Claremont Police Department arrests Pomona faculty member on campus

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Friday Dec. 1, 7:39 p.m.: This story has been updated with a Friday statement from The Claremont Colleges Services, indicating that Campus Safety requested the involvement of Claremont Police.

Friday Dec. 1, 10:10 p.m.: This story has been updated with an additional Friday update from The Claremont Colleges Services on its ID card protocols.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Claremont Police Department (CPD) arrested a Pomona College faculty member on trespassing charges, responding to a Campus Safety request. At the time of their arrest, the faculty member was demonstrating in solidarity with Palestinians in front of Smiley Hall, playing music from a speaker. They were located 500 feet away from Big Bridges Auditorium, where a die-in staged by students was taking place.

Hours after the incident, the faculty member, who requested anonymity over concerns for job security, was released. They told TSL that CPD arrested them over trespassing charges, which were stated in their notice to appear in court. The Claremont Colleges’ Campus Safety (TCCS) logged an initial separate incident before the arrest as disturbing the peace, a claim that can be filed over loud noise disturbances.

TSL obtained multiple videos that show three CPD officers handcuffing the faculty member while the faculty member identified themselves as a campus professor. As the police patted them down, the faculty member also instructed the police to search their wallet for their school ID.

The police then moved the faculty member into a police car before booking the faculty member in the local station, several sources told TSL.

Neither CPD nor Campus Safety immediately responded to TSL’s inquiries regarding who called Claremont police to campus or why the faculty member was cited with trespassing and ultimately arrested.  In response to TSL’s request for an interview with Campus Safety leadership, Laura Muna-Landa, a spokesperson for TCCS, said she could not immediately coordinate a statement with her colleagues about what prompted CPD involvement.

By late Friday morning, TCCS Spokesperson Laura Muna-Landa confirmed in a statement that Campus Safety contacted CPD leading up to the arrest. She said CPD made the decision to arrest the individual for trespassing following their attempt to leave the area.

“The Claremont Colleges Services acknowledges that contact with Pomona College administration should have been made prior to contacting local police,” Muna-Landa said in the statement. 

Campus Safety requested the presence of Claremont Police Department after the faculty member allegedly refused to lower the music volume and identify themselves as a member of the campus community, following multiple requests from Campus Safety, which breaks campus policy, the statement said. 

When TSL asked Muna-Landa for the specific policy that the statement was referencing, Muna-Landa told TSL she did not have access or copies of individual campus policies, and suggested checking with Pomona staff. She directed TSL to “the standard language on the back of all issued ID cards,” which says Claremont Colleges faculty or staff should carry their ID at all times on TCCS premises and present it upon request by college officials.

In their interview with TSL, the faculty member alleged they complied with Campus Safety’s request by turning down the sound a few minutes before Campus Safety officers returned with several CPD officers. 

The faculty member, who wore a shirt with anti-apartheid messaging, said they brought their class to observe the protest for what was intended to be a learning experience.

Having left the protest after observing with students, the faculty member said they relocated to the corner of Sixth Street and North College Way to watch and protest on their own from afar, proceeding to play music with pro-Palestinian messages while sitting down to read a book, periodically checking in with their students in the minutes leading up to the arrest.

In an interview with TSL on Thursday, the professor said they thought they were arrested without cause. They also said the incident poses a threat to academic freedom on campus.

“I don’t think it was fair to be censored, arrested and taken off the campus as I was using the moment as a teaching moment for my students,” they said.

Several students and faculty told TSL that in the half hour before the arrest, they saw the faculty member sitting on a rock playing a range of loud music, with some songs featuring pro-Palestinian lyrics.

Why the faculty member was cited for trespassing is still unclear. The Claremont Colleges are an open campus where community members are allowed to pass through, although individual campus policies still apply to visitors.

The day after the arrest, the Intercollegiate Department of Chicanx-Latinx Studies (IDCLS) published a statement via Instagram addressing their colleague’s arrest, echoing a previous, shorter message the department had sent out in the faculty listserv earlier in the day.

In their Thursday statement, IDCLS demanded Pomona take action to dismiss the charges against the faculty member and conduct a thorough investigation of the incident, including the decision to involve law enforcement.

“The charge of ‘trespassing’ even after our colleague was identified as faculty is not only baseless, it is a threatening blow to academic freedom and dialogue,” the statement read. “It is disappointing to see an incident of racial profiling happen in our campus, and against members of our department. It is also unsettling that our rights as an academic community to protest were infringed upon by the police.”

Pomona did not respond to TSL’s inquiries on what the school is doing to address the arrest or whether the school is going to respond to faculty concerns that the arrest might have been racially motivated.

Pomona Chief Communications Officer Mark Kendall told TSL that the school is “not seeking charges” and is looking into additional information.

“Pomona learned of the incident, including the presence of police, after it occurred,” Kendall said via email.

As of Thursday, the faculty member who was arrested said they had not heard from any members of the administration other than one dean offering to check in.

“This is a case of racial discrimination in the workplace, and a formal apology is not enough,” the faculty member said.

“There needs to be a change in policy on how people are treated, especially people of color on the campus. We’re under the veil of being criminals, even if we are professors.”

Pomona professor Tomás Summers Sandoval, who is jointly appointed in the IDCLS and History departments, questioned the need for external police.

“It’s a troubling message that’s sent when police are called to a peaceful protest and then arrest any member of the community — faculty, staff or student — who is being equally peaceful in line with that protest,” Summers Sandoval said.

In his 17 years as a Pomona professor and time as a student at Claremont McKenna College, Summers Sandoval said he has never seen the arrest of a professor before.

Some students and faculty who witnessed the arrest and the events leading up to it told TSL they felt unsettled by the involvement of CPD in the incident, as well as the fact that the professor was arrested.

Carolyn Coyne PO ’25 recorded the arrest on her phone. She said she was biking when she noticed the commotion and the police officers. Coyne said witnessing the arrest also made her worry about the safety of other professors she knows who have taken any kind of political stance.

“I was more worried about what would happen to people who don’t look like me and are in different positions than me,” she said. “I’m a white, short, non-threatening female student — I’m not going to get arrested.”

The Pomona faculty member also said they were concerned their appearance had contributed to how the situation was handled.

“It doesn’t really matter if I have a Ph.D.; I’m still a brown man in America, and I still have a target on my back, so it doesn’t matter how I present myself,” the faculty member said.

Maxine Davey contributed reporting.