On March 6, 2025, Swarthmore College sanctioned fifteen students for participating in pro-Palestinian protest. In one extreme case, the college decided to suspend a second-semester senior two months from graduating, denying them access to college resources with full knowledge that the student is a first-generation low-income student who will be facing homelessness, financial insecurity, and unemployment as a result.
In the few weeks since these proceedings and the College’s decisions have been publicized, the student body and external community members have expressed both concern and outrage on behalf of student protestors. Student affinity groups in particular are speaking out on the precedent this decision sets for free speech, minority rights, and student safety, demanding that the College reverse the suspension.
Below are excerpts from each group’s support letter with links to the full statement as published in Voices.
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ENLACE:
“The administration’s actions directly contradict its professed commitments to justice and free expression. By imposing these sanctions, Swarthmore is aligning itself with the Trump administration’s broader authoritarian crackdown on student activism…. The administration’s actions send a chilling message: that speaking out against state violence is a punishable offense, and that Swarthmore College will side with the oppressors rather than the oppressed. This is not the legacy that any institution should wish to uphold.”
Swarthmore Afro-American Student Society (SASS):
“We expect more from Swarthmore College’s ability to assess the actions of these students as no more than the right to protest. Swarthmore College failed to do this properly, thereby opening a chain of irreversible damage, not only onto its students but also your name as an institution… As President Trump heightens repression against student protestors, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and ethnic studies curricula such as Black Studies programs, SASS finds itself steady in its opposition to policies that endanger the college’s dedication to educational justice and safety for racial minorities. We urge the college to stand with us in protecting our fellow students against free speech repression akin to that of the United States’ far-right administration.”
Campus Coalition Concerning Chester (C4):
“What is happening in Chester is environmental genocide; our work is anti-genocide work. That work cannot be done without student protest against occupation, commitment to activism, and megaphones– work that Swarthmore College is currently punishing our peers for. It is unacceptable to see tactics of oppression that we combat regularly from polluting industries being utilized by Swarthmore College.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP):
“The Swarthmore College administration promised protection and support to its entire student body, not just support for students who choose not to engage in expressions that the college disagrees with… Swarthmore College’s sanctioning of student activists does nothing but align the college with this national goal of silencing pro-Palestine activism. The DOE’s investigations also align with a larger trend of instrumentalizing warped ideas of antisemitism to silence pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses.”
Organizing to Redefine Asian Activism (ORAA)
“Trump’s labeling of anti-Zionist demonstrations as inherently ‘antisemitic’ excuses settler colonialism and implies that the colonized do not have the right to object to the murder of their people. In choosing to adhere to the Trump administration’s demands, Swarthmore tells its students that their calls for justice are unwarranted and would not be protected by the College or the First Amendment… Arbitrary and unprecedented punishments for such innocuous acts are a striking illustration of the gap between Swarthmore’s stated values and actions. ”
“It has not escaped our notice that this student has been severely punished for engaging in the same behaviors that past students of Solidarity at Swat conducted with no repercussions…. The blood money Swarthmore earns from the plunder of the Palestinian people and their land is not what brings this institution value. The value of this institution lies in the labor of our community members and our commitment to learning and social justice put into practice.”
Swatties for Immigrant Rights (SIR):
“For months, we’ve urged Swarthmore to provide material support for undocumented students and drop all disciplinary processes that could facilitate the Trump administration’s attempts to detain and deport our peers. Instead of listening to our concerns, the college escalated, suspending a FLI student on baseless claims of assault for using a megaphone indoors and doubling down on its repression of pro-Palestine activism on campus. The College’s decision to ignore our pleas and suspend a student has created a campus environment that puts our collective safety at risk.”
Swatties of South Asia (SOSA):
“Swarthmore has chosen to ignore the calls for divestment from its community and to deny the genocide in Palestine. Rather than confront your complicity, you suspended a student for using their voice to do so. Your response to witnessing a genocide should not have been to disproportionately punish brown, Muslim, and first-generation student activists, placing them at immense risk. This is bigger than these students’ academic futures – though those are significant, and your duty to support. We know that your decision to pursue the suspension of a first-generation, low-income student will leave them without housing or employment. We also know that the primarily Black and brown immigrant students – including members of our affinity group – whom you have targeted no longer feel safe on this campus. No college should be in the business of placing its students at risk of homelessness and unemployment. It is increasingly self-evident that you, Swarthmore’s administration, have walked away from any commitment to equity, justice, or social stewardship.”
COLORS
“As queer students of color, we intimately understand how multiple systems of oppression interlock to silence, discipline, and criminalize our existence and our resistance. Our liberation is inextricably bound with Palestinian liberation and with the freedom of all peoples struggling against settler-colonialism, imperialism, and state violence. When the administration completely disregards housing insecurity—a crisis that already disproportionately impacts LGBTQ+ youth of color—in order to discipline against anti-genocide activism, it betrays any pretense of commitment to our community’s wellbeing or to social justice.”
Swarthmore Queer Union (SQU):
“Swarthmore has glossed over the 2021 vandalism of the COLORS/SQU room. Yet, when pro-Palestine students—disproportionately brown, Muslim, and FLI—speak out against genocide, the College swiftly punishes them. It has become clear that Swarthmore’s real values lie not in fostering a safe campus environment but in preserving its genocidal investments at the expense of the most marginalized members of our community.”
“The targeted policing of FLI students of color and the harsh sanctioning of brown Muslim students directly contradict these goals of equity and inclusivity. When these students hold the institution accountable to its social responsibilities, they are met with surveillance and disciplinary action. There is no equitable campus community that sanctions students for protesting a genocide… In continuity with our founding mission to center the voices of the Black, brown, and Indigenous people of color on this campus that the administration and mainstream news publications have long silenced, we stand in solidarity with the sanctioned students. We aim to amplify these voices. We urge you to listen.”
“As the Black Woman and Gender Expansive affinity group on this campus, we take pride in our commitment to promote the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of our members. That is currently being infringed upon by the charges you have issued. We need you to protect the right of students to resist genocide and injustice, especially when it challenges our codes of conduct in peaceful dissent. A megaphone is nothing in comparison to the violence of your participation in the genocide.”
Swarthmore African Student Association (SASA):
“The parallels between the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the ongoing Palestinian struggle against occupation in the SWANA region are unmistakable. Both movements have called on the international community to recognize the structural violence embedded in colonial systems and to stand in solidarity and empathy with those resisting such oppression—because that is fundamentally an act of love and understanding. We ask that Swarthmore follows the example it set during the anti-apartheid movement. Just as the College ultimately aligned its investments with its ethical commitments, we urge the administration to align its disciplinary policies with its stated values. Reinstating the suspended student is not only an act of fairness—it is a reaffirmation of Swarthmore’s historical legacy and moral compass (…) Upholding these values means recognizing that dissent and activism are essential components of a vibrant intellectual and loving community and that the right to challenge injustice—whether locally or globally—should be central to the College’s moral and educational mission.”
Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA):
“At certain points in history, singular events and decisions become epoch-defining, and this goes for both world-history and the little histories of institutions like Swarthmore. The decision in front of you, to suspend and impose homelessness on a brown, Muslim, and FLI student, is epoch-defining for this institution. Whatever opportunistic rhetoric about Trump and justice and free speech you choose to trot out in the next four years or more, we know that it’s meaningless when you choose to stand with this administration in harming protestors standing against genocide, and when you wield housing, a human right, as a disciplinary weapon. It is epoch-defining because if you don’t choose to stand for justice now, what hope is there that you will stand up for anything when ICE and the Feds are at your door trying to disappear your politically active and pro-Palestinian students? It is epoch-defining because it marks a new willingness and zeal on the part of the College to weaponize disciplinary processes to extract the harshest sanctions for peaceful protest.”
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A few ways you can support student protestors:
- Sign the petition to reverse the suspension
- Join the email campaign condemning the college’s decision for targeting a vulnerable student for protesting genocide
- Attend the rally Thursday, March 20 at 12 p.m. on Parrish Porch
