DePaul Student Government Association’s diversity and equity committee announced a student-led campaign, “Open Books, Open Hearts,” pushing for the implementation of a Gaza Scholars Program in December 2024.
The Gaza Scholars Program would be a scholarship initiative designed to support Palestinian students in response to the destruction of educational infrastructure in Gaza by bringing displaced students to DePaul.
“We are hoping that DePaul can offer full tuition scholarships to Palestinian students to have them study here,” Parveen Mundi, chair of diversity and equity, said. “I think students at DePaul could really benefit from studying and learning alongside students from Gaza.”
DePaul is one of the three Vincentian universities in the United States, along with Niagara University and St. John’s University. Administrators at St. John’s University provided four full-tuition scholarships to displaced Palestinian students in the fall of last year.
“I think St. John’s and the students there have really shown what’s possible,” Mundi said. “We often look to institutions with similar missions and affiliations to our own. So in a way I think St. John’s is a shining example of what does engagement with this crisis and holding a global responsibility look like. And then the question becomes, why can’t we do the same here?”
The DEI committee wants to ensure sustained attention and action within the campus from students and faculty in order to push the “Open Books, Open Hearts” campaign forward. They are doing this through social media and word of mouth.
“I feel like (the Gaza Scholars Program) could be an appropriate way for a university to use their own resources to help with a conflict,” freshman Emma Anderson said. “I feel like it’s a tangible way to help with a crisis because it is not like DePaul is a hospital and we can send doctors over there, right? So our way would be educating people that need it.”
At this stage of the campaign, SGA is working to straighten out the strategy behind the implementation of this project, which cannot be done without help from administration. Mark Laboe, Interim Vice President for Mission & Ministry, and GianMario Besana, Associate Provost for Global Engagement and Online Learning, have said that they are willing to work with SGA to codify a plan for the Gaza Scholars Program.
“We appreciate students raising the need and calling for support for their peers in Gaza,” Laboe and Besana said. “We are exploring a scholarship program that pays careful attention to the immediate crises of the moment and offers a stable path to success for eligible students from any part of the world experiencing conflict. We will share more about this effort with the community as details become available.”
Student body president Isabella Ali and vice president Samara Smith met with DePaul President Robert L. Manuel and Chief of Staff Arbin Smith to discuss the implementation of this program on Dec. 10, 2024.
“President Rob said he likes the idea, is very on board with it, but we have to go through the logistics of whether we can actually bring students from Gaza,” Ali said. “But I also think that if we can’t, we can still enroll them in Zoom classes. We’ve done that for students from Ukraine.”
DePaul implemented a similar project in 2022 to aid Ukrainian students in response to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“Even just considering the application of the mission statement, we know now that when DePaul wanted to help Ukrainian students, they found a way,” Mundi said. “Over one hundred students were enrolled in online classes within weeks, and so now when Palestinian students face the complete destruction of educational infrastructure, talented students lose precious opportunities.”
The DEI committee believes this could be used as a framework to design and build a similar program for Palestinian students. Member of the DEI committee and representative for College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Maryam Naveed thinks that a program like this would contribute to the work that last year’s encampment was pushing for.
“These are people living in war zones, and a scholarship program like that would be great if we could implement (it),” Naveed said. “I think pushing this is very important, especially in this day and age.”
Ali believes that a Gaza Scholars Program would allow DePaul to exercise its mission statement and core values.
“This would be a very very good opportunity to show that DePaul does follow its Vincentian values. It is not performative, we are actually doing service. We are doing right by others,” Ali said.
LiLi Jarvenpa contributed to this report
Related stories:
- Op-Ed: On April 17, SJP was sanctioned: A message from your Student Body President
- BREAKING: Divestment Coalition holds press conference, rally
- Human Rights Watch: Israeli war crimes apparent in Gaza war
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