Following months of organizing, tabling, and gathering signatures, Haverford’s Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) chapter is preparing for a walkout against Donald Trump’s Administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
On Dec. 5 at 12 p.m., the YDSA will lead a campus-wide walk-out, according to the group’s leaders. The organization will meet in Gest 101 at 4 p.m. this upcoming Monday, where students will be given the opportunity to vote on the specific demands of the walk-out.
In early September, members of the organization Socialist Alternative, a global activist organization that is working towards creating a democratic, socialist society, began tabling at the Haverford Dining Hall. They collected over 100 signatures and had 20 students show up for their first meeting. In the following months, a group of around 6 or 7 students began attending a weekly reading group organized by Socialist Alternative.
This reading group eventually transformed into a Haverford College based chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), though efforts are still underway as the group of 9 students work to make the chapter officially affiliated with the national organization. Socialist Alternative, the organizing committee that has hosted meetings and tabled at the school, signed on to the Students’ Rise Up campaign. The Students’ Rise Up campaign organized its most recent walkout on Nov. 5th, 2025, which Haverford’s American Association of University Professors (AAUP) also took part in. During this walkout, students and faculty from over 100 universities walked out in protest; now, Haverford students have an avenue to participate in the movement.
Member of Haverford’s YDSA and Socialist Alternative, Ben Fitzgerald HC‘26, who was one of the initial members who tabled at the Dining Hall and spearheaded the formation of the chapter, told the Bi-Co News about the importance of further organizing following the nationwide No Kings Protests. “What ultimately is going to move the needle we think is mass noncooperation like strikes and walkouts, where we are using our power as students and workers to actually bring the students to a halt.” Fitzgerald also discussed the effectiveness of these methods in the past, such their role in anti-child labor laws and establishing the five day work week. Further, Fitzgerald noted how the walkout can be a unifying power for student organizations on Haverford’s campus.
Student groups like the Black Students League (BSL), Students for Abolition, Liberation, and Transformation (SALT), and Haverford’s Muslim Student Association (MSA), Fitzgerald said, might have felt a sense of disenchantment following the 2020 Strike, which he says did not materialize into the changes students hoped for. Now, he sees this walkout as an opportunity to “give the Haverford student body a win and reignite people’s interest in organizing again.”
As the group looks forward to Dec. 5, Fitzgerald says they are looking for input from the Haverford Community through community meetings, such as the one on Monday. As a final thought, Fitzgerald wanted to emphasize YDSA’s open door policy, making participation in the organization accessible to students for their voices to be heard.
