Students for Justice in Palestine form encampment in Smith Union
February 7, 2025
Miles BerryFebruary 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 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 a.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.
SJP Encampment
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Alas, just when I had convinced myself that the high standards for critical thinking at Bowdoin had prevented displays of brain rot and moral confusion of this sort!
Until these protestors can articulate how, exactly, their actions will lead to peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis, their theatrics should be wholly rejected by the rest of the college community.
You should read the Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum to see explicitly what the students are asking for! If you click through the links in the above article you can find it pretty easily. From what I can tell, the requests seem extremely reasonable — they want transparency regarding the endowment’s current investments + a policy of not funding arms manufacturers in the future.
As an alum, I’m really proud of the students for trying to hold our school accountable and publicly disavow what is (still) happening in Gaza. They are without a doubt on the right side of history.
Leaving banal comments that position oneself as the arbiter of what constitutes “brain rot and moral confusion” is a little bit of a self-own here. Some people did not get appropriately cut down to size in freshman seminar discussions and it shows.
Solidarity with these students standing up for Palestinian freedom and equity. Protest actions are only effective when they are disruptive, here’s hoping the administration will respond to the students’ requests.
Proud of these young leaders, willing to risk retribution from the college to take a principled stand. Bowdoin has been dragging its feet for months on implementing the terms of the Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum — while tens of thousands were slaughtered and starved in Gaza. Students clearly must lead the way.
These students are the best thing Bowdoin has going for it. The demands of the referendum are not only clear and actionable, but strategic requirements for the college to be in basic compliance with the “Common Good.” I am so proud of SJP organizers for their steadfast clarity and courage. These are the students who understand the assignment. What an egregious misstep to subject them to disciplinary action for being the only ones willing to actually stand for the common good.
The US president is calling for an ethnic cleansing. The students should be protesting. Collecting student names and ID numbers makes them vulnerable to threats by federal law and immigration enforcement. What a disgrace.
Solidarity and love to these students! Absolutely shameful and embarrassing that the administration is defending ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
It warms my heart to see these kids stand up for what’s right. I fondly remember the erudite, charismatic of SJP on campus back in my time; they didn’t have this kind of support but they stood up for what they believed in. No better commitment to the nominal principles of the institution than to stand up for what’s right in this moment. Nothing but praise for these kids, but the school is certainly not getting any donations from me in the meantime.
Go U Bears, free palestine
Bowdoin students – thank you for standing up to violence! Alums are supporting you from across the country <3
It is so disappointing to witness the admin's response. Hopefully they can rise to the occasion and be a part of advocating for Palestine (rather than punishing college students…).
Advocating for or against such a cause is the job of the students and faculty of the College speaking for themselves. The College’s job is to ensure that people of all viewpoints on such a matter get to speak without interference and provide a forum for debate. It’s job is NOT to bias the debate by having the College’s administration take a position on the issue on behalf of the College. They do not have the authority (or at least should not) to do so. Let people speak for themselves, present their arguments in their own support, and the rest of the community make a judgement based upon what they hear and read on their own.
The article from the Bowdoin Orient on FSJP’s discussion of Bowdoin’s history with Apartheid divestment oversimplifies complex issues by drawing a direct line between historical divestment from South Africa and current calls for divestment related to Israeli actions in Gaza. It fails to critically analyze the nuanced differences between these contexts, presenting a one-sided narrative that could potentially misinform readers about the intricacies of international politics and the implications of divestment. The piece leans heavily on the activism of the past to justify present actions without thoroughly exploring the unique political, legal, and humanitarian aspects of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Moreover, it lacks voices from those who might oppose or offer a different perspective on the divestment, thus not fully embodying the critical inquiry that academia should foster. The historical comparison, while educational, does not inherently validate the current political stance without deeper contextual analysis.
I am from Vancouver,Canada and i supports the Students at Bowdoin College,Maine in setting up Camp in Support of Gaza named after Shaban Al- Dalu. What Trump is saying about Gaza should be condemned by all Students in the USA!
dude they said they’re gonna kick you out
From what I understand, the protesters did not hinder any campus members’ activities with their presence. If this is the case, it is the College that caused “disruption to the operations of the College” by blocking entry to Smith. Punishing the students is not warranted!