DePaul University canceled its 2024 FEST, an annual end-of-school-year music festival, as a pro-Palestinian encampment remains on campus.
The announcement comes days after the university said it was at a stalemate in negotiations and cannot move forward with engaging with protest organizers. FEST 2024 was scheduled to take place Friday on the quad, where the encampment has been since April 30.
“Given the current campus environment, FEST 2024 cannot proceed as planned,” a statement sent to students Monday said.
Other end-of-year activities are also being adjusted, a spokesperson for the university said, and plans will be shared when they are available.
“We have heard from a number of students — particularly the class of 2024 whose high school graduations and first year of college were disrupted by the pandemic — that they are still seeking to have traditional student activities as they end the academic year,” the statement said. “Our goal is to honor these students’ wishes however we can.”
Henna Ayesh, a student organizer with Students for Justice in Palestine at DePaul, said the university is placing the blame on protesters for the festival’s cancellation, even though organizers still want to negotiate.
In a statement Saturday, university president Robert Manuel and provost Salma Ghanem said they were “concerned that we are not on a path to understanding” with encampment leaders.
“We were willing to negotiate in good faith,” Ayesh said. “It was on their end that they did not want to keep going.”
Ayesh added that organizers invited administrators to another negotiation session Monday, but no one attended.
Prior to announcing the impasse, organizers felt that administrators were attempting to rush negotiations so FEST 2024 could go forward, Ayesh said. She said the administration refused to reschedule a Friday evening meeting, even though Jewish and Muslim members of the negotiation team both had religious celebrations.
The encampment organizers were given a deadline of noon Sunday to dismantle, but it’s still there. Ayesh said they are “fully prepared for whatever happens,” and have police liaisons and lawyers on site.
“Whether these tents stay or they leave, the whole idea of divestment and the reason why we’re here is not going to leave with it,” Ayesh said. “We’re going to keep fighting no matter what happens.”
Now that FEST 2024 has been canceled, she said organizers hope administrators will return to the negotiating table.
DePaul’s encampment is one of the last still standing in the Chicago area after encampments at the University of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute were forcibly removed and organizers at Northwestern University reached an agreement with the school.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
The university responded to the encampment’s demands in an email to the DePaul community May 6. In it, the administration called for a cease-fire in Gaza, committed to creating a space for Southwest Asian and North African students, and denounced genocide, though it would not commit to describing the conflict in Gaza as a genocide. The administration also said it would not remove individuals with ties to Israel from the board of trustees, offer amnesty for protesters, end research relationships with Israel or divest from Israel.
DePaul’s encampment is one of the last still standing in the Chicago area after encampments at the University of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute were forcibly removed and organizers at Northwestern University reached an agreement with the school.
