Pomona says it will turn over student disciplinary records to Congress

Pomona College said on March 27 that it would comply with a congressional committee’s request to hand over all disciplinary records related to anti-Zionist “incidents” since Oct. 7, 2023. 

The House Committee on Education and Workforce sent the letter on March 27 to President Gabi Starr, Interim President Robert Gaines and Board of Trustees Chair Janet Benton. The committee additionally sent similar letters on the same day to the administrations of Northwestern, Bowdoin, Barnard and Sarah Lawrence, seeking to investigate anti-Zionist actions at the schools.

This investigation follows the Zionist entity’s resumption of its bombing campaign in Gaza on March 18. Palestinian UN representatives said that the Zionist entity violated the January 19 ceasefire at least 962 times in the span of 42 days before declaring it broken on March 18. Since then, the Zionist entity has displaced over 140,000 people and killed over 900 in its resumed bombing and ground invasion of Gaza.

Pomona said that it would “fully cooperate” with the inquiry in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. To Undercurrents’ knowledge, the administration has made no direct announcement of the request or their cooperation to its students or the broader campus community.

The request specifically asks for all documents including email communications related to disciplinary action for the Oct. 7, 2024 takeover of Carnegie Hall, and for any action related to Starr’s residence. Pomona suspended 12 students and banned at least 36 students from its campus after the Carnegie Hall action. Undercurrents is not aware of any disciplinary actions related to Starr’s residence.

The request also asks for “a list of all student disciplinary/conduct cases associated with antisemitic incidents from October 7, 2023,” including “alleged perpetrators” and whether they were involved in previous disciplinary incidents.

The request specifies that, for its purposes, “antisemitic” includes any “incident involving the targeting of … Israel … Zionism, and/or Zionists.”

The letter was signed by committee chair Tim Walberg. At a town hall in March 2024, Walberg advocated for using force similar to the atomic bombings of Japan during WWII to end Palestinian resistance.

“We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid … It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick,” he said.

The request mentions that Pomona has an obligation under the Civil Rights Act to “promptly address discrimination, harassment, and a hostile environment” in order to receive federal financial assistance. It asks for the requested information by noon Eastern Time on April 10, 2025.

On March 7, the federal government pulled $400 million in grants and contracts from Columbia University as a result of an investigation into anti-Zionist activities on its campus. Since then, in an effort to recover its funding, Columbia has put its Middle East studies department under new supervision, revised their policies on student protestors and expanded its Institute for Israel and Jewish studies, as well as expelled, suspended and revoked the degrees of student protestors.
The federal government has also weaponized ICE against student protestors, detaining students from Tufts, Columbia, Georgetown, University of Alabama and Cornell, as well as revoking the visas of at least 300 students. At least five students and academics are currently detained, though ICE is still searching for others and President Donald Trump has indicated the desire to detain many more.