Organizers of pro-Palestinian protests at USC held a second day of meetings with university President Carol Folt Tuesday to discuss their demands such as divesting from companies with interests in Israel and suspending study-abroad programs in the area, with no reported progress toward any agreements.
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USC protesters met with Folt and other university officials for about 90 minutes Monday afternoon, and they met again Tuesday afternoon. The meeting, however, did not appear to bring the two sides any closer together.
"I had a second meeting today with the same group from the encampment," Folt said in a statement Tuesday. "We brought some very specific proposals that would address concerns they had about the endowment, which they have said is one of their most important issues. I deeply respect the passion they feel for their cause and recognize the pain and suffering taking place in our own community as well as in the Middle East.
"Unfortunately, they seemed more interested in having me issu a political statement in support of their viewpoint as opposed to coming up with practical solutions to resolve the situation."
Speaking to a reporter with independent student-led media platform Annenberg Media after the meeting, Folt said there was "a lot of conversation back and forth, so I feel like that's very meaningful."
"I hope we continue to have meaningful conversations," she said, calling the dialogue "interesting and important."
"I also feel very grateful to everyone for keeping the campus so that people can continue to go about all (their) business," she said. "... I just want that to be what we continue to do, and I'm seeing that."
It was unclear if any more meetings were scheduled, but Folt said she would try to get another media set up.
There was no immediate response about the meeting from protest organizers.
Following Monday's meeting, the USC Divest from Death Coalition said in a statement it was "deeply disappointed that the university claims ignorance of our divest campaign."
Folt, USC lawyer Beong-soo Kim and Vice President of Student Life Monique Allard "did not come to the meeting with any actionable insights or concrete steps to address any of our demands," the statement said after Monday's session. The same administrators are believed to have taken part in Tuesday's meeting.
"Folt claims she was unaware of our divestment campaign until the start of the occupation. This is despite the fact that we launched our academic divestment campaign, Suspend Study Abroad in Israel on April 11 and organized a walkout and strike on April 15."
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