The pro-Palestine Sit-In to Stop Genocide will end overnight camping on Friday, Feb. 16 after two negotiation meetings with President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez, per an agreement reached with the University Monday night. The University will not initiate legal or disciplinary proceedings against students participating in overnight camping until Friday.
The University issued a mandate last Thursday that the sit-in cease its overnight demonstrations and invited participants to a meeting with Saller and Martinez the following Monday, under conditions that they conclude overnight camping by 8 p.m. that night. Sit-in participants refused to comply and instead called for an “emergency mobilization,” drawing hundreds of demonstrators to White Plaza.
Following a second rally Monday night, University administrators granted a request from sit-in representatives to extend the “reprieve period” until this Friday. Administrators also agreed to participate in two one-hour discussions on the sit-in’s demands by Thursday night, wrote Interim Vice Provost for Student Affairs C. Matthew Snipp in a letter sent to sit-in representatives.
Participants will be granted immunity from legal and disciplinary actions during the one-week negotiation period with University administrators.
Administrators will hear from sit-in representatives on demands for the University: to divest from and boycott Israeli ventures and academic institutions, to issue a statement that condemns Israeli war crimes and calls for a ceasefire and to provide resources to Palestinian diaspora, Arab and Muslim students.
“Should the President and Provost fail to make significant progress towards our demands, we will mobilize again, as we have done for 117 days without pause,” sit-in representatives wrote. “Our ultimate commitment is not to the physical space of the Sit-In but to the fight for Palestinian liberation.”
Prior to the Monday agreement, administrators had preconditioned negotiations with the understanding that the sit-in would first be disassembled, a requirement that sit-in participant Hana Spahia ’26 said was “contradictory to the very essence of the protest.”
“We understand and appreciate the passionately held beliefs of students who are engaged in advocacy on White Plaza,” the University wrote in the Stanford Report. “Stanford continues to firmly support the peaceful expression of divergent views by members of our community, and we will continue working to provide for the physical safety and well-being of all members of our community.”
Sit-in representatives saw this agreement as a “token of good faith.”
“This represents a massive concession on our part – far beyond what should be required to simply have a seat at the table,” sit-in representatives wrote in a public statement. “But it is a concession we are willing to make if it puts us on a path towards realizing our demands.”
“We will hold them [Saller and Martinez] accountable to clear and tangible progress,” representatives wrote.