On the morning of April 29, students from University of Washington Seattle campus pitched tents on the Quad, establishing the Popular University for Gaza Liberated Zone. Situated in between the Raitt and Miller buildings, the encampment tripled in size within the first 24 hours. The most contentious demand is for the school to cut ties with Boeing, a long-time partner. 

The encampment includes organizations from the UW Progressive Student Union as well as the UW United Front For Palestine Liberation and the UW Student Muslim Association.

The students have three demands: A divestment from companies profiteering from the war in Israel, cut ties from Boeing, and an end to the repression of Pro-Palestine students and staff. The encampment follows a wave of university campuses across the country protesting the war on Palestinian and the United States ties to the conflict. 

The Liberated Zone has a team of student leaders who meet and negotiate on and off with university administrators. The most contentious demand the students are asking for is an end to the partnership the school has with the Boeing Aerospace company. Talks happen regularly, with each side trying to come to an agreement. 

UW is refusing to meet the demands of their students. University President Ana Mari Cauce wrote in an email, “Boeing’s support for the UW in time, talent, and funding cannot be replaced by other endowment sources, nor would we choose to sever our relationship if they could be.”

The two establishments have been working together for more than a century, with millions of dollars donated to the school by Boeing each year. The aerospace company has been a supporter of the university nearly since its conception, with ties growing stronger each year.

All across campus, students see the Boeing Advanced Research Center, the Boeing Auditorium, and the William E. Boeing Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The space company has funded many engineering projects and internships for students to learn, granted employment to many graduates, and supports many students through scholarships. 

Cutting ties with this monster company would mean a loss of funding for the students, yet many are more concerned with the lives being lost in Palestine than money changing hands. The humanitarian focus of the current generation of college students is aided by the direct connection via social media to the area and people stuck in the conflict. 

Sofia Torres, an undergraduate at UW Seattle, said, “We don’t want our education to be co-opted and sold out to corporations like Boeing who use our labor to research and develop – and manufacture – weapons of war.” 

Boeing has been a large focus lately, with malfunctioning planes, locking out staff members, and failing to launch its first crewed Starliner mission. The company is a leading global aerospace manufacturer for commercial airlines, defense products, and space technology. Thunderword reporter Brandon Cortes-Yepez chronicled Boeing mishaps in a recent piece.

Student protests at Portland State University in Oregon had success with their administration, agreeing to “pause seeking or accepting any further gifts or grants” from Boeing. This follows an encampment that led to a three night occupation of Millar Library on campus. 

Evergreen State College in Olympia came to an agreement which ended the encampment on their lawn. They set to create task forces to investigate and deal with the issues and demands of the students, including a project to look at “divestment from companies that profit from gross human rights violations and/or occupation of Palestinian territories.”

Crowds gathered on Tuesday, May 7 in anticipation of conservative Charlie Kirk’s “Live Free Tour.” Kirk is a far-right activist. He founded a nonprofit conservative advocacy group called Turning Point USA. Kirk was expected to promote conservative policies on campuses across the country.

In response, the UW Muslim Student Association put out a call on Instragram for student support. As Kirk’s event filled up, those who didn’t make it in made their way through the Quad, but was met with a wall of boards and umbrellas as anticipation for agitators increased. 

The Quad was entirely blocked off by Pro-Palestine protestors. A leader with a megaphone led chants at each entrance. The Palestinian flag waved in the background from the grass. Kirk asked his attendees not to engage, calling them ‘ANTIFA’ protests.

One altercation was observed. Police officers remained on patrol around the area, but no engagements took place. A spokesperson for the UW, Victor Balta, released a statement saying, “The  vast majority of people participating in various activities sought to exercise their free speech rights without violence or aggression,” and the night ended peacefully.  

As of May 13, fences and blockades have been erupted. The university released a statement asking students to voluntarily dismantle their encampment out of safety concerns, citing planned counter-protests expected to occur. Police and campus security are posted on the Quad for protection and containment, blocking off the Quad entirely. 

Students hope to follow in the footsteps of past protests on campus. In the 1970s and 1980s, students called for the university to sell stock of companies doing business and profiting in apartheid South Africa. Although divestments are unlikely to affect the behavior of the companies, the move is meant to be more symbolic of pulling support from the conflict.

The UW has pulled investments from companies before. In 2022, they divested from fossil fuels following a petition submitted by climate activists. They have policies against investing in tobacco companies, coal mining, and Sudanese companies supporting another conflict in Darfur. 

The camp has only grown in the few weeks since it sprung up. Classes have been disrupted by noise as agitators and counter protesters increase. On the brick pillar in the famous Red Square, “Free Gaza” has been spray painted. The iconic W sign installation on one entrance was recently painted red, a symbolic color with the phrase “From the River, To the Sea” on two surrounding columns. 

UW Students follow in a wave of other campuses across the country with students setting up Solidarity Zones, camping out on their own quads. Some have reached success in negotiating with their universities, many calling for divestments from Israel-supporting companies. Others have devolved into chaos, with over 2,600 students arrested across the nation. 

Students at the UW have been continuously engaging in meetings with administration in regards to the encampments demands, organizations setting up counter-protests, and listening to safety concerns. 

“The University’s response to students’ call for change will not be based on an encampment. It will be through constructive engagement on issues that are important or meaningful to our students and broader campus community,” says the statement released by the UW on May 10. 

Although the encampment only took only a small fraction of the campus, the rhetoric and language used on signs and in chants by both Pro-Palestinian protestors and counter-protestors was condemned as “vile and antisemitic.”

The campus has been littered with graffiti and signs. According to the May 10 statement from the UW president, “the representatives [of the encampment] say that new graffiti is an intentional escalation to compel the University to agree to their demands.”

A resolution was reached on May 17. The goal was to reach a resolution without police intervention as seen across other campuses. The university will be extending support policies to include students from Gaza. Procedures have been established to handle divestment matters. 

As for the Boeing demand, the university has provided transparency on their partnership with the company. A faculty Senate council, including student representatives, will be put together to review the partnership and its influence on curriculum, ethical considerations, and policy changes if necessary. Students have the option to decline Boeing support. 

A joint-commitment document was released on the 17th says, “The University will partner with the College of Engineering to solicit external funds to support public interest engineering scholarships and faculty fellowships.” 

The university plans to continue with their commencement ceremony next month so that all may participate. University and student leaders are echoing the call for national and international leaders to institute a ceasefire, as the humanitarian crisis has killed more than 35,000 people and displaced more than 2 million.