The students who moved into the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building in Seattle on Monday evening demanding the school break ties with Boeing have also been banned from all UW campuses, according to a school statement. Thirteen people who were arrested but are not students have also been banned from the university's Seattle campus, it added.
The school said the occupation resulted in “significant damage” to the building and equipment housed in it. Multiple dumpsters were also set on fire outside the school.
The federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism responded to the protests with a statement saying the university needs to follow up “with enforcement actions and policy changes that are clearly necessary to prevent these uprisings moving forward.”
School spokesperson Victor Balta said Thursday that the university initiated some changes in November that included tracking incidents of bias, antisemitism and Islamophobia, but recognized the need to continually improve.
Some changes include adding a Title VI coordinator position, strengthening relationships with the Jewish community, improving bias incident reporting and response processes, and consolidating anti-discrimination compliance in a new Civil Rights Compliance Office.
In March, the University's Board of Regents overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to divest from companies with ties to Israel, the school's statement said.
