Pomona JBoard sanctions Claremont SJP, bans SJP from using their Instagram account until March 2025

On Nov. 2, Pomona College’s Judicial Board issued Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine seven sanctions, including putting Claremont SJP’s Instagram on probation. The sanctions are part of a wave of disciplinary actions delivered by Pomona following the Oct. 7, 2024 divestment walkout and Carnegie Hall takeover. This has included unilaterally suspending 12 of its own students, banning over 36 non-Pomona students from its campus without providing evidence and opening an investigation into Claremont Undercurrents. 

Pomona first scheduled a Student Code Administrator meeting with club representatives on Oct. 16 and sent an alleged code violation notification to SJP on Oct. 18. On Oct. 21, Pomona sent SJP a Statement of Alleged Policy Violation (SAPV) citing disciplinary charges for six of 14 possible charges. SJP shared with Undercurrents that Pomona charged SJP with the following code violations: 

1. Article III, Section 2: Persistent or egregious conduct which endangers the physical or mental health, well-being, or safety of any member of the campus community or visitor to the campus. Such conduct includes but is not limited to battery, stalking, threatening, or harassing. 
2. Article III, Section 3: Attempted or actual theft or wrongful appropriation of or damage to property of the colleges or property of a member of the college community. Possession of stolen property on the colleges’ premises or at a college sponsored activity is prohibited. 
3. Article III, Section 5: Failure to comply with reasonable requests made by college officials, including providing false information or failing to produce identification upon request. See “College officials” in Article I. 
4. Article III, Section 6: Unauthorized access to or use of college property, equipment (including keys), or facilities; or the property, equipment, or facilities of the College contract services or those of other Claremont Colleges or TCCS. 
5. Article III, Section 9: Conduct which interferes with or prevents the normal operations of Pomona College, the Claremont Colleges, or TCCS, or which improperly infringes on the rights of other members of the college community. 
6. Article III, Section 14: Irresponsible or negligent conduct that results in theft, damage, physical harm or threat to a member of the Pomona College community’s property or safety.

On Nov. 1, SJP announced that the club was under investigation for the walkout and takeover of Carnegie Hall on Oct. 7, 2024 in a statement posted on Instagram. 

“… Claremont SJP is being tried on nearly half of the total conduct violations possible. This is a record high amount,” the club wrote in a statement posted to Instagram.

On Nov. 2, JBoard found Claremont SJP guilty on one of the six charges — Article III Section 14, “Irresponsible or negligent conduct that results in theft, damage, physical harm or threat to a member of the Pomona College community’s property or safety” — and administered seven sanctions to the club:

1. Eight 1-hour meetings (virtual/in-person) with SJP’s Faculty Advisor, or their designee
2. Reflection of Judicial Council processes
3. Two joint club events, hosted on Pomona College’s campus
4. Plan for community apology
5. Statement to PDfA
6. 500-word statement of proposed event promotion strategies and media management
7. Probation of Instagram Account (@claremont_sjp）

Each sanction included a description of the JBoard panel’s decision and reason to issue the specific sanction, the due date of deliverable statement, the length of essay sanctions,  and event sanctions and directions to email each deliverable sanction to chair@pomona.edu. 

JBoard’s seventh sanction on Claremont SJP was “Probation of Instagram Account (@claremont_sjp).” An SJP student noted to Undercurrents that JBoard had made an error in the written sanction, and that the Claremont SJP account is currently @claremontsjp, not @claremont_sjp. 

“This probationary period is aligned with the reflective sanctions to help SJP curate their organization’s mission and heal internal misalignments,” the sanction description reads. “The panel also believes that improper management of  Instagram was a primary source for negligence by SJP. This sanction is based on the extension of the college’s jurisdiction into social media as this case involved members of the 5C community and the negligence from Instagram management led to the material incidences of Oct 7th. For further insight, the panel acknowledges the space that SJP creates on the 5C campus and believes that through the prior sanctions, SJP can work to extend that space to its Instagram account.”

Claremont SJP is not allowed to use its Instagram account until March 31, 2025, including “posting, adding to story, co-collaborating, commenting, tagging, liking, interacting, and following.” 

“The fact that we can’t even change the username to organize as a different organization to continue to boost and amplify goes directly against what SJP intentionally wants to do, which is amplify Palestinian liberation and resistance acts on a national and international scale.” an SJP student said to Undercurrents.

The Claremont SJP student noted that SJP chapters around the country have also been targeted by college administrations, including Tufts SJP, Brown SJP and Columbia SJP. 

On Oct. 28, Brown University suspended Brown SJP for “intimidation and harassment” and launched an external investigation of the group following a protest against Brown’s Board of Trustees. In an Oct. 27 post, Brown Divest Coalition — an umbrella organization of Brown’s Palestine solidarity organizations that includes Students for Justice in Palestine — released a statement announcing that Brown SJP had been “suspended from holding any activities, events, meetings, or posting on social media.” 

Claremont SJP said that sanctions against the club were an attempt to create divisiveness between SJP and the wider community, including sewing divisions between SJP and PDfA. SJP specifically pointed to the fourth sanction, “Plan for Community Apology,” and fifth sanction “Statement to PDfA” in reference to creating divisiveness. 

“The plan for a community apology feels super divisive in separating us from PDFA,” an SJP student told Undercurrents. “The real people who deserve an apology are suspended and banned students, people whose education was completely put on hold and ruptured due to Pomona’s retaliation.” 

SJP noted that they did not organize or plan the Oct. 7 walkout or building takeover. 

“While we are in support of the actions that happened on Oct. 7th, we simply did not plan them. Pomona’s attempts to sanction us demonstrate their commitment to stifling any and all solidarity with Palestine, regardless of who is behind it,” SJP said in their Nov. 1 statement. 

SJP said many of the sanctions were ultimately intended to waste the organization’s time and stall further progress on organizing for Palestinian solidarity at the Claremont Colleges. 

“Preparing for the judicial process already took us away from our primary focus, which is ultimately to organize and to have a material divestment from complicity within these universities,” said the SJP student. 

SJP told Undercurrents that it is still determined to keep its chapter as a school affiliated club. 

“I think we want to keep SJP a school-affiliated club primarily in keeping pro-Palestine rhetoric in spaces that are allowed by the institution, which I know is a tricky line to take,” they told Undercurrents. “We ultimately understand part of our role on campus is to have some sort of protection of Palestine speech, dialogue and education.” 

Claremont SJP is one of only two school-affiliated organizations at the Claremont Colleges explicitly focused on Palestinian solidarity. One of over 350 SJP chapters nationwide, the club has been active at the 5Cs for over a decade. Last April, SJP won a six-year-long campaign to close Pitzer College’s study abroad program at the University of Haifa.