On Thursday, April 18, Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr and Chair of the Board of Trustees Sam Glick hosted a town hall discussion in response to students’ calls for the administration to disclose their investments and to divest from “the apartheid system within the state of Israel.” The event was only open to Pomona community members and was held from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Little Bridges.
In an April 2 email from Glick announcing the event, he highlighted the “suffering, moral complexity and contention” marking Pomona’s campus and the broader world throughout the past few months, specifically in regards to some United States college’s relationships with Israeli organizations.
“People can — and should — reasonably disagree on how Pomona should respond to such challenges,” Glick wrote. “What’s critical is that we all have the opportunity to share our thoughts and ask questions of one another, consistent with the College’s traditions of deep inquiry and shared governance.”
Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) Vice President of Student Affairs Precious Omomofe PO ’24 informed students that their attendance of the event would not be recorded. By saying this, Omomofe addressed recent concerns from Starr regarding the anonymity of protestors where she deemed masked individuals who refuse to identify themselves “inherently unsafe,” and stated that this violates Pomona’s conduct code.
“There will be no record of individual attendance at this event,” Omomofe wrote in an April 17 email. “Additionally, wearing a mask is completely okay and acceptable, and there will be no consequences from [the] administration for choosing to do so.”
On April 15, Starr sent an email to the Pomona community reminding students of the upcoming discussion and addressing its timing in light of the April 5 arrests of 20 5C students.
“When we first scheduled this town hall last month, none of us thought that it would occur in the aftermath of Claremont police answering a call for help to Alexander Hall and the arrest of students from Pomona and our neighboring campuses,” she wrote.
Seven of those arrested were Pomona students, who Starr issued interim suspensions – suspension enacted immediately and without the approval of the Judicial Council (JBoard).
According to the email, three of these suspensions have since been lifted, while the remaining four have not. Starr explained that this was a decision made by the Preliminary Sanctions Review Board (PSRB), part of the JBoard process.
The PSRB, Starr clarified, consists of two student chairs and two staff from student affairs who have the authority to hear appeals to interim suspensions. She expressed her faith in their abilities to make an informed decision.
“The deliberations of the PSRB are confidential and I do not have access to them,” she said. “However, I believe that the PSRB has the most complete information available to make an informed judgment as to whether the interim suspensions should be lifted. Given this, I will not overturn their decision.”
In her email, Starr also addressed the college’s response to the April 5 arrests. Despite authorizing the call to the Claremont Police Department, Starr wrote that she agreed with a recent faculty resolution condemning the militarization of Pomona’s campus in response to the student protestors in Alexander Hall.
“In a vote last Thursday, the faculty as a whole expressed clearly that they do not want to see a heavy police presence on our campus,” Starr said. “I could not agree more with that sentiment.”
The statement was drafted at an emergency faculty meeting on April 8 and voted on in a follow-up meeting on April 11, in which faculty adopted a resolution stating the following: “The faculty condemns the present and future militarization and use of police on the campus. It insists that the College immediately drop criminal charges and reverse the suspensions and all related consequences against student protestors for their actions of civil disobedience.”
According to Starr, the faculty’s resolution received 92 “ayes,” 39 “nays,” and 4 abstentions. Still, she reaffirmed her decision to call the police during the protest.
“While I believe that the safety of our campus made that call for help essential, I also believe our community wants to work together to avoid having a situation like this unfold in the future,” she wrote. “I wholeheartedly agree with that aim.”
More than 220 members of the Pomona community came to Thursday’s discussion despite a statement released by Pomona Divest From Apartheid (PDFA) on Instagram the day prior calling for students to boycott it. In the statement, PDFA argued that the administration would not be open to the dialogue they claimed to want to encourage with the event.
“Pomona has gone out of their way to show us that they do not see Palestinians as people who deserve rights,” the statement reads. “Until they meet this basic pre-requisite, we will not be engaging in any dialogue.”
This article was updated on April 23, 2024 to correct the location of the meeting and the amount of attendees.
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