Occidental’s Jewish Voices for Peace (Oxy JVP) and Students for Justice in Palestine (Oxy SJP) set up an encampment on the Academic Quad around 9 a.m. Friday, April 24. With about 40 tents, the participants are prepared to continue the encampment until Monday, when the Board of Trustees will meet.
Athya Paramesh (sophomore) spoke to The Occidental as a spokesperson for Oxy JVP and is not planning to participate in the encampment. According to Paramesh, one of the reasons for the encampment is to demonstrate to the Board of Trustees that their Divestment Proposal, which was submitted April 22, should be voted on during Monday’s meeting.
“The plan is to continue building support throughout the weekend in order for there to be a big showing at the Board of Trustees event, which is happening on the 27th,” Paramesh said. “They technically do not have to address the divestment proposal in their upcoming meeting on Monday, because the comment period is 45 days.”
College administrators sent a statement to The Occidental Friday evening which stated that some of the actions taking place at the encampment, “[…] violate the College’s Student Code of Conduct and content and viewpoint neutral Time, Place, and Manner policies which are in place to ensure the well-being of the entire campus community.”
The statement says that throughout the day, campus safety officers and college staff engaged in peaceful discussions with individuals to communicate these policies and how the college would hold students accountable.
“A recently submitted divestment proposal has been cited as the purpose for this encampment. […] there is an established process for such proposals, which includes a 45-day comment period for the Occidental community,” the statement says. “That comment period was initiated today, and the Board of Trustees will evaluate the proposal in accordance with policy stipulations.”
Paramesh said that the encampment is also meant to repoliticize the campus and put Palestine at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
“There is student, faculty and community members’ support for the divestment proposal, and it’s something that the whole community rallies around. Therefore, it’s something that should be voted on, and should definitely be in the agenda for the meeting,” Paramesh said.
According to a participant in the encampment, Student A, the divestment proposal requests divestment from weapons manufacturing companies, from the prison industrial complex and from ICE detention centers.
In an email sent Friday morning, President Tom Stritikus stated that the actions taken by the protestors, such as concealing their identities, violate the student code of conduct. “[…] we believe that many are not part of our Occidental community,” the email states.
“Since the first encampment at Occidental two years ago, the school has steadily constructed a cage of policies which essentially make policy compliant protest impossible,” Student A said. “It’s impossible to protest within that cage of policies.”
According to Paramesh, there are off-campus community members participating in the encampment, but it is mainly a student-led effort.
“The administration is very quick to use the issue of community partners on campus as a reason for why the encampment should be stopped,” Paramesh said. “But as we know well, there are always plenty of community members on campus anyway, because it is an open campus.”
Paramesh said that the wearing of masks in the encampment is partly due to the college administration’s increased targeting of individual students with conduct charges over the past year.
“The anonymity is meant to equalize everyone, and because some people are more at risk, this is meant to ensure that everyone who participates feels safe to be present in any way possible,” Paramesh said.
In the email from President Stritikus, he stated that the encampment presents “a substantial disruption of planned campus activities.”
Occidental’s Pride event took place on the Academic Quad Friday afternoon and included food, music and live performances.
Paramesh said that the encampment was not purposefully trying to disrupt the Pride event in any way.
“The organization became aware of the Pride event pretty late into the planning process,” Paramesh said. “Queer liberation and Palestinian liberation are also something that are very intertwined, so we see the missions of both events as being compatible with one another.”
Paramesh said that the encampment has already helped engage people who have not been involved in past protest actions on campus.
“It’s one thing to do a rally, and then disperse. It’s another thing to make the student presence felt throughout multiple days and nights,” Paramesh said. “They are having professors coming for teach-ins, they’re having cultural events, and community bonding activities, in addition to having meals together, and these are just some ways we hope to draw people in.”
Another participant in the encampment, Student B, said the encampment should be considered in terms of the larger push for divestment across colleges in California.
“The encampment is not just to occupy space, but for education,” Student B said.
According to Paramesh, members of campus safety and administration have addressed the protestors multiple times, citing the college’s Speech, Dissent and Demonstration policy, and have threatened to call LAPD.
“The optics of calling police on students who are not being confrontational […] is something that would have really negative repercussions for the college,” Paramesh said. “[Protestors are] prepared for any outcome that could happen, especially after the sort of brutal treatment of students during the inauguration protest.”
Multiple admissions tours passed by the Academic Quad on Friday.
“At a time when they’re really struggling with enrollment and trying to do their best at admissions events, I think it’s in their best interest to keep in mind how it would look to have forceful repression against peaceful protestors,” Paramesh said.
Paramesh said the protestors prioritize their flexibility. According to Paramesh, the main components of the encampment took 30 minutes to set up.
“The fact that they were able to put everything up so fast means that they can take it down just as fast, and adapt, and regroup, and come back together,” Paramesh said.
Art Peck (‘77), the chair of the Board of Trustees, sent an email Friday afternoon saying that the investment proposal policy was formally submitted to the Board of Trustees Wednesday, after going through the college’s approved proposal submission process.
“The Investment Committee will evaluate the proposal against the established criteria, the Executive Committee will review that analysis along with community input, and the full Board will ultimately consider the matter in light of its fiduciary, legal and moral responsibilities to the College and its students,” the email states.
In the email, Peck said he encourages the community to make their voices heard through the open comment period.
“ […] I will admit to some genuine perplexity about the purpose of actions that appear to disregard a process shaped by this community and now actively in motion,” the email states. “At the same time, I want to be clear that the Board will engage this proposal seriously and in good faith, as we do with all matters of this kind.”
Paramesh said that engaging in good faith is not the same thing as responding in a timely manner, and that the escalation of warfare globally has increased the urgency of this situation.
“I think while it’s a very strategic thing to go through the internal processes of the institution, that is not enough. There has to be […] some sort of very visible call to action that people can participate in,” Paramesh said. “Otherwise, it’s reduced to a piece of paper that’s voted on by a group of people that nobody on this campus really has any familiarity with.”
Paramesh said that the choice to stage an encampment was meant to ensure that there continue to be students on campus who know how to organize one and mobilize people when the need arises.
“When the students who will be seniors next year graduate, there will be no one left on campus who was present during the [2024 AGC] occupation and original encampment,” Paramesh said.
Professor Alexander Day from the history department sent out an email to faculty members on Friday afternoon encouraging professors to come observe the encampment and talk to their students.
“Hopefully the college finds a just and peaceful resolution,” Day said in the email.
According to Paramesh, the best case scenario for Oxy JVP and Oxy SJP is the Board of Trustees having the divestment proposal on the agenda on Monday and voting to divest from the companies mentioned in the proposal.
“There would be no need for escalation further than that, because that’s meeting the demand of the encampment,” Paramesh said. “It would mean that we’ve achieved one of the goals that people have been striving for over the last two years.”
However, Paramesh said, that does not mean the fight for Palestinian liberation on the college campus would be over.
“The struggles of the people in Palestine are very interconnected with those of people here in terms of ICE raids. It’s very interconnected with the war in Iran, and the escalation of attacks in Lebanon. Fighting for Palestine, and Palestinian liberation is part of larger movements across the world, and I think that is just something to be proud of and something to be excited about,” Paramesh said.
Contact Ava LaLonde at lalonde@oxy.edu
