While most other students are preparing for finals, I’m preparing for a criminal trial for a charge with a maximum possible sentence of a year in jail. On May 3, 2025, I was dragged off of “Trotter” lawn by four police officers and thrown into the backseat of a police van under the vindictive stares of Vice President of Student Affairs Stephanie Ives and Director of Public Safety Colin Quinn. My stomach twisted as I looked out the van window at the crowd who stood watching the demolition of our encampment like spectators at a boxing match. I knew their faces: professors whose office hours I frequented, Kohlberg cafe acquaintances, classmates, and friends. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but I was convinced I had just participated in an event that would forever mark Swarthmore’s history.
My eight co-defendants and I were arrested for participating in the Hossam Shabat Liberated Zone, the second pro-Palestine encampment calling on Swarthmore to divest from companies that facilitate Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians. Specifically, we launched the encampment to target Cisco Systems, a company the college contracts that provides surveillance and communications technology to the Israeli military. After two years of consistent agitation and protest for divestment, we pitched our tents and raised our banners, hoping Swarthmore would finally listen.
Those few days were filled with teach-ins, reading circles, and community dinners that birthed a culture of solidarity otherwise impossible at a college whose social world is defined by cliques and competition. Dozens of students from nearby schools, alumni, parents, and neighbors joined us, bringing food, water, books, and above all, dedication to our cause. One day, a local alum even brought her toddler to play between the tents and read picture books with us. The later characterization of these community members as a “risk” to “safety and security” was laughable to anyone who stepped foot inside the encampment.
Nothing about the encampment threatened the safety of the campus community, but the administration’s decision to break all precedent and call over 30 police officers to crush a peaceful protest did. Arrest was just the beginning; as the only enrolled student in the Swarthmore 9, Swarthmore College has been finding new ways to punish me every day since.
My first suspension was issued by Senior Associate Dean Nathan Miller while I was in police custody: interim suspension, indefinite and effective immediately. At the time, I was still cuffed in the back of the van. The zip-ties were excruciatingly tight, my hands going numb after just a few minutes. The inflamed rings they left on my wrists would take two months to fully fade. The cops pulled us into the police station one by one, leaving the rest waiting anxiously in the van. After they frisked me for a second time, I was walked to the interrogation room, complete with a one-way mirror. There, Ives and Quinn questioned me alongside an armed officer. We were then piled back into the van and shuttled in a dramatic sixteen-vehicle motorcade to the Media police department, with no idea where we were being taken.
While I was in custody, unbeknownst to me, my mother was frantically searching for me, running to the police and fire stations, calling 911, only able to find me after a passing student showed her an Instagram story. The Phoenix published a recording of their interview with her on the ordeal.
After my release from custody, having been banned from campus, I spent weeks crashing at friends’ apartments, struggling to figure out how to afford rent. I had been hired for a research fellowship, but my summer funding was revoked, despite my supervising professor’s protests. Eventually, I found a job, moved into a new apartment, and got Swarthmore off my mind. However, this peace was only momentary: my summer quickly became a ceaseless cycle of frantic preparation, trials, hearings, sanction letters, and hopeless appeals.
In June, Brendan Cook, the other Swarthmore student arrested, and I received major misconduct allegations. On July 11, we saw the courtroom for the first time in our preliminary hearing. Quinn testified against us on the stand. A month after our first court date, we were back in Swarthmore disciplinary proceedings. On August 19, we had a College Judiciary Committee hearing, a kangaroo court which took less than three days to declare us guilty and suspend us for the fall semester. This second suspension was the harshest sanction ever imposed on student activists in Swarthmore’s 162-year history. The most severe sanction prior, a suspension issued to a senior in the spring of 2025 for their use of a bullhorn, was reduced to a campus ban and still allowed them to graduate. While that suspension led to widespread outrage and national news coverage, I find myself having to argue that mine even happened. Swarthmore swept my suspension under the rug, and they intend to do the same with the ongoing criminal case.
Today, my co-defendants and I, who I am now proud to call my friends, are preparing for criminal trial, beginning on June 29, for camping on a lawn in protest of genocide. We face “defiant trespass” charges, a third-degree misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of up to a year in prison. This will be the first time in Swarthmore’s history that students have faced criminal trial for campus protest, but this is not only unprecedented at Swarthmore: we will be the only activists to ever face trial for campus pro-Palestine protest in the greater Philadelphia region. Even the arrests at the University of Pennsylvania encampment in May of 2024, which saw 33 protestors dragged off campus by police in full riot gear, resulted in civil citations rather than legal charges because of the policies of progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.
For nearly a year now, I have been newly shocked every few weeks by administration’s vindictiveness. Everywhere I turn, there are more contradictions. The College alleged that they had us arrested to protect “those who are most vulnerable in the current political context.” Yet, in doing so, they did not hesitate to subject me, a low-income Black student, to both the most severe disciplinary sanctions ever imposed for student activism and the criminal justice system many of its professors teach its students to critique. What “vulnerable” community members is Swarthmore protecting by threatening to send me to jail?
For the entire Swarthmore community, the events of May 3, 2025 mark the height of fear and disgrace on our campus. Every community member I have heard from is appalled by what the administration did to us that day. Yet, a year later, it seems all but forgotten. This campus can’t allow the encampment arrests to become simply another entry in the Swarthmore archive while we face up to a year in prison. We are still being made to pay for the college’s mistake.
Most terrifying is that everyone seems to have forgotten what we were there for. Since the destruction of the Hossam Shabat Liberated Zone, thousands of Palestinians, Lebanese, and Iranians have been slaughtered by the United States and Israel. Despite Trump writing last week that “a whole civilization will die tonight” in the most unpopular war in U.S. history, our campus is silent. In what world are we criminals for protesting this insanity?
No matter what this college puts me through, I’ll never forget why I stood with the encampment to the end. Its namesake, Hossam Shabat, turned 22 years old two days into the Israeli genocide of his people in Gaza. A tall, charming young man with a cheerful smile, he was a college student who dreamed of launching his own media company. When the genocide began, Hossam dropped his ambitions and dedicated his every waking moment to documenting the slaughter of his people. Despite his mother’s pleas, Hossam insisted on remaining in the most dangerous part of Gaza while starving to tirelessly report for Al Jazeera and Drop Site News. He received numerous death threats, but refused to cease his work. For his unwavering dedication to the Palestinian people, Israeli forces assassinated Hossam in a targeted air strike on March 24, 2025.
In his name, we demanded that Swarthmore divest from the occupation that murdered him and 260-plus journalists like him. We wanted Hossam’s dedication to truth and liberation to guide us. He did not have the luxury to look away and keep studying while Israeli bombs destroyed his homeland. He knew what had to be done, and he knew that the occupation would kill him for it. Hossam deserved to graduate, to start his media company, and to fall in love. He deserved to live, but Israel murdered him, and Swarthmore College paid for it.
Instead of divesting from the most well-documented genocide in human history, Swarthmore is persecuting us for holding it accountable. As the trial that will decide our fates rapidly approaches, our campus cannot forget the Swarthmore 9. Demand Swarthmore to drop the charges against us, and continue to demand divestment.
“In an unjust society the only place for a just man is prison.”
― Henry David Thoreau
You’re the best, Big Berg.
Why is this case going to trial? Was there any opportunity for a plea deal?
The college could drop the charges at any time.
Mark, I am grateful for your commitment to see real justice done – which is less likely, as many know, with a ‘dal’. We must speak out more cleaerly and in more places. When early Quakers were arrested for their nonviolent actions, they went to prison, and found ways in prison to make other kinds of change. I HOPE justice happens for you in court; I hope you do not end up in prison, but if you do, keep connecting!
Joan Broadfield (daugher of ’42 grad Virginia Boggs, member of Chester Friends Meeting: This is what a Quaker looks like.)
whoops… typo… ‘dal’ should be ‘DEAL’. Sorry!!
To the admins: Stop being fascists; Drop the charges.
It is a betrayal of the college’s mission to continue to subject Jace to criminal prosecution.
As an alum I’m ashamed that Swarthmore is pressing charges against anti-war protestors. Punishing principled peaceful protestors does not reflect the Quaker values, the critical thinking, and the compassion that I thought my alma mater espoused. The upcoming trial is a disgrace on all of us who were ever proud to be Swatties. Drop the charges now.
So were you the one who wrote “Let’s go bomb Tel Aviv” on the Big Chair? Or the one who wrote “<3 Hamas"?
Or are you the one who has a “<3 Tel Aviv" tattoo?
What’s wrong with loving Tel Aviv? I love Tel Aviv.
Right now Tel Abiv tepresents the center of a terrible fascist, racist government.
TA is a symbol of a sadly, currently hateful country.
Pursuing criminal charges against a student for engaging in peaceful political protest is horrifying. Swarthmore should be ashamed.
This alum, for one, will never donate a penny until the College changes course.
As an alum, I read your account with a very different perspective.
There are a lot of living Swarthmore alumni. Each of us spent four years there as guests of an institution that existed long before us and will exist long after us. It’s not our home, and it’s not our family, it’s a shared academic community that entrusted us with resources, education, and, in many cases, gave us significant financial support on our journey. That relationship comes with both opportunity and responsibility.
You describe your actions as necessary and historic. But from where many of us stand, they look less like principled dissent and more like a willingness to damage the institution itself, its operations, its reputation, and the experience and safety of others, in order to force a response.
Protest has always been part of campus life, and it should be. But there’s a meaningful difference between protest and disruption that crosses into property damage, obstruction, or safety concerns. When that line is crossed, consequences shouldn’t be surprising.
You argue that Swarthmore should be the target because it will “listen.” But that raises a harder question: if the goal was to influence a company like Cisco, why not direct protest there? Choosing instead to pressure your own institution suggests that the calculus included where your personal consequences would likely be more limited—not where impact would be most direct.
There’s also a broader reality that institutions like Swarthmore operate within complex systems: financial, legal, and social. Decisions about investments and partnerships don’t exist in isolation, and they affect far more people than a single cause. That doesn’t make them immune from criticism, but it does mean that change requires more than confrontation; it requires engagement, coalition-building, and often, time.
Many of us who care deeply about justice issues have come to believe that lasting change is usually made from within systems as well as outside them. Joining the boards, influencing the policy, building organizations, and shaping incentives are slower paths, but they tend to produce more durable results.
You’re right that the world is full of urgent injustices. The question isn’t whether to care but how to act in a way that actually improves outcomes rather than simply expressing conviction.
I stand with the administration as they work to protect the financial stability, continuing legacy and safety of the entire organization and community.
Allison, why do your replies keep showing up as 100% AI when put through GPT Zero (among others)? Your argument is terrible, of course, but I don’t even want to engage it because it’s LLM jibber-jabber. Why are you using generative AI to support the suppressive policies of the administration? It’s really quite abhorrent.
clock it ben
Extremely well put. Absolutely agree.
I hope the school continues to robustly enforce disciplinary policies. I think part of the problem is that some students feel completely justified in severely disrupting the institution and the broader community for their own performative protests and are somehow surprised when repeated warnings eventually lead to consequences.
For those who may disagree, there was also a clear security risk with a number of non-Swarthmore affiliated people in the protest camp, where the Big Chair was defaced with “Let’s go bomb Tel Aviv” and “<3 Hamas" graffiti. It sadly does not take much imagination to see how such conditions could lead to physical violence and even loss of life if just one participant were inclined. Jace – please confirm, but I believe 7 of the people arrested were non-students. Why should the school tolerate their continued trespass or students harboring them?
Congratulations, Alum ’08, you’re agreeing with an LLM. Kind of pathetic that people in the Swarthmore Phoenix comments section are getting tricked by “Allison” who has been posting LLM spam in multiple comments sections to support an apparently pro-genocide administration and disparage protestors.
Also, nice slippery slope argument. But in a way, you’re right. These “conditions” did lead to physical violence. Physical violence perpetrated BY police against the protestors, done so at the behest of this, once again, seemingly pro-genocide administration.
This [alleged] LLM is making far better points than you, so I’m happy to agree with Allison.
I missed the part where Val said she was pro genocide, but may have deleted that email by accident at some point. Please forward her pro genocide statements when you have a chance.
“Alleged.” OK Alum ’08. You can just run that text through an LLM checker yourself and then go right on denying it. You would rather willingly get duped by platitudinous LLM dreck that’s “making good points” than interrogate the immorality of your position.
And yeah, thanks for your insight, because of course people whose policy choices directly support a genocide always go around explicitly stating that they’re pro-genocide. They never couch it in liberal talking points to justify continuing to invest in corporations actively participating in an ongoing genocide.
My guess is you would probably deny that Israel is even perpetrating a genocide in Gaza. That seems to be the common thread among all the commenters at the Phoenix for the last number of years who have disparaged protestors. I guess it’s easy to demonize people who are protesting against a genocide if you don’t even believe in the humanity of Palestinian people or that Israel is carrying out a genocide against them right now.
Maybe you and Allison can ask an LLM what it thinks about the issue and get back to us on that. Provided your schedule isn’t totally booked up disparaging and tone policing Black students, that is.
So many great ideas/buzzwords: “immorality” “demonize” “tone police” and the hilarious notion that Swarthmore has a policy of supporting genocide
Going to ignore your entertaining rant and just say –
Still waiting for some sort of coherent answer as to why the school should allow a bunch of non-vetted adults who decline to identify themselves to perpetually stay on to the campus. To be very clear – the school has a moral and legal responsibility to keep the campus safe, and a bunch of adults in keffiyehs and masks on campus property represents an unacceptable threat to the student body.
What’s so threatening about a keffiyeh? Seems a little racist to say that adults in keffiyehs represent an unacceptable threat to the student body.
Or is “racist” just another buzzword to you?
How is investing in corporations that participate in genocide not a form of supporting genocide? Swarthmore has the option to simply not invest in Cisco. I should know, because I don’t invest in Cisco, so I’m quite sure it can be done. Why would the board and admins rather arrest students than divest?
And really, what is so threatening about a bunch of DSA types? How are Temple students a threat to Swarthmore students in any context that is not a basketball court? What is so dangerous about people doing teach-ins, reading circles, and community dinners? What about the non-vetted toddler Boland mentioned in this piece? Was that toddler a threat too?
Anyway, good job dodging the question of whether you agree that Israel is perpetrating a genocide against Palestinians right now. You know, the real issue at stake. The real test of Quaker values. The whole reason to divest from Cisco in the first place. It’s more convenient to just ignore that, right? It’s just some “angry rant” not a critique of institutional “immorality.”
Well Ben, a keffiyeh or mask are not ideal if they are concealing the faces of the weird adults trespassing on the Swarthmore campus after being politely requested to leave the campus a million times… you buzzword savant 🙂
Would you feel the same way about a bunch of masked men in MAGA hats and proud boy T-shirts hanging around on campus property for days or weeks without revealing their identity and continuously telling the college to f off when politely asked to leave numerous times? If you are comfortable with that, you do not value student safety. If not, you are a hypocrite.
The school and its common spaces should not be held hostage by any ideology for the activist LARPing of a minority. If you or the Swarthmore 9 (who are in reality mostly non-Swarthmore affiliated) feel like actually making change, be less performative and do something with your lives
Here’s how it breaks down for me: Kick out the fascists. Don’t kick out the antifascists. You will not catch me quoting Evelyn Beatrice Hall aka misquoting Voltaire on this issue.
But thanks for telling me to do something with my life a dozen comments deep at the Phoenix wherein you are denying genocide, making racist remarks, and supporting fascism. I’ll take that to heart.
Congratulations Ben, you’ve managed to say racism, fascism and genocide again. Toss in private equity next time (which you seem to have a weird fetish for) and you’ll have another Legendary word salad.
It takes a special type of lack of self-awareness and complete misunderstanding of basic principles and the broader world to look at Swarthmore admin or fellow alumni and think “yes, these are fascists”
The left has been hollowed out by facile, moronic overuse of words such as these and it’s just one of the many reasons we now unfortunately have Trump
Stay Super Duper Legendary and keep screaming at the sky, I’ll continue reading your comments with great amusement
“Genocide is a buzzword.” Great take, Alum ’08.
You asked about MAGA and Proud Boys. I said I would advocate kicking out the fascists. You don’t like that answer, and you blame Trump’s presidency on that!? It’s MAGA and Proud Boys who voted for him, isn’t it? Maybe you did too, from the way you’re talking here.
Anyway, it’s clear you’re not well versed in theory. It’s all just a bunch of buzzwords to you. So by all means carry on being so willfully ignorant that you find yourself cheering for slop posters instead of striving for some semblance of moral integrity. Because, you may think you hoodwinked us with your powerful rhetorical “haha buzzwords” legerdemain, but we can all see very plainly that you yet again refused to answer the question about whether you believe Israel is perpetrating a genocide in Gaza, which it is, and which is the central issue here.
I’m from Israel, and I agree with this comment! Thanks for your valuable perspective, Allison ’01!
Students are being punished simply for having been part of an encampment on the lawn. They were not violent or disruptive. Why is the college writing rules to squash dissent?
You are right that change can happen from inside institutions, but in any movement we need people inside the institutions and grassroots groups pushing for something more.
This screams white privilege and white supremacy.
As someone who is white married to an African American, we know first hand that change has NOT come from inside but from the shaking of the peace throught protest. Read Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, where he wonders how churches of the time could not be doing more to effect change on racism.
There are many ways to protest, and some are better planned than others. Planning requires strategy, with ideas about what might help show why the change is needed. Of course name calling is high school, hopefully not college. And whether the case is a crime or a misdemeanor is important to understand.
It’s also good to know that SAFETY is NOT built by separating people – as we have seen, as Israel continues to bomb its way to safety – Killin more of others than others kill of them.
I am hoping that the trial is faced, arguments made, and the group Christian Jewish Allies for a Just Peace in Israel Palestine — some of us are also part of Rabbis for a Ceasefire – and I’m a member of Chester Friends Meeting.
well, something got deleted… sorry…
I am hoping that the trial is faced, arguments made, and justice happens… I am a Quaker and part of the group Christian Jewish Allies for a Just Peace in Israel Palestine — some of us are also part of Rabbis for a Ceasefire – and I’m a member of Chester Friends Meeting. ..
The college needs to drop these charges.
I wonder if the Phoenix could let us know more about what is going on with the banners in Sharples? Did the college actually call the police to stop people from hanging up banners? How is calling the police on non-violent protesters normal?
Please consider signing our petition to demand that Swarthmore administration drop the charges! –>
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/demand-swarthmore-drop-all-charges-for-student-protestors?source=direct_link&
As a graduate of Swarthmore, class of 1966, I am horrified that the college brought police on campus and pursues legal action against its own students. We were very active in protesting racial segregation and protesting the war in Vietnam. Even when college officials didn’t agree with our approaches, they never took action against us. We protested on campus (not only outside but also inside Parrish Hall and other buildings). The meeting house was open for wide ranging, frank discussions. This was promoted as fundamental to the Quaker values that animated the college community. College officials’ adoption of a punitive, criminalizing response to protests that engage in important issues indicates how far they have strayed from the Quakerly roots of the college. Shameful!
Ann Mosely Lesch, 1966
Mr Boland,
You have been bamboozled. You have been exploited by activist professors who are not scholarly , and do not care about truth or teaching students to think independently, but rather employ propaganda to manipulate students to do their destructive bidding.
Students come to college young ignorant and hormonal , wanting to do good and easily mislead as to what is true and what is good.
There is no genocide perpetrated by Israel. The icc specifically states there is no such finding. Phillipe Sands, attorney represent palestinians in international forums says Israel did not commit genocide. Numerous retired eu and USA admirals and generals have said that the civilian to fighter death ration in Gaza is lower than in any other urban warfare between any other parties due to Israel’s unprecedented measures to avoid civilian casualties. Hamas has admitted 85% of deaths in Gaza were fighters. When did you get the idea Israel committed genocide? When Israel halted fighting to vaccinate Gaza kids to prevent disease ? Israel in fact has been fighting against the genocidal acts and general declared intents of Hamas , the Iranian regime , and other Iranian proxies. Israel has been attacked in seven fronts from Oct 7 2023. But the misled students at Swarthmore somehow manage to mischaracterize Israel as having waged a genocidal war from that date. Astounding.
I’m sorry you have been mislead by your professors. I’m sorry they don’t care about you and have been willing to sacrifice you and other students to their agendas. They have misinformed you about the Middle East … a fascinating and complex part of the world about which I encourage you to actually learn. I am sorry your professors have mislead you about criminal justice system. I am sorry you misunderstand the duties and obligations of being on campus , and the risks of your behavior. No doubt your professors have mislead you in that too as students are cannon fodder to them.
The encampments drew multiple police departments and the fbi ‘s attention to campus. They put foreign students at risk of deportation. They brought masked outsiders to camps through the night , who could have raped killed stolen or otherwise harmed students. The encampments also promoted violence and hate. How would you like the administration to respond if the same kind of vitriole hate speech and actual assaults and batteries were directed by a student group at black people , LGBTQ, women , Asians , Latinos or any other group ?
Students were advised repeatedly to get off the encampment. Some listened some didn’t. SJP had already been banned for good cause. Some didn’t adhere to that. There is a limit and the encampment students passed it.
I’m sorry you have been mislead to act harmfully and to your own harm . This is a lesson to learn and carry with you so you don’t get drawn into such a position again. Your professors who misinformed you about the Middle East , criminal justice , and the nature of acting responsibly on campus did not give a fig for your well being. Or for the truth. They should be fired.
Btw , the Iranian regime you support killed 30,000-100,000 Iranians in a few days for protesting. They rape women before murdering them for showing a bit of hair to prevent the woman going to heaven. They hang lgbtq. And they were sprinting to nuclear weapons while compelling genocidal chants . They were also on the cusp of having enough advanced long range missiles to make it impossible to adress their nuclear weapons program later. The shot a missile 2500 miles but that missile had a 4000 mile capability. The Iranian regime was also supplying Putin with weapons against Ukraine, and supplying China with cheap oil. Both parties say and have long said Iran could not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. Dems are now going against their own prior statements out of partisan rejection of anything Trump does. But they have long said they too would have prosecuted this war.