On Friday, students and alumni gathered outside University President Frederick Lawrence’s office to discuss the results of a recent meeting Lawrence held with students regarding the renewal of the University’s suspended partnership with Al-Quds University. The demonstration was organized by the leaders of the Brandeis University—Al-Quds University Student Dialogue Initiative.

A week prior to Friday’s discussion, members of the dialogue initiative sat outside Lawrence’s office to demand a meeting to discuss the renewal of the partnership, which was suspended in 2013. According to the initiative co-founder Catie Stewart ’16, representatives from the group met with Lawrence and Provost Lisa Lynch on Tuesday to discuss why the partnership was important and to ask Lawrence if he had any plans for its restoration.

According to Stewart, Lawrence “made clear” throughout the meeting that he had no plans for restoration, and when asked if he could support future student dialogue initiatives and help in bringing students from Al-Quds to Brandeis, Lawrence replied that he could offer no help. Stewart also voiced her frustration that Lawrence was not in his office during this Friday’s event, despite the fact that it occurred during Lawrence’s student office hours.

“We knew it wasn’t worth our time to sit there and hear ‘no’ over and over and over again. The reality is that it’s always been a ‘no’ in his mind,” Stewart said. “The suspension is a suspension in name only, and in his mind it’s already terminated. We’re ignorable right now on some level, [but] … we’re not going to let him continue to say ‘no’ in the future.”

Eli Philip ’15, also a co-founder of the initiative, discussed with the group why the partnership is necessary for the University and why the group wants Lawrence to renew it.

“It’s critical for Brandeis students to engage in open dialogue with students at Al-Quds University,” he said. “It was his [Lawrence’s] decision to suspend [the partnership] and it can be—and should be—his decision to restore it.”

“The power of a partnership between a Jewish-sponsored university and a Palestinian university cannot be overlooked,” active member of the Student Dialogue Initiative Naomi Hornstein ’15 added. “The partnership shows the ability of our institution to reach across barriers and create important relationships with the Palestinian faculty and students.”

Philip also told the group that the meeting with Lawrence was disappointing because they did not get to share their proposal for partnership renewal with Lawrence and Lynch.

“Our voices and ideas as students were silenced,” Philip said. “Instead, we were shown by President Lawrence that dialogue and partnership are not true values of our university.” 

Active member of the Student Dialogue Initiative Leah Susman ’18 then read aloud the group’s proposal, which included requests that the Brandeis administration “make contact” with the Al-Quds administration and that Lawrence meet with students and faculty involved with the partnership to “create a timeline for its renewal” sometime later this year.

During the event, various students and alumni also read Israeli and Palestinian poetry and shared personal narratives on the importance of dialogue.

Elizabeth Villano ’16 read an email that she received from some of the Al-Quds students she met during her trip to the school. “They’re a very motivated group of students who want this as well,” she said of the Al-Quds students.

Risa Dunbar ’17 also discussed with the group the importance of adding cross-cultural dialogue to a college education.

“I am fundamentally disappointed and outraged that my university is not doing all it can to give me the modes to experience a critical kind of learning and that’s cross cultural exchange academia,” she said. “The Al-Quds-Brandeis partnership represents one of the largest reasons I came to Brandeis, which was to recognize difference and celebrate commonality.”

Sophie Warren ’18 shared a personal narrative on her years spent with the group Seeds of Peace, which provides opportunities for cross-cultural dialogue and discussion in a summer camp setting.

“In spite of everything they [Al-Quds] have gone through, they are willing to sit down and talk about it,” Warren said. “[Even] when dialogue fails, it is still a success because people were [still] sitting down and talking.”

Philip ended the event by discussing the future of the initiative, telling the group that the members will continue to strive for the partnership’s renewal despite issues communicating with the administration.

“We’re not just going to stay outside this office,” Philip said. “We are coming here and making ourselves heard, and that’s amazing ... This is just the beginning. This partnership is going to grow, and we’re going to make it grow.”