Only six steadfast student protesters at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) remained encamped in the Chelsea campus’ lobby by Sunday evening. They had been there since Thursday, and were the last holdouts of a student-driven demonstration that had begun four days earlier.
The FIT encampment began in the lobby of the main building at 27th Street and 7th Avenue on April 25; a band of pro-Palestine protesters had run into the building and established themselves before security could stop them. In doing so, they joined the likes of students at Columbia University, NYU, City College of New York and others who rallied in support of Palestine amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, more than six months after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
While the FIT encampment began with larger numbers on Thursday, the participants dwindled over the days that followed. By Sunday evening, April 28, just six remained locked in the lobby, visibly exhausted.
Through written messages, they spoke with amNewYork Metro through the glass window regarding their unflinching efforts to remain. The windows themselves were covered in signs in support of Gaza and Palestine, and called for FIT to “disclose, divest.”
“We will not stop, we will not rest, until FIT divests, discloses and defends their students,” one student wrote, holding their phone up to the glass.
The last remaining FIT protesters on Sunday entertained one another with music and threw up heart signs to supporters. Some on the outside even pressed their hands to the warm glass in a show of solidarity.
Yet with campus security policing the entrance, the demonstrators said they were permitted food and water to be transported inside — but no more people were given access to enter.
Condemning the war in the Middle East, the youth say they don’t want to be complicit in the conflict.
About one block away fellow students have set up an encampment on the outside calling for the same demands. According to these protesters, negotiations between students and the admin have stalled.
“We have yet to receive another negotiation session with administration since Friday,” one student said. “We got a long spiel essentially designed to make it seem like some of our demands were being catered to. But when we pushed on any of these four demands, it was very clear that none of them were being met or even close to being met.”
After a rally at the encampment, the group marched to the 27th Street entrance where the remaining six students emerged from the lobby and were greeted with warm embraces. They said they will be joining their follow students at a new encampment.
