No more patience from UCPH management: These students may no longer demonstrate

Version 2.0 of the Student Against Occupation tent camp was short and sweet. It was set up and shut down within a period of about five hours on Tuesday afternoon, 26 November.

After being set up indoors on South Campus around 2 pm, the idea was that it would stay there until the students’ demands were met: An academic boycott of Israeli universities by the University of Copenhagen (UCPH).

READ ALSO: Rector interview: This is why there will be no UCPH academic boycott of Israel

This is according to Isaac Ross Twomey-Madsen, who studies comparative literature and is a member of the Student Against the Occupation group.

The University of Copenhagen no longer has patience with actions relating to Israel and Palestine, and that affect other parts of the university population.

Henrik C. Wegener, Rector

»For the past few months, we have had weekly sit-ins here on South Campus, where we have talked about the latest news in Gaza, held lectures and things like that. Yesterday we ended our sit-in by announcing that we will stay here until UCPH meet our demands,« he said.

He says that students were initially told by Director of the Faculty of Humanities, Kristian Boye Petersen, that they would be allowed to stay there as long as they did not stay overnight at the faculty. But suddenly this message changed:

»We had been drinking coffee for a few hours when the faculty director came back and told us we had to be out before 7 pm. Many had left their things here because they needed to go out for a few hours with the intention of coming back later. So we told him, that this would simply not be possible,« says the student.

Camp evicted by police

Not long after, the police suddenly showed up and announced that the students had to evacuate the area immediately.

»We – who are all students – had been sitting quietly here in the KUA buildings on South Campus when we were all cleared out. A demonstration had been announced in support of us which was to be outside the KUA buildings, and we were told that they would not let two flanks to be opened up at the same time, and that we had to be cleared out before the second demo appeared,« says Isaac Ross Twomey-Madsen.

Did you have anything to do with the demonstration outside?

»It had been advertised in support of us and our tent camp, but apart from this we had nothing to do with it. We are students at UCPH. And as to whatever management may have had in terms of problems with the second demo, we think they should take it up with them.«

Were there elements in the second demo that could lead to a sense of insecurity? Were there any masked protesters or anything like that?

»No, not at all. It was a classic demonstration of about 40-50 people with chanting of slogans, banners, and stuff like that. That was it.

How do you pass the ‘sock test’?

At the annual commemoration ceremony on 8 November 2024, the rector introduced the ‘sock principle’ into his speech, referring to Mario Savio of the 1960’s US student movement who climbed up on a police car in his socks so as not to damage the car’s roof.

He said that during the course of the year he had seen several different forms of student activism at UCPH, and that some of them passed what he called the ‘sock test,’ while others did not.

We had been told that our last tent camp had passed the sock test, so we chose the same strategy

Isaac Ross Twomey-Madsen, student

At UCPH we should strive for the considerate notion that when you demonstrate, you should »protest in socks«, the rector said. He reckoned that the students’ first tent camp on the CSS campus, Rafah Garden, had passed the sock test, but that the students’ occupation of the Museum Building in September had failed.

»We had been told that our last tent camp had passed the sock test, so we chose the same strategy. Most of us were quite literally wearing socks. Now we don’t understand what we did wrong and why we weren’t allowed to be there,« says Isaac Ross Twomey-Madsen.

READ ALSO: Students Against the Occupation blockade central University of Copenhagen buildings

Threats of sanctions and expulsion – again

The University Post met the students the day after the failed tent camp, where they once again had organised a sit-in in the KUA buildings.

Several of them have kicked off their shoes, four pro-Palestine banners have been hung up, and there is one tent that has not been taken down from the night before.

The students circle around Faculty Director Kristian Boye Petersen, who tells them that they have to pack up and leave the area. If they don’t, he will take note their names and they can look forward to being sanctioned. The police are also mentioned.

»Right now we are discussing whether we should stay or go,« says Isaac Ross Twomey-Madsen, who speaks on the phone several times and coordinates with the other students.

The faculty director does not wish to comment to the University Post, but refers instead to UCPH senior management. The students have been told that they have five minutes to leave, but the faculty director still waits for about 30 minutes before saying:

»So you’re not going to move?«

»No way,« is the reply from several students. Some students then do, actually, choose to leave because they have already been booked with warnings and are afraid that one more warning may have consequences for their enrolment.

The faculty director notes down one single name, but the rest of the students refuse to disclose theirs.

»Don’t you find this is a bit ridiculous?« one student asks.

»You can interpret my smile however you want,« replies the faculty director, who then leaves the students.

For about an hour, the students wait to see if the police will show up and chuck them out. At the same time, a completely different and independent demonstration begins. A group of students are demonstrating against the relocation of the CSS campus to South Campus KUA.

At no time is the group of relocation protesters asked to stop their action.

»This is discrimination in real time,« Isaac Ross Twomey-Madsen writes in a text message later in the afternoon.

»Right now we are working on trying to merge the two demonstrations,« he writes.

What does management say?

The University Post has sent a number of questions about the process to management, and Rector Henrik C. Wegener answers them in writing below:

Why were the police called in?

»The University of Copenhagen no longer has patience with actions relating to Israel and Palestine, that affect other parts of the university population. The students did not comply with our instructions. That’s why the police were involved.«

Which element of this tent camp did not live up to the rector’s idea of the ‘sock principle’?

»The attempt to set up a camp inside cannot be seen in isolation from the many months of gruelling and constant disruption to the inner life of the university. The students have had ample opportunity to express their opinions, so there is no longer a great deal of patience with such actions.«

The demonstration for an academic boycott cannot be seen in isolation from several months of actions at the university

Henrik C. Wegener, Rector

How is an indoor tent camp different from an outdoor one, and why did the indoor tent camp have to close after a few hours when the outdoor camp was allowed to last for several weeks?

»There should be no overnight stays by people on campus for safety reasons. In addition, there are considerations for the ordinary operation of the university. This is overridden when you set up a tent camp inside in the middle of it all, where no one can enter or leave without being confronted with the messages of the demonstration. The use of university premises should be by agreement with the Campus Services unit.«

Is it the new standard procedure that UCPH calls in the police when students demonstrate?

»No. But it is not standard procedure either that our students do not comply with our instructions. In this specific case, it was the police who were able to draw our attention to the fact that there was a large-scale demonstration on its way towards South Campus. But as I said, we no longer have a lot of patience.«

Why are the students who demonstrate in favour of an academic boycott asked to leave the area and threatened with sanctions, while those demonstrating against the relocation of CSS are left alone?

»The demonstration against the relocation of CSS was announced. It relates to the inner life of the university. It does not lead to insecurity. The demonstration for an academic boycott cannot be seen in isolation from several months of actions at the university.«