On day 18, UNM president meets with Gaza Solidarity Encampment

Eighteen days into the Palestine Solidarity Encampment at the University of New Mexico, the university president for the first time met with students staying at the camp.

UNM President Garnett Stokes visited the camp Thursday after two members of the New Mexico House of Representatives wrote her letters this week joining calls for amnesty for protesters, and one tried to enable a meeting between her and students at the camp.

“Our pressure is working,” the camp wrote on social media. “This is just the beginning. Now the real work of holding her feet to the fire begins. We will not stop. We will not rest.”

Cinnamon Blair, a university spokesperson, said UNM received both letters and is communicating with each lawmaker, but had not yet responded in writing.

“The visit with the protesters at the Duck Pond will hopefully lead to further productive discussions,” Blair said.

The camp on Tuesday quoted at length from a letter by Rep. Eleanor Chavez (D-Albuquerque). Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque), wrote the second letter to UNM.

In her letter, Chavez wrote she’s visited the camp four times and reviewed video of police arresting 16 protesters for allegedly refusing to leave the Student Union Building (SUB).

Chavez asked Stokes to drop the charges, allow arrested students to complete their education, actively support students’ divestment resolution given to the Board of Regents, and “collaborate with the students and the community to stand against the genocide that is taking place in Gaza and push for peace in the region.”

“I am not convinced that those present were engaged in any criminal activity that would constitute a felony,” Chavez wrote. “I am concerned that the police may have used excessive force. I hope UNM will investigate this matter further.”

Chavez did not respond to requests for comment on her letter.

Mental health support at the camp

Students who were inside the Student Union Building observed multiple police officers “brutally” take down a student who was not being aggressive “in any way,” said Aye Sundram, a licensed clinical social worker.

At students’ request, Sundram on May 3 organized a mental health pop-up at the camp where around 20 mental health professionals treated students.

“We observed bruising on somebody, and they were talking about their wrists still feeling numb. They don’t feel like their hands are working properly because they were restrained by zip ties, and they were so tight, that that person’s wrists are still painful,” Sundram said in an interview with Source New Mexico.

The arrests mentally shook the protesters Sundram treated. Experiences like these can trigger past traumatic memories and make it even harder to cope, Sundram said.

“If you’re still here at the encampment, and you’re still seeing police monitoring, every time you see an officer, you’re going to feel on edge again,” Sundram said.

KUNM reports UNM faculty and staff also demanded amnesty for protesters on May 2. Stokes and Provost James Holloway responded by saying some recent protests “have led to productive conversations between university leaders and protesters, allowing the space for us to hear one another.”

“As stewards of UNM, we do not accept that the right to protest includes the right to vandalize, damage property, or illegally occupy community spaces,” Holloway and Stokes wrote. “This violates not only our policies and the law, but also violates our shared responsibility to create and maintain supportive spaces and resources for all of our Lobos.”

Chavez and Roybal Caballero have been very vocal about Palestinian rights, including during the last legislative session, and both have backgrounds in labor organizing.

People’s Forum urges NM lawmakers to call for ceasefire in Gaza

Roybal Caballero, who has experience in collective bargaining and strike negotiations, said Stokes did not accept her invitation to have a dialogue at the camp on Monday.

Roybal Caballero said she has a disability which prevents her from being in large crowds and limits how far she can walk. So she chose a sunny, calm Monday afternoon to invite Stokes to the camp.

Roybal Caballero said students took her business card to Stokes’ office, and they were told she had another appointment and would respond afterwards.

Within a few minutes, she said, Stokes sent Chief Government Relations Officer Michael Puelle to determine her intentions. They can be seen talking in a video the camp posted on social media.

Roybal Caballero said she waited for Stokes to meet her for three-and-a-half hours, “But she never came out.”

“The President was not available during the time that she was there,” Blair said.

So on Wednesday morning, Roybal Caballero sent a letter to Stokes about what they would have discussed, including her belief that protesters are exercising their constitutionally protected right to free speech.

“I fully support demonstrators’ demand for legal and disciplinary amnesty,” Roybal Caballero wrote. “These students should be lauded for their incredible contribution to the community rather than face legal or punitive action.”

As of Thursday, Roybal Caballero and Chavez’s letters are the only ones UNM has received from state lawmakers concerning the SUB arrests and the divestment demands, Blair said.

“I believe in what the students are doing. I believe in a ceasefire,” Roybal Caballero said. “I believe in the United States putting up a bigger fight against Netanyahu’s outrageous abuse of power and his obvious mission, which is to annihilate the Palestinian population.”

Latest from NM congressional delegation

The Guardian reports more than 100,000 people have fled Rafah this week after Israel intensified its airstrikes and shelling in the city, where over 1.4 million people have sought refuge.

U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury said Wednesday further incursions by Israel into Rafah are “unacceptable.”

“We have urged the use of all tools to end this war,” Stansbury said. “The time for peace is now.”

Last week, New Mexico’s delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives disagreed on a proposal directly responding to campus protests to establish a broader definition of antisemitism for the Department of Education to enforce anti-discrimination laws.

Stansbury and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández voted against the bill, while Rep. Gabe Vasquez voted in favor, according to the official tally.

N.M. gov. has ignored calls to pull executive order that could hinder speech critical of Israel

Critics have said such a broad definition of antisemitism conflates Judaism with Zionism, in order to expand the term’s traditional definition to include criticism of Israel and quash expression in support of Palestinian self-determination.

Sundram, the social worker, said some UNM students since the arrests have been dealing with hypervigilance, feelings of being unsafe, and fear for what effect participating in the camp will have on their futures.

But Sundram said students are at the camp for a bigger reason: Palestinian liberation.

“These young people are doing what older people have not been willing to, they’re putting their entire futures on the line,” Sundram said. “They might not have an academic future because of these actions, but they understand that none of us can be free until we’re all free.”