Around 30 students picketed the entrances to Pomona College’s Frary dining hall at 11 a.m. on Friday, April 10 — chanting, holding cardboard signs and drumming on buckets. The demonstration, organized by the Claremont Student Workers Alliance (CSWA), encouraged 5C students to boycott the dining hall and advocate for the reinstatement of recently fired cook Rolando “Rolo” Araiza.
Picketers said the boycott directly pressured Pomona to rehire Rolo, asking students to spend meal-plan money at the other colleges. They added that making noise in the picket line drew attention to their cause, something other forms of demonstrations may not accomplish.
“I think you can do a lot of talking, but I think when you really start singing and yelling is when you can really get your message across in different ways,” Una Marie Lake SC ’29 said.
Tag: boycott
OPINION: Pomona’s Café 47 is Ready to Brew Something Better than Starbucks & Nestlé
“Since January of 2025, union baristas have filed more than 125 unfair labor practice charges, documenting retaliatory firings, bad-faith bargaining, and a pattern of intimidation,” wrote Lina McRoberts PO ‘27 on behalf of the Claremont Student Worker Alliance. “We refuse to subsidize a corporation built on union suppression, retaliatory discipline and a transnational labor regime that exploits workers from Buffalo to Chiapas to Yunnan… Until Pomona turns its course, we are calling on students to withhold purchases from Café 47 and redirect patronage elsewhere.”
Over 120 Students rally for Harvey Mudd College to cut ties with Starbucks
On Feb. 22, over 120 students gathered at Harvey Mudd College to condemn the college’s relationship with Starbucks due to the company’s associations with Israel and treatment of unionized employees.
OPINION: In the face of a genocide, Palestine deserves more from Pomona College
Sarah Burch PO ’22, a Pomona College alumna, argues that the college is inadequately supporting Palestine.



