Chris Tillen, Contributing Photographer

A group of 11 pro-Palestinian students met with Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis on Wednesday afternoon on the fifth day of a “hunger strike for Gaza” coordinated by Yalies4Palestine. 

A student present at the meeting who spoke under the condition of anonymity told the News that strikers and other students supporting them had gathered on the steps of Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall, or SSS, around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The student said that Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd arrived around 1 p.m. and informed the group that Lewis was interested in meeting with undergraduate student demonstrators. The student told the News that “four or five” hunger strikers joined the meeting with Lewis and Boyd, along with some other student supporters.

At the meeting, students raised the original demands they had sent to administrators upon beginning the strike: divesting from weapons manufacturers, adopting a human rights-focused investment policy for Yale’s endowment, ending academic partnerships related to Israel and providing amnesty to student protesters — including themselves. 

The student who was present at the meeting said that the discussion focused on the amnesty concerns and on asking Lewis to help them schedule a meeting with University President Maurie McInnis and members of the Yale Corporation’s committee on investor responsibility. The student acknowledged that McInnis and the trustees are more directly involved in the policies related to their first three demands.

When reached for this story, Lewis referred the News to a University spokesperson and declined to comment himself. 

“As with other Yale University administrators, Dean Lewis’ foremost concern is for the students’ health and well-being,” Yale spokesperson Karen Peart wrote to the News on Wednesday evening. “He also sought to have a conversation with the students, who are affiliated with the group Yalies4Palestine, and to bring back what he heard to President Maurie McInnis.”

Lewis wrote to the News that the spokesperson’s response reflects his “input.”

The student who was at the meeting shared that Lewis told the strikers that he could not grant students amnesty from disciplinary punishment without knowing what the student protesters planned to do, although he told them they had not committed any disciplinary violations during the strike thus far. 

The student claimed that Lewis said McInnis would not meet with the strikers.

“If President Mcinnis is truly concerned about the safety and wellbeing of her students, she would give us an hour of her time,” the student present at the meeting wrote to the News. 

The University spokesperson wrote that Lewis “reminded students of recent meetings and decisions” related to their demands.

“For example, he shared that he had many meetings with students about these topics over the past year or more,” the spokesperson wrote, adding that “the president, other members of administration, and members of the Board of Trustees” have previously met with Yalies4Palestine-affiliated students about those topics.

In September, one Yale Corporation trustee met with three student members of the pro-divestment Sumud Coalition, a group whose membership overlaps with that of Yalies4Palestine.

On Saturday, after the hunger strike began, Yalies4Palestine requested a Monday meeting with McInnis, they wrote in a press release. On Wednesday afternoon, the Yalies4Palestine Instagram page posted “call scripts,” encouraging its followers to call McInnis, Lewis and Secretary and Vice President for University Life Kimberly Goff-Crews and to tell those administrators to meet with the strikers.

Despite their meeting with Lewis, the strikers plan to continue the fast, students told the News.

The strikers’ meeting with Boyd and Lewis followed hours of tense interaction between the hunger strikers, their student supporters and two Yale administrators on Tuesday afternoon. After three days of congregating on the SSS steps, a building that houses several University administrative offices, the demonstrators gathered inside the building’s lobby on Tuesday, citing “safety” concerns. 

On Tuesday, when approached by on-call administrator Earle Lobo — and later, Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd — the demonstrators demanded to meet with University leaders. Ultimately, the students left the SSS lobby when Boyd warned that if they stayed, which she said was in violation of University policy, they would be asked to show identification and potentially face disciplinary action or arrest if they did not comply.

The University spokesperson confirmed that no students involved in the protest are facing disciplinary action for their actions on Tuesday.

Lobo, Boyd and the University spokesperson all stated that the University would not meet with Yalies4Palestine members, noting that such a meeting had occurred in September.

The hunger strike commenced on Saturday in solidarity with a group of 25 students from California State Universities in Long Beach, San Jose, Sacramento and San Francisco, who began a hunger strike on May 5.

Originally, five undergraduate students and one recent Yale College alum participated in the strike. On Tuesday, Yalies4Palestine announced that a “Yale staff member” would join the hunger strike, raising the number of participants to seven. By Tuesday, the blood sugar of many strikers had reached low levels, but they declined administrators’ offers of medical attention.

Yalies4Palestine’s status as a recognized student organization was revoked by the Yale College Dean’s Office on April 23, after the group promoted a protest in which student participants violated University rules regarding the use of outdoor spaces, University spokesperson Karen Peart wrote to the News. 

The Offices of the President and of the Secretary and Vice President for University Life are located in SSS. 

Chris Tillen and Lily Belle Poling contributed reporting.