Identity of Speakers
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Pomona College Students
Student
Other
Resources
Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
Rally or protest
Other
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Incident Political Orientation:
Not Clear -
Incident Responses:
Student sanctioned
Rally or Protests
Campus police
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Incident Status:
No litigation
- Was Speech Code incident
Summary
On October 7, 2024, students from across the Claremont Colleges participated in a coordinated walkout and protest calling for divestment from companies linked to Israel’s military actions in Gaza. That afternoon, dozens of protesters entered and occupied Carnegie Hall at Pomona College. During the occupation, which lasted several hours, participants draped banners from the building, chanted slogans, and rearranged furniture to block access. Pomona officials later reported damage to furniture, walls, and equipment, as well as graffiti, including red handprints on the president’s office door.
In the days that followed, Pomona College President Gabrielle Starr suspended twelve students for the remainder of the academic year, invoking “extraordinary authority” to bypass standard disciplinary processes. Students were given minimal notice—sometimes less than an hour—to leave campus housing, and they were immediately cut off from jobs, dining services, and facilities. The suspensions were issued without hearings before the college’s student-run Judicial Board. Some students said they were never shown specific evidence or given a chance to respond to the accusations before the decisions were made.
In November, five civil rights organizations, including the ACLU of Southern California, sent a letter to Pomona’s administration arguing that the college had violated students’ rights under California’s Leonard Law and common law principles of due process. They alleged that Pomona had punished students for engaging in protected political expression and had imposed collective discipline without individual findings of misconduct. The groups demanded the suspensions be rescinded and warned of possible legal action if the college did not respond.
Pomona defended its actions by stating that the protest significantly disrupted academic operations and that students were identified using reliable methods such as Wi-Fi logs. The administration argued that the suspensions were not based on political expression but on student conduct that posed a safety and operational threat. Students were allowed to appeal, and some had their suspensions reduced, but by July 2025, many remained barred from campus. That summer, affected students publicly called for reinstatement and restoration of aid, saying they had been unfairly punished for protest. The college had not reversed its position, and the conflict remained unresolved.
