Swarthmore Alumni for Palestine Speak Out About Suspension

As a group of concerned alumni, many of whom have ourselves led protests at Swarthmore over the past two decades, we are deeply troubled to learn that on March 6, 2025, Swarthmore College officially sanctioned ten student protesters for their organizing against Swarthmore’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Not only does the administration’s action directly contradict Swarthmore’s professed Quaker values, but perhaps most disturbingly, it further aligns itself with the Trump administration’s all-out assault on the rights of Palestine solidarity activists, dissidents, and higher education more broadly.

Swarthmore has a long, rich tradition of student protest. In 1969, the Swarthmore Afro-American Student Society (SASS) launched an eight-day sit-in in the Admissions Office demanding increased Black enrollment. As a result of the Black student movement on campus, Swarthmore admitted more Black students, opened the Black Cultural Center, and hired Black faculty members for the first time. The College highlights the 1969 protest movement as a critical moment in the timeline of Swarthmore’s history, reflecting, “The actions they [student activists] took changed the college by making the curriculum, political life, and culture of Swarthmore more relevant for its black students. The students were the catalyst for a needed re–imagining and expansion of the meaning of Swarthmore.”

Student organizing remained a bedrock of Swarthmore campus life in the following decades. In 2010, a group of Swarthmore students visited West Virginia to learn more about mountaintop removal coal mining, an extreme method of coal extraction which has destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of mountains and valleys in Appalachia and poisoned countless communities. Inspired by their conversations with frontline activists, as well as their work on the Global Nonviolent Action Database with Swarthmore professor George Lakey, students returned to campus determined to use their unique position to push the College to do more than just composting. They formed Swarthmore Mountain Justice and launched one of the country’s first fossil fuel divestment campaigns. In 2015, Mountain Justice held a 32-day sit-in in the Investment and Finance Office in Parrish Hall, demanding that “business as usual” cease until the College removes its financial support from companies fueling the climate crisis. In 2017, students occupied Chief Investment Officer Mark Amstutz’s office in protest of the College’s decision to continue its investment in fossil fuel companies.

In the spring of 2018, students launched Organizing for Survivors (O4S), an organization dedicated to tranforming the way Swarthmore addresses sexual violence on campus. Students occupied the office of then Dean of Students Liz Braun for nine days, demanding her resignation for failing to protect students from sexual violence and mistreating survivors. The week after the sit-in, Braun resigned. Protests against sexual violence continued. The following spring, the Swarthmore Coalition to End Fraternity Violence emerged, calling for a ban of the two fraternities — Phi Psi and Delta Upsilon — from campus, particularly after leaked documents revealed detailed descriptions of sexual assault, racism, homophobia, and other violations from both fraternities. Students protested outside of Dean Nathan Miller’s office, took over a meeting of the College’s Task Force on Student Social Events and Community Standards, and ultimately launched a sit-in at the Phi Psi fraternity house. After widespread outcry, on the fourth day of the sit-in, both fraternities announced their voluntary disbandment.⁵

In the long history of disruptive protest at Swarthmore, student activists have never faced the level of repression they do today. Members of Swarthmore Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) — who are mostly low-income, first-generation, and/or students of color — have been racially profiled, surveilled, and targeted in an unprecedented manner in the college’s history. The Swarthmore student suspended two months prior to their graduation has been charged with “assault” for using a megaphone indoors during a nonviolent protest. And yet, in December 2018, members of SJP spoke, chanted, and shouted into a microphone and loudspeaker for nearly 40 minutes in Parrish as part of a petition delivery demonstration.⁶ 

Swarthmore’s increased repression of student activists is particularly disturbing given today’s national political climate. In January, Donald Trump was quoted in a White House fact sheet saying, “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you.” Earlier this month, Trump posted on social media, “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/ or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on [sic] the crime, arrested. NO MASKS!”⁸ Three days later, Swarthmore sanctioned student protesters. 

Threats to the rights of pro-Palestine protesters have moved well past rhetoric. On March 8th, ICE agents abducted prominent Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leaders of the Columbia University encampment movement. Khalil had emailed the president of Columbia asking for the university’s protection. The following day, federal agents detained Khalil inside his university-owned apartment.⁹ In the midst of this crisis, Swarthmore’s targeting of student activists not only raises questions about the college’s commitments but also highlights real concerns about student safety.

Many of us were first drawn to Swarthmore because of its oft-professed commitment to the Quaker values of peace, equity, and social responsibility. In the classroom, Swarthmore professors emphasized the importance of critical thought as well as the power of everyday people — including students like us — to take history by the reins and transform our world. Generations of student activists have taken this lesson to heart, using what they learn in the classroom to work to change Swarthmore and the broader world. Swarthmore should be proud of its students for having the moral courage to try and make the world, and their community, a better place. 

The Swarthmore we know is at a crossroads. Will Swarthmore continue its downward spiral into oppressive crackdowns on student dissent, or will it stand by its courageous students who demand that the College live up to its own teachings? We urge the administration to make the right choice: reverse all sanctions against student protesters and protect their right to free speech. Truly, the whole world is watching. 

Sincerely,

Swarthmore Alumni for Palestine