For the past several weeks, Pomona College’s Marston Quad has been undergoing a series of constructive changes in preparation for last month’s Alumni Weekend and the upcoming commencement ceremony. Now, the landscape has been transformed yet again — but this time, as an act of protest led by Pomona Divest from Apartheid (PDfA).
In the early morning on Monday, May 6, dozens of students carried tents, posters and supplies onto the quad and the commencement stage, establishing an encampment to express solidarity with Gaza and to put pressure on the college to divest from weapons manufacturers and “institutions that aid the ongoing occupation of Palestine.”
This development follows seven months of student, faculty and community calls for divestment across the 5Cs, including an encampment on the Pitzer College Mounds that ended on May 5, as well as an encampment on the lawn in front of Pomona’s Smith Campus Center last month that ultimately resulted in the arrest of 20 5C students.
In a May 6 statement released on Instagram, PDfA announced the new encampment. The accompanying caption, which reads “NO COMMENCEMENT UNTIL DIVESTMENT,” highlights PDfA’s plans to defend the encampment throughout Pomona’s upcoming commencement ceremony this weekend if necessary.
“Pomona College has responded to student Pro-Palestine organizing with unrelenting repression,” the statement reads. “Students are prepared to defend the encampment until their demands are met, and call upon the college to heed the overwhelming support for divestment in their community.”
In stating the “overwhelming support for divestment,” the statement alludes to a February campus-wide referendum that found that over 80 percent of Pomona students wanted the college to divest from weapons manufacturers and companies “aiding the ongoing apartheid system within the State of Israel.”
To further cement campus support for divestment, last Thursday, May 2, 64 percent of Pomona faculty voted in support of a resolution calling for divestment.
In an informational statement released to participants of the encampment, PDfA outlined the demands that it is pushing for, which include that Pomona disclose and divest from all weapons manufacturers and institutions that “aid the ongoing occupation of Palestine” and that it adhere to the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel’s calls to cut ties with Israeli universities.
The demands also include that Pomona publicly call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, publicly condemn “Israel’s apartheid, occupation, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and dehumanization of Palestinians,” and institute anti-discrimination policies for Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, SWANA, Black, Brown and Indigenous students.
“We refuse to leave negotiations without a legally binding contract and a plan to enforce it,” the statement reads, referencing these demands.
According to Sinqui Chapman PO ’27, a participant in the encampment and one of the 20 students arrested last month, PDfA plans on maintaining their position on the quad until these calls for divestment are met.
“Students plan to be here until Pomona College divests,” she said. “We know that it is something that is very, very plausible. Administration has the choice right now to divest or we will be here throughout graduation.”
Chapman urged students who want the graduation ceremony to occur as planned to join organizers in pushing Pomona to divest.
“If you feel really strongly about your graduation being disrupted, urge the administration to divest,” she said. “That is ultimately what the student body wants, and that is ultimately why students are here today.”
While administration has yet to address these demands, campus buildings have since shifted to swipe access. Dean Avis Hinkson informed the Pomona community of this change, as well as of the encampment in general, several hours after its establishment.
“Please avoid the encampment area, and we ask that everyone maintain an atmosphere that supports our community of students, faculty and staff, particularly as finals week continues,” she wrote in an email. “Safety for all members of our community is our priority.”
Chapman suggested that the encampment itself reflects a “community effort.”
“It’s just a place for people to get together with a common understanding that we are not going to normalize genocide and that the end goal is to win divestment, because we realize the dire situation in Gaza right now,” she said. “Rafah has been invaded, and it’s one of the most heavily populated places on Earth, and so we recognize the urgency of the matter.”
At the time of publication, Pomona administration has not responded to TSL for comment.
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