JVP is determined to hold Bryn Mawr accountable to last spring’s Plenary Resolution 9, which called for the college to cut ties with its two study abroad programs in Israel.
In the afternoon of December 1, members of JVP gathered on the second floor of Taylor Hall for a sit-in, planning to stay there, as an anonymous student organizer reported, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day until Bryn Mawr agrees to cut ties with its study abroad programs with Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Haifa. When the Bi-College News arrived, students were lining the hallway outside President Cadge’s office, quietly working on homework or having soft conversations alongside cardboard signs propped against walls and chairs. The Bi-College News sat down with a JVP organizer, who has requested to remain anonymous for personal security reasons, to get more details on what appears to be an ongoing sit-in.
When asked for the reasoning behind the sit-in, the student organizer mentioned that conversations with administration concerning last spring’s resolution have not gotten far. The sit-in, they hope, will get things moving again, reminding administration of the student body’s ongoing desire for them to remove these two programs, a desire that has persisted since last year. As to why the sit-in was chosen to be staged outside President Cadge’s office, the organizer responded that to them, President Cadge holds the “most control on university grounds.” Thus, they are asking her specifically to get the ball rolling on cutting ties with Israeli universities.
As to the long-term goals of the sit-in, the primary one is to have Bryn Mawr take the two options for Israeli universities off the study abroad list on the school website. The organizer mentioned that the sit-in would persist until such an action was taken. However, taking the programs off the school website is only the beginning of what the organizer hopes will be a process of cutting ties with Hebrew University and the University of Haifa. In the opinion of the JVP organizer, the ultimate goal is for study abroad programs at the two aforementioned Israeli universities to no longer be approved. To them, taking the schools off the website is just the beginning, and “an incredibly small ask.”
To the organizer, Bryn Mawr’s continuation to have study abroad programs with Israeli universities despite the ongoing destruction in Gaza is an “endorsement of…discrimination [against] Arab and Palestinian students, surveillance of civilian populations, and the expulsion of [Palestinians] from their lands.” Allowing students to freely access Israeli study abroad programs, to the organizer, speaks to “[the college’s] own ethics and morals of the situation.” The organizer encourages Bryn Mawr students to think critically about how they are willing to engage with Bryn Mawr as an institution that has not cut ties with Israeli universities.
While the organizer acknowledges that not every student will agree with the decision to cut ties with the two Israeli universities, they hope that Bryn Mawr students who may want to study abroad in Israel to think critically about “why [they] want to go and what actions [they] are endorsing” in doing so.
In response to the sit-in, President Cadge said that she “hear[s] and truly appreciate[s] the passion behind the recent Plenary resolution regarding changes to our study abroad programs,” and that “at the core of this discussion are questions of academic freedom and consistency.” President Cadge went on to confirm the JVP organizer’s claim that administration has been in conversation with the authors of Resolution 9, saying that she is “always eager to share the college’s perspective and explain the thinking behind [the college’s] choices.” On the afternoon of Friday December 5, President Cadge met with a group of students concerned about upholding Resolution 9 to discuss next steps.
For now, the sit-in is ongoing, with JVP students scheduled to return to the hallway outside President Cadge’s office at 9 A.M. on Monday morning.
