On Wednesday morning, the pro-Palestine encampment on Merion Green, popularly referred to as “The People’s College for the Liberation of Palestine”, officially ended, after renewed conversations between organizers and administration. As the protest draws to an end in time for commencement, students reflect on the encampment’s successful disruption of May Day at Bryn Mawr College by mass student-led protests.
The day saw rainy weather and continued tensions within the student body as many protesters urged students to boycott all college-sponsored May Day events. “The People’s College for the Liberation of Palestine,” an encampment established on Merion Green by pro-Palestinian activists, put out a their own May Day program. Those boycotting May Day wore all black, in contrasting with white dresses traditionally worn on May Day. Boycotting students were also encouraged to wear keffiyehs and a Remembrance Poppy.
The day began with remarks from Traditions Mistresses Aaniyah Alexander and Anna Rouminatsev ’25 and outgoing college President Kimberly Cassidy. This year’s remarks took place on Denbigh green, in lieu of Merion Green, where the “People’s College” had remained for the past eight days. In their speeches, Traditions Mistresses encouraged the student-body to participate in May Day in their own way and maintained that traditions should reflect the desires of the student body. The annual tradition of waking up the president at the College President’s house was disrupted by a rally early that morning. Students present at the rally reported not seeing President Cassidy at the ceremonial house that morning.
The hoop race on senior row, during which the graduating class run down senior row, was also disrupted by chants led by pro-Palestine protesters. While walking with the President, Traditions Mistresses wore keffiyehs instead of the traditional College coat of arms. At 9:51 a.m., seniors began to follow the procession down senior row, while holding signs saying, “Free Palestine” and “All Eyes on Gaza.” A rally began, as onlookers and race participants began chanting “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” “While we’re learning schools are burning,” and other protest chants. This protest had been a planned part of the encampment’s scheduled May Day events.
During various points in the morning, photographers who had been hired by the college took pictures of May Day events, as has been done in years past. At 10:42 a.m., it was alleged to the Bi-Co News by multiple student and staff sources that the College had sent photographers home, ending any official college documentation of May Day for the rest of the day.
Another event scheduled by the “People’s College” was an art build. During this time, students made pro-Palestinian signs that read, “All Eyes on Gaza,” “Free Palestine,” and signs asking for College divestment from Israel. Many protest participants noted Bryn Mawr College’s May Day’s complex relationship with the international labor rights movement. Worker’s May Day, directly linked to the labor movement, is always held on the first of May, while Bryn Mawr’s May day celebration was held on May 5th. Bryn Mawr College’s May Day celebrates the end of the academic year and acts as a congratulation to the work of the senior class. Worker’s May Day, or International Worker’s Day, commemorates the 1886 uprising in Chicago that lead to the invention of the 8-hour work day, and serves as a continual day of protest for worker’s right internationally. One student participating in the art build commented on the link between labor and the People’s college campaign of centering Gaza to a Bi-Co News reporter, “centering Gaza comes with acknowledging the ways that the College also doesn’t center [labor].”
At around 11:00 a.m., multiple students participated in the May Hole dancing event on Denbigh Green while protesters stood nearby holding signs that said “All Eyes on Gaza.” One protester, who requested to remain anonymous due to fear of academic retribution, said in a comment to the Bi-Co News that “there should not be a normal celebration of May Day events during genocide.”
At 1:00 p.m, students began gathering outside Goodhart Auditorium for a demonstration protesting the concert that was soon to start inside. The concert performers included Aliyah’s Interlude and Monaleo. By 1:14, a considerable crowd had gathered outside Goodhart, with almost all wearing black and some beating on drums. At that time, a speaker got up to give an update on news on Gaza. After the update, protesters began singing protests songs including, “Solidarity Forever” and “We Shall Not be Moved.”
During this rally, the Bi-Co News asked Lillian Burroughs, the Bi-Co Executive Director of Campus Safety, for a comment. In response, Burroughs said “what could I possibly have to say? It’s a happy day.”
By 1:16, students not participating in the rally began filing into Goodhart for the concert. Campus safety was posted up by the doors of Goodhart to check students in, requiring a student ID for entry. During this concert, Bi-College news reporters saw police cars driving around the area, though the cars did not stop within Bryn Mawr College property bounds.
At 1:24, students began their first chants, including “mobilize the intifada”. Other students continued entering the concert, with some wearing the same black ensembles as the demonstrators outside. Student protestors remained divided on the ethics of attending the concert during the protest. Bi-College reporters interviewed a student protestor attending the concert who said, “Trads said that they purposefully picked these artists to show [out] against oppression…and show marginalized voices.” Both Monaleo and Aliyah’s Interlude are Black artists, and Monaleo has been vocal in her support of the BDS movement in the past. ” Bi-Co news spoke to another student protestors entering the concert who added “There are people who are suffering right now, but I also think that it’s your life too, and you should also be able to enjoy it.” Protest organizers asked encampment participants not to participate in any College sponsored May Day events, including the concert.
Demonstrations outside Goodhart continued until 2:00, when the entire group of student protesters began marching back to the People’s College. By 2:07, the group had all gathered in the center of Merion Green in a circle similar to ones seen at previous protests over the past week. Chants continued throughout this time, ending at 2:15 when organizers announced they would be shifting gears to the next section of programming.
After the rally’s end, Bi-Co News reporters were able to speak briefly to organizers, including an alum who had been present at the college for the 2020 strike. Comparing the 2020 strike to the 2024 People’s College, the alum said “the same kind of rhetoric [against student protesters] was being utilized, about how there needs to be discussion…but [President Kim Cassidy] refuses to engage with students when they demand, and that was the same rhetoric used during the strike.”
Bi-Co News reporters were also able to speak to a current organizer who had been a first year when the 2020 strike occurred. On comparing her experiences with the strike and People’s College, she said, “I think some can take a pessimistic view and say the college never changes but one thing that’s important to remember is…that students continue to carry on the torch of student activism…something this school discounts is that the spirit of activism and advocacy is woven into the very social fabric of the college.”
The night ended with a modified step sing and a vigil. In contrast to previous years, step sing participants were not divided by class year, and sang popular protest songs as opposed to traditional class songs, including “Vine and Fig Tree”, and traditional May Day chant “Bread and Roses”, a nod to May Day’s labor organizing origins. Afterward, student protestors went to a vigil honoring the deceased in Gaza. The vigil was intended to be held in the Great Hall, but before it began campus safety officers locked the doors into the campus building. Protestors held the vigil on the steps outside instead.
