UPDATE: April 26, 5:24 p.m.
Illinois Student Representative for LAS, Ethan Lopez: I’ve been focusing a lot on the deal with these protests just in case because I’m not here to take sides or to advocate. My job is to make sure that students get the support they need regardless of their background and to make sure that no one gets hurt.
I’ve been out here for a lot of the afternoon just making sure it does not devolve because the last thing we need is to have our Jewish community (or) Palestinian community hurt. It’s certainly a demonstration. But, you know, I’ve been meaning to sit down and try to understand how can the student government better help our Palestinian community, our Jewish community, make sure that the students feel comfortable in this university (and) have the support they need.
DI: Have these organizations reached out to you personally or the government, in general, to ask for advice or tips?
Lopez: Not yet, but we’re reaching out to them. At least, I know I am on a personal level and (on) a professional level as the chairman of this committee. I can’t speak to anyone else in the government, but I would not be surprised if they would. It’s a tough situation and, you know, we need the voices, we need the perspective. We can advocate for what they need.
DI: Have you, as far as today, had any updates with any people that you’ve been in contact with that you can talk more about?
Lopez: Not really, I’ve been following this since early morning when it started. I’ve been kind of coming back and forth between here and (the) Union just to try to see what’s going on. My main concern is, with these, there’s often the fear that it may become anti-Semitic and, obviously, you can’t accept that, (it) is never acceptable.
(We are) ensuring that we can find ways to support our communities that they (are) talking about. More specific ways, more than just generally like, supporting, maybe, specific programs or plans that the government has been involved with. I’m not aware of any specific plans at this time. The new session just got sworn in. I’m about two weeks into the job. So we’re still working it out, but I would be very surprised if we didn’t have anything out eventually to remedy any issues that may arise.
DI: Would you happen to know (the) motivations behind the protests that we have today? Especially regarding the encampments? Why are they so focused on setting up camps?
Lopez: I would not be able to speak to that. I’m not a part of the organization, I’m not affiliated with the organization that set this up. I don’t even know who it is. My impression is that they’re following the example of Columbia and NYU and other related universities around the country. I’m hearing a lot about divestment. I’m hearing a lot about transparency and stuff like that. And so my impression is they’re doing it to get a response from the University. But beyond that, I don’t have anything.
