On Monday, May 6th, Students for Justice in Palestine responded to last week’s email from President Kim Cassidy via Instagram. The seven-slide post was directed toward President Cassidy, Dean of the Undergraduate College Karlene Burrell-McRae, and Dean of Student Life Tomiko Jenkins, as well as the three class deans, Dean Heiser, Dean Horvath, and Dean Nixon.
The post called out these specific members of Bryn Mawr administration for the decision to pursue disciplinary action against what SJP referred to as their “more public-facing comrades”. SJP accused administration of a “misguided understanding” of the leadership structure within the encampment demonstrative of “[their] discrimination, [their] shortsightedness, and [their] racism”. SJP clarified that the “People’s College for the Liberation of Palestine is a collective of students… We all organize, we all lead, we take care of one another, and we all have the same mission”.
SJP went on to address the contention that began last week when President Cassidy and Deans Tomiko and Karlene requested the encampment move to make space for May Day. “The People’s College” denied this request, and stayed in the center of Merion Green all through May Day, preventing the annual May Pole dance from taking place. On the third slide, SJP reiterated that they “will not move [the encampment] of our own volition until our demands have been met,” and asked the President and Deans to reconsider meeting with representatives of the “People’s College”.
SJP doubled-down on their decision not to move the encampment, adding “No matter the results of these Dean’s panels, we as a collective will not be afraid and we will not move.”
The next two slides detailed the specific demands the “People’s College” drafted for administration. These demands are: the implementation of investment policy that would keep future College investments from being “complicit in occupation, genocide, scholasticide, or apartheid…”; and a public condemnation of the “ongoing genocide of Palestinians” as well as a call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza in line with the Plenary resolution that passed last month.
