Rutgers University president defends making deals with pro-Palestinian protesters

Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway joined other university presidents from around the country to defend their decisions to end pro-Palestinian encampments through negotiations rather than force.

Holloway was called before the House Education and the Workforce Committee as part of a series of hearings about how colleges responded to allegations of antisemitism.

After student protesters disrupted the first morning of final exams on May 2 at the Rutgers New Brunswick campus, university administrators gave students a 4 p.m. deadline to dismantle their encampment.

RELATED: Reps. Norcross, Gottheimer criticize Rutgers’ handling of pro-Palestinian protest

RELATED: State Republicans call for legislative hearings into how Rutgers handled pro-Palestinian protest

Holloway explained why he decided not to take the encampments down by force.

“Like so many universities this spring, we saw protest encampment take shape on our New Brunswick campus. It lasted for a little more than 72 hours, when on the third morning, when the student protestor called for a rally to disrupt exams, we moved quickly to shut the encampment down,” Holloway stated. “We made a choice - that choice was to engage our students through dialogue as a first option instead of police action. We had seen what transpired at other universities and sought a different way.”

The protesters and the university reached an agreement on eight of the encampment's 10 demands. The protest ended without incident.