Governor Murphy today criticized Rutger's University for its response to Pro Palestinian protesters on campus agreeing to meet eight out of their 10 demands Murphy argued the administration dealt with the group differently than it did with complaints from Jewish students about anti-Semitism meanwhile demonstrations continue at Rutter's Newark where students are requesting the university to do more than divest from Israel but also reinvest in the Newark Community Melissa Rose Cooper has the latest we really want to be on the right side of History to be against genocide to be against apartheid and to make sure that the university in which we fund with our tuition and with the people's taxpaying money is going to the community going to the students going for a good cause within the university so for the past week students at Ruckers nework have been spending their days and nights taking part in this encampment to show their support for Palestine but unlike other schools and universities the people taking part in this encampment are not only calling on Ruckers to divest from Israel they also want the school to reinvest in newark's communities an example of that is we want all newers to be able to go to Ruckers for free we want pro bono legal services from their law school we want free medical and dental services for the residents of nework and one of my the one I'm most passionate about is we want Ruckers to give some of its properties back so we can start a community land trust and build free housing for the residents of nor Anthony Diaz is a member of the New York solidarity Coalition and helped organize this encampment as a lifelong New York resident he says the lack of affordable and quality housing is shameful ultimately leading to other issues and so you wonder why we have an increase in violence you wonder why we have an increase in houselessness and homelessness you wonder why we have a a economic genocide going on if people have home instability how can the rest to this the the city be ever be stable the encampment at Ruckers nework comes as students at the New Brunswick campus wrapped up days of protest following an agreement with the school to support a majority of their demands now a spokesperson for the University confirms president holay will head to Washington later this month to discuss with Congressional leaders how the school handled the protest this comes as holay has phased criticism from lawmakers including Congressman Chris Smith who expressed deep concerns about the deal made with protest ters I think that it's great that the students at New Brunswick were able to organize around that but we also here in Newark we wanted to point out that New Brunswick isn't the only Ruckers campus so it's not really possible for them to negotiate for all students and all faculty and all communities that are affected by Ruckers so we support them we support their ongoing Communications with the president with the Board of Governors um but we also have something to say as a part of that Community as well a spokesperson for the Ruckers campus issuing a statement saying our highest priority is the safety of our students faculty and staff the protest on our campus remains peaceful as an anchor institution in Newark and committed collaborator with many Community Partners Ruckers newwork is earnestly engaging in dialogue with the protesters over the concerns they've expressed as the encampment at Ruckers newwork enters the second week participants say they're committed to making a change and will stay here for as long as it takes for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper