Update on Pomona College’s disciplinary charges against Claremont Undercurrents

On Nov. 4, Pomona’s JBoard carried out a disciplinary hearing for Claremont Undercurrents, after Pomona administration brought two charges against us related to our reporting on Oct. 7, 2024.

JBoard found us not responsible for Failure to Comply. We showed in our hearing that Pomona administration had no clear and convincing evidence that Undercurrents reporters failed to comply with administrators’ requests on Oct. 7, 2024.

Prior to the hearing, we pled responsible for Unauthorized Access, in order to best facilitate a path forward where we can continue carrying out on-the-ground action coverage. For this charge, JBoard assigned Undercurrents a meeting with Dean of Campus Life Josh Eisenberg to clarify coverage guidelines, and also “training session(s) on…following College policy as a news media organization” approved by JBoard Chairs or an advising Dean.

In the hearing process, we achieved our main objective of preventing any precedent automatically barring student press from covering a protest after administrators attempt to shut it down. Our on-the-ground coverage through the end of protests is crucial for holding administrators accountable for their repressive tactics, which would otherwise be invisible to the community.

We remain outraged by the administration’s attempt to suppress coverage of Palestine solidarity organizing through their punitive charges against Undercurrents. Our case is part of a wave of harsh repression against students speaking and acting in solidarity with Palestine across the country, and exemplifies the well-documented Palestine Exception to free speech and protest.

Our priority remains our coverage of anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist organizing at and around the Claremont Colleges. Given the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine that our colleges remain complicit in, and the heightening repression of students who speak out against this complicity, our work is more necessary and urgent than ever.

In solidarity,

Undercurrents