] posted demands.”
The University wrote in a response that they will start to report students who fail to comply with the mandate by 8 p.m. today to the Office of Community Standards.
The Sit-In to Stop Genocide responded to the University on Sunday: We are “disappointed with the President’s continued unwillingness to meet his students and community members face to face,” they wrote. They outlined inconsistencies in the University’s communications over the last few months.
Organizers with the Sit-In to Stop Genocide told The Daily they plan to continue overnight demonstrations and host another emergency mobilization tonight. Saller and Martinez and sit-in organizers did not meet today.
NAACP and the Council on American-Islamic Relations endorsed the sit-in and criticized University pressure to cease overnight demonstration.
The Daily has reached out to the University for comment.