The students have been asking the school to divest from funds that are invested in what they call Israeli oppression of Palestinians.
A group of 41 students from Brown University who were set to come back early from winter break to make their arraignment dates will no longer have to. Their lawyer wrote in an email to the students that the court will push back their dates from early-mid January to February, after the spring term begins.
The students, members of Brown Divest Coalition, were arrested on Dec. 11 for trespassing after hours in an administrative building while protesting their administration’s stance on Israel.
One of the students arrested that day is Brown Divest Coalition member Angela Wei, a Brown senior majoring in environmental science and international studies. She spent her fall semester preparing for a three-week-long fieldwork course in Indonesia. For weeks, it seemed like she wouldn’t be able to make it due to her arraignment. Wei said it was also possible that missing the course would mean graduating a semester late. However, she said she was prepared for the consequences.
“I didn’t make this decision lightly. And I knew that sitting in would impact my academic and personal and professional life,” Wei said. “I guess for me, it’s like when you do the work that you genuinely believe in, because you know, it is your lifeblood, and because you will fight for these causes, then you have to accept the risks that come with it.”
The group’s lawyer, Allyson Quay, emailed them to let them know it was likely the new arraignment dates would be moved to mid-February, saying she had been in touch with Providence Police and Brown University and both had agreed to delay the date.
Just before winter break, Brown University spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Public’s Radio that “the students were provided court dates and as the respondents in the matter, it would be their role in consultation with their legal team to request changes to those dates. Brown would be agreeable to date changes that enable the students’ court appearances to take place after their return from winter break.”
The students are being charged with willful trespassing. The charges were levied about a month after another group of students from Brown University, Brown U Jews for Ceasefire Now, were arrested for protesting the administration’s stance on divestment. However, the school asked for charges against those students to be dropped shortly after a Palestinian junior from Brown, Hisham Awartani, was shot while speaking Arabic and wearing a keffiyeh on a Thanksgiving visit to Burlington, Vermont. The city solicitor complied.
“One of these issues is the ongoing discussions and often fierce debate about the consequences that the 20 students would face after being arrested on Nov. 8,” the school wrote in a statement at the time. “Dismissing the charges against the students certainly won’t heal the rising tensions on campus from the ongoing violence in the Middle East – or the hurt and fear from Islamophobia, antisemitism and acts of anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian violence – but perhaps it can help refocus attention on other issues that are important for the Brown community.”
The students’ attorney, Allyson Quay, said their new arraignment date might be Feb. 14, but that it was not yet set.
Students have been pushing for divestment at Brown University for years. The school is indirectly invested in funds that Brown Divest Coalition and other student groups say contribute to the oppression of Palestinians. In 2019, 69% percent of undergrads who participated in a referendum at the school said they supported divestment. Brown’s President, Christina Paxson, has declined to bring a divestment proposal to the board, citing a lack of clear direction as to what the call for divestment would target.
