Pro-Palestinian student activists rallied outside the University of Connecticut’s administrative offices Monday to demand a meeting with President Radenka Maric after protesters claimed school leaders ignored requests to discuss UConn’s divestment from the Israel-Hamas war and amnesty for demonstrators arrested on campus last spring.

Outside Gulley Hall, Instagram posts shared by the UConn Divest Coalition showed videos of protesters chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as students held Palestinian flags and flyers criticizing Maric.

Pictures of the scattered flyers showed various depictions of Maric, at times adorned with red devil horns, accompanied with images of missiles and dollar bills and phrases such as “I

Other images posted by UConn Divest captured university sidewalks chalked with the words “Randenka = Killer,” “Protesting is not a crime,” and “Arrest Netanyahu, not students.” One message included a sexually vulgar phrase to tell the university to “Stop (bootlicking) Israel.” Another included a rendition of Maric as a horned boar with the words “Radenka hates Palestinians, ur canceled Ms. Piggy.”

A video UConn Divest posted shortly after 5 p.m. showed Maric, accompanied by two men, exiting Gulley Hall and entering a vehicle that was waiting outside. As Maric walked past, protesters shouted questions about the arrest of protesters and chanted “Radenka, Randeka your hands are red, 40,000 people dead.”

“After five hours of sustained protest outside of the UConn President’s office, Radenka Maric refused to engage with pro-Palestine activists demanding to end UConn’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza,” UConn Divest said in the caption.

Israeli officials and their supporters have repeatedly denied genocide accusations, arguing that the nation’s attacks on Gaza, which have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, are necessary to defend Israel after Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages on Oct. 7.

According to UConn Divest, Monday’s protest came one week after a deadline to meet with Maric on Sept. 9 came and went. The coalition said organizers set the deadline at the start of the fall semester with the goal of negotiating an end to UConn’s partnership with companies tied to the Israel-Hamas war and securing Maric’s commitment to call on the Office of the State’s Attorney to drop all charges against the 25 students and one alumnus who were arrested by UConn Police at peaceful demonstrations in April. UConn Divest said students intend to continue protesting until the group secures a date to meet with Maric by early October, according to a press release Sunday.

In addition to elevating these demands, UConn Divest said protesters also intended to raise concerns over new university policies that ban the use of megaphones and amplified during business hours and place new restrictions on outdoor activities such as protests, including an outright ban on encampments.

“Students, faculty, and alumni of conscience are tired of waiting for their demands of divesting and cutting ties with Israel’s genocide to be heard,” UConn Divest said in the release. “Radenka Maric and the UConn administration are out of time to stall student activists and ignore their calls for justice.”

In a statement to the Courant Monday, UConn Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz did not respond directly to requests to explain why Maric had declined meetings with students.

In response to Monday’s protest Reitz said “One of UConn’s strengths is the diversity of opinions among the 32,000-plus students across its campuses statewide” and that “The University respects the rights of students to gather and express themselves peacefully on any topics they wish.”

In an interview with the Courant, junior Josie Raza of UConn Divest, described the “lack of engagement” shown by Maric and other university leaders as “frustrating and disheartening.”

“These are supposed to be the people who represent our university and we are members of this university and they won’t even acknowledge our presence,” Raza said. “That’s been really, really upsetting (and) really disheartening to see and we do hope that that changes.”

Raza said the group’s top concern is to have UConn disclose its financial ties to weapons manufactuing companies and to divest from these industries, however Raza said students activists are also “really concerned about…the state of free speech on campus.”

According to Raza and another UConn Divest representative named Colin Rosadino, at one point during Monday’s demonstration when a student brought out a megaphone, a university representative told protesters that “police would be called if students used amplified sound and that police would deal with policy violations.”

At press, the university had not issued a comment in response to this allegation.

“These new policies, they’re unclear (and) they can be applied in a more heavy handed way to some certain types of speech and not others,” Raza said. “We think it’s a definitely a problem to try and restrict students ability to disagree with what the university is doing, especially to the extent that it’s criminalized.”

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