On November 9, the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) student association and the Bi-Co Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) held a walk-out to bring attention to and protest Bryn Mawr colleges financial involvement in Israel, as well as to bring attention to the killings in Palestine as a whole. The day was titled as “Shut It Down” and included a vigil, a teach-in and a film screening, on top of the walk-out.
The day began on the sidewalk near Taylor Hall, where participants worked to write the names of everyone killed since the October 7 Hamas attack on adhesive name tags, working off of a 388 page list. The name tags were then placed all around campus, covering light and sign posts, street signs and doors. Participants wrote chalk messages on the sidewalks and walls of various buildings, writing messages such as “stop the genocide,” “no one is free until we all are” and “end Israeli apartheid.” They also wrote messages bringing to light the culpability which people at Bryn Mawr share. To accompany the messages, participants covered their hands in red paint, leaving red handprints on various surfaces around the campus.
By midday a crowd gathered to participate in a die-in in front of Taylor Hall. The die-in, as described by one of the organizers of the event who is also an international student from Palestine, was intended to be a “simulation of [the] mass graves in Palestine.” The aim of the die-in was to convey a strong visual message to the college community, which the participants did by lying on the ground as well as holding up their red painted hands.
Some die-in participants expressed disappointment with the number of people in attendance, one saying “I’m honestly disappointed in a lot of my peers because a lot more people than I thought possible are unaware of what’s going on. A lot of people refuse to take a stance at all which is just as bad. I’m disappointed in the numbers today.”
In terms of the colleges response to the die-in and walkout, prior to November 9, an email was sent to faculty alerting them to the upcoming action. The email gave loose suggestions to faculty, encouraging them to discuss the walk out with classes and in particular to remind students of their attendance policies. The email also suggested that faculty “articulate what the consequences, if any, there [would] be for missing class” on the day of the walk out. Some students speculate that this line suggests that professors may deliver abnormal consequences, specifically as a result of students missing class due to the walk-out — consequences which would not be given out for a typical absence.
Some professors took the action suggested in the email, one sit-in participant relaying what their professor had discussed with the class. “One professor basically said don’t treat the faculty as your enemy and work with them on how you can still attend class. The insinuation was not supportive of the [walkout].”
When discussing the email, the same organizer as before said. “I feel that the College is kind of frustrated and that is why they are sending emails to warn everyone. Our voice is everywhere.” They believe that an email being sent to faculty at least shows that the voices of Palestinian students and allies are being heard. The campus safety student liaison was also sent to monitor the area during the event.
The day after the walkout, November 10, the college had the chalk messages power washed away and the adhesive name tags scraped off.
