Andrew Guckes | Staff Writer
In mid-February, the Swarthmore College chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, as well as outside protesters, staged a sit-in on campus that violated university policy and will result in punishment that includes the immediate suspension of Swarthmore SJP and looming punishment of individual students, according to a statement from University President Val Smith.
“I have affirmed time and again the college’s belief in and support of individuals’ rights to peaceful protest and dissent,” she said. “I have also been clear that those rights do not extend so far as to infringe on the ability of other students, faculty and staff members to fully engage in the life of the campus, nor do they give license for protesters to disrupt the essential operations of the college.”
According to reporting from Swarthmore College’s independent newspaper The Phoenix, the protests on Feb. 19 largely took place in front of the office of Interim Dean of Students and Senior Associate Dean of Student Life Nathan Miller in Parrish Hall. Despite public safety officers from the college attempting to stop protesters from entering the building, students climbed in through a first-floor bathroom window to access the area that the protest occurred in.
Once inside, they continued to commit actions that Smith said are in violation of the rules they agreed to upon registering as students.
“Their actions include repeatedly banging on office doors and the walls of the corridor, breaking into multiple staff member offices, destroying a OneCard reader used to access an office, damaging an office door frame, using a bullhorn indoors, and other alleged behavior that clearly violates the Student Code of Conduct,” she said in the statement released in late February.
There were limited physical confrontations at the protest, but there was one video that garnered some attention on social media. In it, a university employee or officer attempted to hold the door shut as students in masks tried to pry it open. There is some pushing and shoving, but nobody appeared to be injured in the video.
There were also claims by some that the school alerted the FBI or other federal law enforcement agencies during the protests, a charge Smith denied. Swarthmore administration confirmed to The Phoenix that the FBI contacted the school in regards to the events of the 19th.
“The group’s actions also led law enforcement agencies to contact the college directly, including the FBI, to alert us of the heightened social media activity focused on Swarthmore,” Smith said. “To be clear, and contrary to the false claims that SJP and others continue to circulate, the college did not contact the FBI or any other federal law enforcement agency in response to the protest or related activities.”
In a statement published on Instagram, Swarthmore’s chapter of SJP said that because the college refuses to drop disciplinary cases against students who participated in last year’s protests against Israel, they “took it upon [them]selves to halt the disciplinary process.”
In that statement, the SJP alleges that the confrontation was escalated by the “violent college.”
SJP said that the university “trapped students inside” by reinforcing and drilling the windows shut.
Smith said that the school instructed the students to leave Parish Hall on multiple occasions verbally and in writing and that the actions of the school were not as described by SJP.
“Protesters escalated the situation, including by ignoring public safety officers who were attempting to keep the building secure and by opening exterior doors on multiple occasions to allow additional protesters inside,” Smith said.
SJP said that she failed to mention in that statement “the manner in which the college responded.”
The student group claims that Swarthmore officials attempted to “starve [the protestors] out” by not allowing food, water or medication to enter the building during the standoff, which lasted about 11 hours.
Smith said that the SJP at Swarthmore is suspended immediately for an indefinite period, during which they will be unable to use Swarthmore funds, host events on campus or access any other resources the university offers to its student organizations.
The sit-in ended when Swarthmore emailed a letter to the SJP that said that students who did not leave Parish Hall by 11 p.m. would face interim suspensions, which would carry with it loss of all academic privileges and access to campus services like food and housing.
Once this letter was distributed to the SJP, the group vacated the area before the prescribed time.
“As we uphold and promote the important role of peaceful protest and dissent, I hope we will do so in ways that result in meaningful, productive dialogue rather than deeper divisions,” said Smith.
