Between May 1 and May 2, Swarthmore College temporarily suspended a total of six students for setting up an encampment on campus earlier in the week, as announced by the college’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group. The students, who include four people of color and three first-year, low-income students, were suspended without due process and ordered to leave the campus. The SJP alleged that the suspensions represented a troubling pattern of Swarthmore exploiting student protesters through race-based prejudice.
Furthermore, the group accused the college of vandalizing property and urged activists outside of the college to join the encampment. The group insisted that multiple warnings were issued by the college both in writing and verbally to disband the encampment.
In a statement to the campus community on May 1, Swarthmore’s president, Valerie Smith, said that the protesters had violated several policies and the law, and that the college would continue to take action against the encampment.
Swarthmore College is currently under investigation by the US Department of Education for alleged anti-semetic harassment on campus, along with 60 other schools. Higher education institutions have seen a resurgence of pro-Palestinian movements this spring, with students hosting campus encampments to protest Israel’s war on Gaza. But these protests have been subdued by the Trump administration’s crackdown and punitive measures towards them.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/02/swarthmore-students-suspended-pro-palestinian-camp
