While a few other universities reach compromises with protesters, why can’t Penn?

At Rutgers University-New Brunswick, a three-day-old pro-Palestinian encampment came down peacefully Thursday after successful negotiations between the administration and protesters.

Brown University, an Ivy League institution like the University of Pennsylvania, and Northwestern University had similar success earlier this week.

But Penn remains at a stalemate with protesters occupying about 35 tents on College Green, with tensions mounting and protest activity escalating, prompting the university to ask Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s office for additional police resources if needed.

» READ MORE: Is the call to divest feasible? Here’s why there are hurdles to Penn protesters’ demands.

Negotiations between the university and protesters have gone nowhere, and it’s not clear if there’s room for a compromise.

Student protesters at Penn on Friday said the university hasn’t really offered any reasonable compromises to their demands, which include disclosing university investments, agreeing to divest financial holdings that support Israel’s military effort and promising not to pursue discipline against encampment participants.

“The university is refusing to engage in a process of amnesty for student protesters, and they are still threatening disciplinary action and disbandment” of the encampment, said Taja Mazaj, 22, a Penn senior political science and English major from Montgomery County. “We would really like to move forward but we hope the university can move forward with good faith negotiations, which we feel has not happened yet.”

University leaders have met twice with student protesters over the last week, unable to move the needle, as the encampment nears the close of day nine and finals are slated to start Tuesday.

“We communicated that the encampment must disband and offered accommodation to continue their protest in ways that do not conflict with safety and policy,” a university spokesperson said. “We also stated our desire to move beyond a posture of demand vs. counterdemand and towards shared opportunities that help create a more inclusive, respectful campus environment.”

» READ MORE: The pro-Palestinian encampment at Penn has become a game of cat and mouse between protesters and administrators

Eliana Atienza, 19, a sophomore environmental studies major from the Philippines, said interim President J. Larry Jameson offered to start a committee “to look into the feasibility” of students’ demands, but she asserted that’s not enough.

A compromise could be reached “if they went through with some of our demands and not involved us in endless meetings and task forces and discussions and committees,” Atienza said. “It would change things to see tangible action from the university, big emphasis on tangible action.”

But universities that have reached compromises already are facing significant pushback. Three Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League Midwest and the Louis D. Brandeis Center, have called for the Northwestern president’s resignation over the agreement there, while several Jewish students have filed a lawsuit, according to WBEZ Chicago.

ADL Midwest called the deal “reprehensible and dangerous.”

» READ MORE: Student protests over Gaza war are forcing Penn and other U.S. universities to face ‘impossible’ demands

In New Jersey, State Sen. Owen Henry (R., Middlesex) called the agreement at Rutgers unacceptable.

“By prioritizing the demands of demonstrators that disrupted academic learning by spewing hateful rhetoric they have demonstrated a glaring weakness that hurts the integrity of their institution and the Jewish community,” Henry said in a statement.

Penn senior Eyal Yakoby, who was part of a group that delivered a petition with more than 3,000 signatures to Jameson this week calling on Penn to remove the encampment, said the university shouldn’t negotiate with the encampment protesters.

“It’s an embarrassment to any university which has quote unquote reached an agreement with these unlawful encampments,” said Yakoby, 22, a political science and modern Middle East studies major.

He pointed out that Jameson last week in his call for the encampment to disband mentioned “harassing and intimidating comments and actions” by some protesters.

“I just don’t get how you negotiate with people who are ... harassing your own students,” he said.

At New Jersey’s flagship state university, about 75 tents were peacefully dismantled on Thursday afternoon, shortly after president Jonathan Holloway and chancellor Francine Conway warned that if students did not leave, the university would “with the assistance of law enforcement,” remove them. Earlier in the day, the university made what it called an unprecedented decision to postpone morning exams because of concerns about disruption.

The university, which has an enrollment of 43,859 students in New Brunswick, also made multiple concessions in addressing the protesters’ demands.

Rutgers agreed to review as part of the regular university process a demand that the university divest from any firm connected to Israel. Additionally, the university said the president and chair of the joint committee on investments would meet with up to five students to discuss their divestment request.

Rutgers also agreed to help 10 displaced Palestinian students get their education at the university and to establish an Arab Cultural Center with a plan to hire administrators and staff for the fall semester. In addition, the university agreed to develop training on anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim racism for staff and hire a senior administrator with cultural competency in those areas.

The chancellor’s office also agreed to study the possibility of creating a Department of Middle East Studies.

Rutgers did not promise to drop conduct cases against students for participating in the encampment, but noted that a “commitment to end the encampment through this agreement will be considered a favorable mitigating factor in the resolution of those matters.”

Earlier in the week, Northwestern as part of its agreement said it would form an advisory committee, made up of students, faculty and staff, that will serve as a liaison to the investment committee. The university said it would answer questions “to the best of its knowledge and to the extent legally possible” about its investments, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Brown University agreed to form a committee to develop a recommendation on divestment by September and vote on whether to divest financial holdings from Israel a month later, the Chronicle reported.

At Penn, with an enrollment of more than 28,700 students, there have been growing clashes between protesters and counterprotesters, and some tense interactions between students and police. On Thursday, Penn Public Safety put out multiple alerts as crowds on the College Green grew.

That evening, Penn, the city’s largest private employer, said it had reached out to Parker’s office to ask about additional police resources to maintain safety on campus if needed. The mayor’s office, a university spokesperson said, asked that Penn submit a letter with the request, which it did.

The mayor’s office asked for additional information, and the university said it provided the information. Neither the mayor’s office nor the university would discuss what specifically was asked for or the city’s response.

Parker declined to comment through a spokesperson. Media requests to the city are being directed to the Police Department.

Penn has not formally asked for the Philadelphia Police Department to clear the encampment, a source said, and unless things dramatically escalate, there’s no imminent plan to clear the group over the weekend. There has been some tension between the city and university, though, over the question of who would be responsible for initiating a potential disbanding: police from the city or Penn?

City police are reluctant to take the lead and then have to face the consequences of clearing a protest site when Penn has its own police force.

Gov. Josh Shapiro on Friday deferred questions about whether the encampment should be disbanded to the university.

“I don’t think it’s my judgment on that that matters,” he said. “I think it’s the university’s judgment that matters. They’re closer to it, they see it.”

Penn has not requested assistance from the Pennsylvania State Police, he said.

Meanwhile, some universities continued to call in police to remove protesters and dismantle encampments, most recently New York University. More than 2,000 arrests have been made on campuses since the protests started last month, according to the New York Times.

Atienza, the Penn student, said protesters here are prepared to stay.

“We’re doing this for Gaza,” Atienza said. “There is a lot of attention paid to the students in the encampment and on the university. But we are doing this for Gaza, to re-center the conversation on genocide and to re-center the conversation on Gaza and free Palestine.”

Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.