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Students for Justice in Palestine form encampment in Smith Union – The Bowdoin Orient [1]
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Date: 2025-02-07
Miles Berry ENCAMPMENT FOR GAZA: Students for Justice in Palestine formed an encampment on the first floor of Smith Union. Organizers protested Donald Trump’s recent comments on U.S. “ownership” of Gaza and reiterated calls for the College to meet the demands of last year’s “Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum.”
February 7, 2025, 8:30 a.m.: A group of about 15 students assembled in the odeon outside the side entrance to Smith Union before approaching the door to chant while a security guard blocked the doors inside.
“To our beautiful bears who are encamping inside the Union, we send you our love, we will not leave you,” students chanted. “This institution does not scare us. To the security, you do not scare us.”
February 7, 2025, 8:18 a.m.: Senior Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs Jim Hoppe emailed all students and employees alerting them of the encampment in Smith Union.
“While the College respects the right of students and all campus members to express themselves, it is crucial that we maintain an environment that supports equal access to college facilities and operations for everyone,” Hoppe wrote in an email.
He alerted the campus that conversations had been attempted with students in the encampment, and the students were informed that if tents were not removed, it would result in a student disciplinary process.
February 7, 2025, 8:15 a.m.: Bowdoin Safety and Security have officers posted at each entrance of the Smith Union and are informing people trying to enter the building that Smith Union is closed for today. Bowdoin Orient staff were denied entry to the building.
February 7, 2025, 1:20 a.m.: Nichols and Toro-Ferrari left the premises after collecting student information from the first floor of Smith Union. At least 50 protesters remained in the encampment. “The more you try to silence us, the louder we will be,” students chanted.
Several protesters are planning to stay the night in the encampment and discussed sleeping arrangements.
February 7, 2025, 1:00 a.m.: Associate Vice President of Safety and Security Randy Nichols began asking protesting students for their names and student I.D. numbers. Protesters lined up to offer their information to Nichols before returning to the encampment. Nichols stated that Dean of Students Michael Pulju was on-site to answer students’ questions about disciplinary repercussions.
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Bowdoin Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) occupied the first floor of Smith Union Thursday night to protest the College’s investment practices and President Donald Trump’s stated plan for U.S. “ownership” of Gaza. This action makes Bowdoin SJP the first known group of students to form a pro-Palestine encampment on a college campus this year.
This comes just days after Trump announced plans, speaking at a conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to “permanently” resettle the roughly two million people living in Gaza in order to redevelop it into a “Riviera of the Middle East.”
The encampment also comes nearly a year after Bowdoin students voted in favor of the SJP-organized Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum, a resolution demanding that the College take an institutional stand against the scholasticide and stop future investments in defense-focused funds. At the beginning of the fall semester, the College established its Ad Hoc Committee on Investments and Responsibility in response to the referendum but has yet to alter its investment practices or offer an institutional statement.
Lead SJP organizer Olivia Kenney ’25 said protesters plan to occupy Smith Union “until the demands of the Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum are met” by the Board of Trustees, which was actively convening for its scheduled meetings in Boston as students erected the encampment.
“Trump has vowed his unequivocal support for Israel’s genocide, most recently calling for the United States to ethnically cleanse and ‘take over’ Gaza,” SJP’s official press release reads. “Today, we say enough. It is unacceptable that our endowment and our taxpayer money bankrolls the elimination of Palestinian life.”
The demonstration began in front of Smith Union at 6 p.m. on Thursday amid several inches of snowfall. SJP organizers drew a crowd by the Polar Bear statue, passing around a microphone as they made speeches criticizing both the Trump administration and the College for their respective responses to Israel’s war in Gaza. Protesters then flooded the hallway leading into Smith Union as organizers led the crowd in a chant.
“Bowdoin, Bowdoin, you can’t hide, you are funding genocide,” students chanted.
Once inside, students began setting up tents and hanging signage, including a Palestinian flag and a “Shaban al-Dalou Union” banner, referencing the 19-year-old Palestinian college student killed in Israel’s bombing of the Al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza last October.
SJP has been taking actions since last spring to pressure the College into meeting the referendum’s demands, taking the stance that Bowdoin’s investment practices make it complicit in the conflict in Gaza. In October, SJP held a sit-in outside a Board of Trustees meeting in Daggett Lounge to urge trustees to reevaluate College investment practices.
When addressing protesters on Thursday, SJP organizer Yusur Jasim ’25 said that Trump’s threats to overtake Gaza have ramped up the urgency of SJP’s demands.
“President Trump’s recent statement suggests a potential endorsement on Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, a move that threatens the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people and undermines the prospects for a just and lasting peace,” Jasim told the crowd.
Trump’s remarks on Gaza drew sharp criticism from several U.S. allies, who say that America’s annexation of Gaza would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Palestine and further destabilize the entire region. After 15 months of conflict, the Palestinian death toll has climbed to over 46,000, and many Palestinians claim that Trump’s plan to annex Gaza is tantamount to a plan to erase them.
As of 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, about 50 students and 11 tents were present at the encampment. Music played and organizers projected videos onto a makeshift screen. Kenney said a local Palestinian restaurant had provided food for the protesters.
Bowdoin Security personnel arrived at the scene around 7:30 p.m. About two hours into the demonstration, Kenney told the crowd that Senior Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs Jim Hoppe had left the Board of Trustees meeting early to address the encampment.
According to Kenney, at roughly 11:25 p.m., Associate Vice President of Safety and Security Randy Nichols and Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs Katie Toro-Ferrari told student protesters they must leave the encampment by 1:00 a.m. or else face what Kenney called a “vague set of consequences.”
Toro-Ferrari told the Orient that she approached protesters around midnight to make them aware of the “gravity of the situation,” citing the encampment’s disruption to the operations of the College and “community disruption.”
“I want to make sure students understand that this could put them on the path where they are jeopardizing their ability to remain as Bowdoin students,” she said.
Despite the directive, many more students joined the encampment right ahead of the 1:00 a.m. cutoff after organizers called for more support.
At 12:53 p.m., Nichols told protesters that any students still in the space past 1:00 a.m. would be asked for names and student I.D. numbers by security, at which time protesters agreed to remain at the encampment past the deadline.
“Bowdoin doesn’t know how to handle us right now,” Kenney told the crowd.
Earlier in the night, Kenney told the crowd that the encampment will be a place to “brainstorm” new ways of mobilizing and placing pressure on the College to meet SJP’s demands.
“As students, we are not passive observers of history,” Jasim told the crowd on Thursday. “Our campuses have long been cubicles for social change, where ideas are debated and movements are born. Now it is our turn to raise our voices.”
College administrators have yet to comment on the encampment at the time of this initial report.
This story is developing.
Correction 2/7/2025 8:41 a.m.: An earlier version of this story reported that Katie Toro-Ferrari addressed the encampment at around midnight. She addressed the group at roughly 11:25 p.m. Additionally, it was reported that she only cited College operational disruptions, but she also cited “community disruptions,” as well.
Janet Briggs and Miles Berry contributed to this report.
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[1] Url:
https://bowdoinorient.com/2025/02/07/students-for-justice-in-palestine-form-encampment-in-smith-union/
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