Divestment sit-in shuts down Pomona convocation ceremony

On the morning of Aug. 27, 68 students participated in a sit-in and picket of Pomona College’s convocation ceremony at Little Bridges Auditorium, demanding that Pomona divest from the Zionist entity. The demonstration began at 10:30 a.m. and ended an hour later, after Pomona announced that the convocation would be made virtual due to the protests.

By the medical journal Lancet’s estimate, the Zionist entity’s genocide on Gaza has killed at least 186,000 people since Oct. 7 2023. This includes the recent bombing of the al-Tabin school in Gaza City on Aug. 9, where Zionist forces killed over 100 Palestinians during a morning prayer time.

Pomona Divest from Apartheid announced the action as a “Rally Against Repression” on Instagram the previous day. Half an hour before Pomona’s convocation ceremony began, groups of students — 28 in total — sat in front of the front, side and back entrances to Little Bridges Auditorium, blocking audience members from entering. Other students gathered in a picket line in front of the building, growing to a 40-person picket by 11:15 a.m.

Some Pomona College administrators, trustees and faculty entered the auditorium through the back entrance. At 11:05 a.m., five minutes after the ceremony was scheduled to begin, Starr sent an email saying that the convocation ceremony would be moved online “due to protest activity.”

The day prior to the convocation ceremony, Starr announced via email that Pomona would not permit masks inside the event “unless medically necessary.” Pomona administrators have previously referred to student protesters as “masked, unidentified individuals” to justify disciplinary sanctions and the April 5 riot police arrest of 19 students participating in a sit-in, but this is the first explicit mask ban that the college has announced.

The morning of the ceremony, the President of Associated Students of Pomona College, who asked to not be named in this article out of safety concerns, announced that they would be boycotting convocation, which they had been scheduled to deliver a speech at.

“I cannot in good conscience speak at Convocation today over the protest of my peers and the Pomona administration’s refusal to divest from genocide in Gaza and take accountability for the arrest of our students,” the president wrote in a 10:14 a.m. email sent to all students.

While students conducted the sit-in, Assistant Vice President Robert Robinson, followed by Director of Campus Safety Mike Hallinan and two campus safety officers, confronted each group of students blocking an entrance. Robinson repeatedly walked up close to student protesters, asking them to leave and threatening them with disciplinary action if they didn’t comply. After Robinson stepped back, a campus safety officer went up to each student individually and asked them to identify themself with their school IDs. All student protesters refused to do so.

After the convocation ceremony ended, students gathered outside the front entrance of Little Bridges as one of the protesters highlighted the importance of students showing up to the first action of the year. 

“I know we all just got back on campus, I know we all just wanna go back to classes and enjoy being students, but it’s important to remind ourselves that in Gaza there is no return back to school for the students,” the student speaker said. “[There have been] whole neighborhoods, whole parts of the city, completely leveled. Children [are] waking up to pray in the morning and getting bombed by Israel.” 

The student speaker ended by emphasizing how everyone must continue to campaign for divestment. “I know that it’s a sacrifice for you to be out here today. I know the sun’s beating down on us. I know we’re a little bit tired. I know that we all just want to act as if we can go back to normal, but we can’t. Every day that we choose to show up out here, every day that we choose to show up and support one another, we’re one day stronger.”