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Bard College administrators and members of the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) have reached an agreement that ended a weekend-long occupation of the college’s main administration building, according to The Times Union.
The occupation began Friday when the students escalated weeks of demonstrations on campus over the Israel-Gaza war to speed up negotiations on students’ demands related to the university’s investment processes, The Times Union reported.
A member of Bard SJP who was part of the negotiation team told the news outlet that Bard officials agreed to meet their demands and students agreed to vacate Ludlow Hall after the deal was struck late Sunday night. The building houses the college’s administrative offices.
The SJP representative told The Times Union that students and administrators formally negotiated for 19 hours and that both parties acted in good faith.
The news outlet reported that, according to the finalized agreement, Bard agreed to act “in support of appropriate challenges—political, social, and legal—to Executive Order 157,” which bans investments in institutions or companies that boycott Israel.
The college also agreed to “challenge other legislation and executive orders that limit speech, devoting resources—intellectual, moral, and, where appropriate and available, financial—to these efforts” and to provide full disclosure relating to the nature and structure of its endowment for the 2024–2025 academic year, “including its current investments as well as the timeline for and structure of its future.”
Additionally, Bard will institute an elected cross-campus committee of students, faculty, staff and administration that “will provide written ethical investment guidelines for the responsible fiduciaries of Bard College," according to The Times Union.
“We are glad this ended peacefully and amicably,” Bard spokesman Mark Primoff told the news outlet.
