“Pomona College, you do not scare us”: Students rally at press conference to demand reinstatement of suspended and banned peers

At 3:00 p.m. on Nov. 15, 110+ students gathered at El Barrio Park for a press conference and a rally to stand in solidarity with suspended and banned students as they continue to demand that Pomona College revoke their unilateral suspensions and campus bans.

The conference included speeches from suspended students Daniel Velazquez PO ’25 and Francisco Villaseñor PO ’25, who were evicted from campus due to their alleged involvement in the Oct. 7, 2024 divestment protest, as well as Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies professor Rita Cano Alcalá, dining hall shop steward Maria Ocampo, student banned from Pomona Fia Powers PZ ’25, and ASPC Board of Trustees Representative for Student Affairs Olivier Rizvi.

The press conference comes two days after five civil rights groups sent a letter to Pomona President G. Gabrielle Starr, warning her that her unilateral suspension of 12 Pomona students violates First Amendment principles and California law that protects free speech at private universities.

After rallying, students marched to Pomona College’s campus to support Villaseñor as he was given an hour and a half to move out of his former dorm, monitored by four Campus Safety officers and administrators. 35+ students gathered in solidarity with Villaseñor in the dorm’s courtyard, playing music and writing letters to administration demanding that they revoke the suspensions.

Suspended students and their supporters demanded that Pomona immediately reinstate suspended students with assurance of financial aid, immediately remove bans for students across the 5Cs and divest from the Zionist entity.

Daniel Velazquez, who is suspended for the rest of the academic year, began the conference by acknowledging the ongoing genocide in Gaza, which has led to the death of at least 186,000 Palestinians at the hands of the Zionist entity.

“We speak for all the students who functionally no longer exist [in Gaza],” Velazquez said. “[Pomona] is siding with genocide, and they’re ignoring the demands of both students and faculty to divest.”

Velazquez highlighted the lack of hearings or evidence presented before Pomona decided to suspend them, which Palestine Legal and other civil rights groups recently argued were illegal.

“Instead of [divesting], the college instead has enacted violent processes of what they claim are fair procedures, but what I would call as crackdowns on First Amendment rights, the right to peacefully assemble, the right to free speech and on our rights as students to speak out and demand what we believe is best for the community that we comprise,” Velazquez said. “Pomona College does not support us right now. Pomona College supports genocide.”

Fia Powers, a Pitzer senior who was banned from Pomona, expanded on the difficulties she has faced as a banned student. 

“I’m now scrambling to make sure I will be able to graduate this may, that I’m able to maintain my financial aid next semester, all while managing the stress, the confusion, and the isolation created by this process. My mental health is now at an all time low,” Powers said.  

Pomona has said that it will administratively withdraw all banned students from any Pomona classes they are currently enrolled in, which threatens the financial aid of those who would be left with fewer than three enrolled classes, making them ineligible for aid.

Powers, who is currently in their last semester as Art major, is no longer able to attend their textile making class at Pomona which they have been trying to take for the past three years. 

“This semester, I was finally accepted, and it has been a great source of joy and motivation for me. I began developing my art thesis using the tools and techniques I was learning in class. With this ban, Pomona has impeded my education and intellectual development as I can no longer attend,” they said. 

In addition to academic and financial insecurity, suspended students have also been left without stable access to housing and food.

Suspended Pomona senior Francisco Villaseñor has lived in five different houses in the past month. “I’ve gone to sleep some nights not knowing where I’m gonna be the next day with no evidence, no fair process,” said Villaseñor. “This is a horrifying precedent that is set, in which students can be treated this way. We will not let this stand.”

Despite the numerous challenges Villaseñor has faced as a result of his suspension, he continually emphasized the importance of continuing to fight and organize in spite of repression. 

“I charge each and every single one of us to look to the streets, look to the workers that are calling for more action. Look to the immigrants that are organizing in spite of their fear. Pomona College, you do not scare us. President Starr, you do not scare us.” 

Villaseñor had been an active organizer throughout his time at the Claremont Colleges, supporting Pomona dining workers’ contract strike and Pitzer workers’ union drive in 2022. Several Pomona dining workers came to the press conference to support Villaseñor and the other suspended students. 

Pomona caterer and union shop steward Maria Ocampo spoke about Villaseñor’s impact on the Claremont Colleges community and demanded that he and the other suspended students be reinstated.

“He always has a smile on his face and has a laugh that is contagious. He and the other 11 students that have been suspended have made positive impacts on the campus, and Pomona is a better place because of them.” She continued, “These are the kind of students that Pomona’s administration is forcefully removing.”

Alcalá spoke about how college campuses have been key sites for activism and protest since their inception. Alcalá is a professor in the Chicana/o-Latina/o studies department, where both Velazquez and Villaseñor are majors.

“[Students] have been the moral conscience of countries as long as universities have existed,” Alcalá said. “There is a genocide going on right now, and we should all stop turning a blind eye to that genocide, as these students are asking us to.”

She also spoke against Pomona’s infringement of students’ rights.

“Our students should not have to give up their constitutional rights when they step on our campuses,”  she said. “They should have the same rights on our campuses that they have standing on the street corner over there.” 

Student Affairs Representative for the Board of Trustees Olivier Rizvi read a statement on behalf of Associated Students of Pomona College, which was first published on Oct. 25. The statement demands that President Starr overturn all suspensions, ensure fair Judicial Council hearings and investigations for all students accused of code violations on Oct. 7 and implement sanctions proportional to the actions and specific violations committed.

“The decision made by President Starr [to suspend 12 students] is not about justice. It’s about control. This disciplinary approach is oppressive, not restorative,” Rizvi said. “The administration is actively widening the divide within our community. They are setting a dangerous precedent, one where students who don’t fit into the status quo and who stand up for justice are silenced … A precedent where pro-Palestine supporters are afraid to wear their keffiyehs, a precedent where minorities are afraid to speak out. This campus has become a militarized space where free expression is being policed.”

Rizvi also spoke to the harm that the suspensions have caused to students.

“We are watching students’ lives fall apart as they’re cut off from the second life they built at school,” Rizvi said.

Villaseñor ended the conference by repeating the students’ demands that Pomona reinstate suspended and banned students and divest from the Zionist entity.

“Pomona College. We are watching you and we will keep organizing,” he said.