Over 270 students donning masks, raincoats and umbrellas walked out of classes into the pouring rain Monday afternoon in support of the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) referendum on whether Pomona should divest from companies, including weapons manufacturers, that support the “apartheid system within the state of Israel.”
The demonstration was part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, a nationwide call to end Israel’s occupation of Gaza. The walkout was advertised at a teach-in held on Thursday, Feb. 15 to discuss the referendum’s purpose as well as through social media.
“This Presidents’ Day, we demand divestment, not dialogue,” Pomona Divest Apartheid stated in a Feb. 16 Instagram post. “This Presidents’ Day, we walk out.”
At 1:25 p.m., a group of 20 students began marching across Pomona’s campus, calling on their peers to join the walkout at Marston Quad. Their protest chants included, “Claremont students walk outside / the 5Cs fund genocide” and “Israel bombs, Pomona pays / how many kids did you kill today?”
Some students shook tambourines and hit spoons against pots to create a beat for the chanting and to increase awareness of the group’s presence around Pomona’s classrooms. Protestors wore masks to protect their identities and provided spares to students who left their classes to join the march.
After marching throughout campus for around 25 minutes, the group returned to Marston Quad, where hundreds of 5C students, professors and organizers joined them. A handful of professors from the Claremont Faculty for Justice in Palestine, a new chapter established in support of pro-Palestinian organizing on campus, were also present.
Students were ushered into a circle around the walkout leaders where safety guidelines were then read. The guidelines reminded students to conceal their identities with masks to avoid engaging with Campus Security and to protect brown, Black, Palestinian, SWANA and Muslim students from being photographed or identified.
“It’s everyone and no one,” one of the organizers said. “We have safety in numbers and collective anonymity.”
Another organizer then transitioned into announcing news updates on the situation in Gaza. They cited the ground invasion of Rafah on Feb. 12 during which over 60 people were killed, the lack of food and aid reaching northern parts of the city and the “scholasticide” — systematic destruction of university and educational hubs — committed by Israeli forces in Gaza.
“Twenty-nine thousand martyred,” one of the organizers said to the crowd. “Fifteen every hour of every day for the past 135 days. One Gazan every four minutes. On this Presidents’ Day, intended to celebrate the ‘brilliance’ of our renowned leaders, we condemn all presidents, including our very own Gina Gabrielle Starr.”
The organizers also denounced some of Pomona President Gabrielle Starr’s previous decisions, citing her refusal to divest from fossil fuels in 2019, her barring of students from a faculty meeting in 2020 regarding COVID-19 grading policy and her condemnation of ASPC’s decision to pass a BDS resolution in 2021.
“I want to point out the irony that, in 2021, [Starr said ASPC] was ‘wrong’ for not asking students their opinions before having a resolution,” the organizer said. “Now that we’re having a referendum, [Starr is saying] we’re also wrong.”
Pomona Chief Communications Officer Mark Kendall commented on the walkout and the referendum on behalf of the college.
“The college is committed to thoughtful dialogue and mutual respect,” Kendall said in an email to TSL. “We will continue to engage with students and the wider campus community on key issues.”
He further commented on how Pomona’s administration would handle their endowments and investments in light of this walkout and the referendum’s results.
“We will continue to provide information, context and education on college finances, including the endowment,” Kendall said in an email to TSL. “(The recent endowment webinar and Q&A for all students is one example). We will not practice investment exclusion singling out any nationality, nation or region.
An organizer of the walkout criticized Starr and the Pomona administration’s emphasis on dialogue over action, citing the historical impact of campus movements.
“There is no dialogue in a genocide, Gabrielle,” the organizer said. “Campus movements to divest, including Pomona’s, were instrumental in ending South African apartheid.”
The organizer emphasized Pomona Divest Apartheid’s demands to the college.
“We will show up, rain or shine, until Pomona discloses, divests, adheres to an academic boycott, publicly calls for a ceasefire, publicly condemns Israel’s apartheid and genocide and institutes anti-discrimination policies that actually work,” the same organizer said. “Until then, Pomona College, with Gina Gabrielle Starr at its helm, has blood on its hands.”
The organizers then moved into reading speeches written by three Pomona students who claimed to have been pulled into disciplinary hearings this semester.
“The school has cracked down on our efforts at mere non-violent demonstration by mobilizing its army of overpaid, untalented, predominantly cis straight white wealthy men, [the] middle-managing goons and ordering them to act as prosecutors in unfounded and unnecessary judicial board proceedings,” one of the organizers read from a student’s testimonial.
All three students emphasized how they perceived their hearings to be baseless and how their time — which they explained could have been spent studying, applying for internships, protesting, or spent doing other productive things — was used preparing for their disciplinary hearings.
“To Gabi Starr, Brandon Jackson and the grimacing Zionist bastards that circle these protests with their phones recording, I simply have a question,” another organizer read from a different speech. “How does it feel? As the [Israel Defense Forces] drops bombs, turning universities like this to rubble, ripping bodies limb from limb, and making orphans out of children, how does it feel that all you can do is punish your community members for bringing it to your attention? I ask you, is that the proper way to criticize a genocide?”
The student whose testimonial was read by an organizer thanked their peers for helping them advocate for themselves during their disciplinary hearing while criticizing the “idiotic deans” who were unable to guide them through the process.
“My disciplinary sanctions do not scare me and they definitely should not scare any of us,” they said. “We are more powerful together and we keep each other safe.”
After the three speeches concluded, the rain picked up; however, the protestors remained, shielding each other with umbrellas as the organizers began discussing the referendum.
Earlier that day, at 12:09 p.m., Pomona students received a ballot from ASPC to vote on the referendum. However, technical errors caused the initial ballot to be rescinded. Those who had already voted were asked to vote again using the new ballot sent out at 2:03 p.m. that same day.
To increase the number of students who voted, the organizers allotted time during the walkout for Pomona students to submit their referendum ballots. A “yes” vote on all five questions would mean a student’s endorsement of full disclosure and divestment.
“We know how important this referendum is because we know that admin is scared,” one organizer said. “They do not want the referendum to happen because it threatens their fantasy of pro-Palestine organizing as being a small, unreasonable minority of predominantly non-Pomona students. We, the hundreds of students gathered here today, know that this is not the case. Admin knows this too, which is why they are so clearly threatened.”
They went on to condemn Starr’s Feb. 16 email to the Pomona student body, in which she criticized the referendum for being “painful” and condemned ASPC’s decision to host it.
“My concerns about the referendum are deep, and come down to not only who I believe we are, but how I believe we should tackle difficult questions,” Starr wrote. “As a campus community devoted to openness, learning and mutual respect, we need to find our way to common ground in the face of sharply divergent commitments.”
One organizer expressed their frustration with Starr’s argument.
“In one breath, she speaks about the imperative for community dialogue, while simultaneously actively attempting to suppress a student-sanctioned form of opinion gathering,” they said.
Although protestors were enthusiastic about voting during the walkout, with many pulling out their devices, the process of casting their ballot was more complex than simply clicking on “yes” or “no”: The ballot was structured in rank-choice format, meaning students needed to vote “1” for yes and “2” or “–” for no, which caused some confusion at the walkout.
After those at the walkout finished voting, one of the organizers closed with a speech.
“Over her quote-unquote renowned tenure, Gabi has tried time and time and time again to arrest, to fire, to suspend and to suppress,” they said. “But it has not and will not claw our vibrant resistance against the Zionist regime. Gabi’s tyrannical reign will end.”
The organizer emphasized how the walkout had disrupted tours at Pomona, disillusioning “hundreds of potential Pomona customers.”
They concluded the walkout with an ardent message.
“President Gina Gabrielle Starr at Alexander Hall, we will come back, rain or shine.”
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