A group of over 50 students arrived outside the house of Lisa H. Link, the former chair of the Board of Trustees, at 3 a.m. March 30 for a “wake-up call,” a protest that demands attention by using early morning noise-making.
According to a student present at the protest, Student A, protestors made noise by banging on pots, blowing whistles and chanting calls for divestment. Student A said the first speech at the protest centered on the divestment proposal for which Occidental’s Students for Justice in Palestine (Oxy SJP) and Jewish Voices for Peace (Oxy JVP) have been collecting signatures.
“The motivation behind the protest was to alert the administration and the Board of Trustees that they cannot remain silent on an issue that clearly matters to the student body, faculty, parents, and community members, as seen in the signatures gathered in support of the divestment proposal,” Student A said via text.
Student A said the divestment proposal will be submitted mid-April, and will be voted on at the end of the month at the Board of Trustees meeting.
A student not present at the protests but involved with the divestment proposal, Student B, said that the Board of Trustees continues to invest the college’s endowment into weapons manufacturing, private prisons, the surveillance industry and Israeli companies.
“The companies which the Board invests our college’s endowment are known to have contracts with ICE and facilitate the ongoing genocide in Palestine,” Student B said via text.
A March 30 Instagram post from Oxy SJP claims that Lisa Link “led the college’s refusal to divest from companies complicit in the genocide after the encampments.”
The Board of Trustees did not respond to The Occidental’s request for comment.
According to an article by the Kanafani Press, a “newsletter run by students of Occidental College dedicated to the liberation of Palestine and all other exploited and oppressed people,” this protest marks the first time students have protested for divestment off-campus.
Student A said the largest logistical difference for protesting off-campus was coordinating transportation for the 50 protestors and for the participants posted around the neighborhood as a “security team.” Link resides in San Marino, an affluent city in the San Gabriel Valley.
“Given that the action was taking place off campus and so early in the morning, there was more anxiety than is expected for a campus protest,” Student A said. “However, since the brutal treatment of student protestors at the hands of campus safety and hired private security during the protests at inauguration, the idea of protesting off campus felt like a more achievable goal since there was a dispersal before any kind of law enforcement confrontation could take place.”
According to Student A, protestors saw police cars drive by as they were already dispersing from the house. There were no “face-to-face” interactions with law enforcement officers, Student A said.
Vice President for Marketing and Communications Perrine Mann sent The Occidental the college’s statement on the protest.
“The college is aware that a group of students and alumni protested outside a board member’s private residence around 3:00 am on March 30,” the statement reads. “The college denounces such behavior as it is inconsistent with our Student Code of Conduct. The college’s Office of Student Conduct is gathering information as part of the disciplinary process for possible violations of college policies. We understand local law enforcement is also reviewing this matter.”
Student A said the noise level reached its peak after the speeches were made and directly prior to the protestors’ dispersal. According to Student A, someone inside the house opened the door and received the divestment proposal that was placed on Link’s door.
“Trying to instill fear through surveillance and punitive measures will only result in protestors coming up with more creative means of resistance, all inspired by the work of the Palestinian people themselves,” Student A said. “The wake up call represents an effort to extend pressure beyond Occidental campus, and to remind those in power that students will never stop fighting for justice in Palestine.”
Contact Ava LaLonde at lalonde@oxy.edu
