MAPPING STUDENT RESISTANCE
CAMPAIGNS, PROTESTS, AND ORGANIZING AT THE CLAREMONT COLLEGES
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INSTITUTIONAL MEMORY
The purpose of this map and toolkit is to visually represent and document the history of student organizing over time. Students at the Claremont Colleges build significant political power, but challenges such as high turnover rates and the limitations of the semester calendar hinder the development of meaningful archiving initiatives. As organizers representing various on and off-campus groups and movements, we've observed a recurring issue: whenever a student seeks information about past organizing efforts, whether it's strategies employed or institutional responses, they are compelled to start from scratch and "re-invent the wheel." This often involves navigating through the institution's inaccessible library archive or delving into a labyrinth of Google Drive folders.
To support ongoing and future student organizing efforts, this archive is structured to be user-friendly and bolster campaigns. Past efforts are presented visually, employing formats such as maps, timelines, or photo slideshows. These visualizations serve to either expose the broader impact of oppressive systems stemming from the school outward or delve into the college's response to specific campaigns. The site concludes with a "Resources" section featuring key tools to support student organizing.
COMMUNITY ARCHIVES
The Activist Handbook , a site of 450+ guides for activists, includes a page on "Ethics of Archiving." It discusses how "imperial archives," whether government-run libraries or those funded by institutions like the Claremont Colleges, control narratives. In contrast, "community archives" or "liberatory archives" empower us to reclaim control over our stories, countering the narratives shaped by oppressive institutions. Explore the site below.
Activist Handbook
DIVESTMENT
In the 1980s, the 5Cs kept assets during South African apartheid until state law prohibited it.
The first section of this archive is Divestment, which will cover 3 campaigns: Divest from South African Apartheid, Drop Sodexo, and KKR Kills. Financial decisions, budgets, and investments provide insights into the values prioritized by educational institutions. As the endowments and investments of the Claremont Colleges expand, they become increasingly entangled with issues such as the climate crisis, the military-industrial complex, and the carceral state. Without transparency about their investments, we are left to infer involvement in funding pipelines, funding the U.S. military and arms, and more. Nashiha Alam and Agatha Palma help us define divestment in the SJP Divestment Handbook:
Divestment, or disinvestment, means stepping away from an investment in an institution, system, or practice. Divestment can take many forms, but for our purposes as student organizers, it is the decision by an investor -- such as a university -- to stop investing in harmful practices of products.
TSL February 2022
In 2022, the endowments of the 5C colleges were valued as follows: $3.031 billion (Pomona), $179 million (Pitzer), $1.22 billion (CMC), $540 million (Scripps), and $444 million (Harvey Mudd). Student organizers, throughout different periods, have focused on urging schools to divest from various sectors, including fossil fuels, arms, and states associated with apartheid. Currently, there is a call from leftist groups for divestment from companies investing in the Israeli military in response to the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
SOUTH AFRICAN APARTHEID
In 1979, 5c students first discovered that Pomona College had involvement with South African Apartheid stock holdings when the Faculty Commission on South African Issues released Vice President Fred Moon's financial report. In response to this, there were student demonstrations and lively debate over the issue in the early 1980s- including marches, demonstrations, opinion pieces written about apartheid being "a slow genocide," and the formation of student organizations.
By October 1985, Pomona College had reportedly invested $13,459,810 in companies with ties to South Africa during the apartheid
Student protests and calls for Pomona to divest from the apartheid state escalated later in the 80s. "In 1985, the country was still embroiled in a nearly 40 year struggle with apartheid –- institutionalized racial segregation of Black South Africans — a government enforced system rooted in white supremacy. The South African government poured money into American businesses, and the institutions that invested in them, which included the 5Cs" (TSL). In response to call-outs for supporting the apartheid regime, then-president of Pomona said that “it would be deeply offensive" to him if he were "accused of being for apartheid" and that selling the stocks invested in the apartheid would not make him "a better person" (TSL).
Students Against Apartheid (SAA) emerged as the main organizing group on campus, an intercollegiate coalition of the six colleges. Their mission was "To encourage Democracy in South Africa through eliminating American support for the Apartheid system." The group Students for South African Awareness was the public face of SAA, with legitimate club status and resources, while its students organized behind the scenes under the name SAA. Eventually after over a decade of student organizing, Pomona divested from apartheid only after California Bill 134 passed. As 5c leftist organizers today call for Pomona to divest from both fossil fuels and Israeli arms, looking at how the institution has responded and carried out divestment in the past informs our current work.
April 1979
Students first discovered Pomona’s involvement with apartheid stock holdings after the faculty commission on South African issues released Pomona Vice President Fred Moon’s financial report.
February 1983
Over 100 students and professors met at Pomona in the evening for a candlelight procession for Black History Month, walking through all 5 campuses and ending at the Office of Black Student Affairs. Several professors spoke and the Claremont Colleges Gospel Choir sang. Notably, Professor John Higginson spoke on "Blacks in South Africa," saying that US/South Africa ties were mainly based on business interests and that Americans must start speaking out against apartheid.
1983
"A Slow Genocide," a TSL opinion piece on South African Apartheid, names sanctions in South Africa as Apartheid and draws connections between US support. "South Africa Purchases American arms, depends economically upon American investment, and counts strategically on American Support"
1983
Students Against Apartheid, an intercollegiate organization of all 5 Claremont Colleges was formed. Their mission statement: "To encourage Democracy in South Africa through eliminating American support for the Apartheid system."
By October 1985
Pomona College had reportedly invested $13,459,810 in companies with ties to South Africa during the apartheid, according to Pomona’s then-President John Alexander’s memo to TSL.
October 1985
On October 11th, 1985 Students Against Apartheid held a rally and march beginning on the north steps of Honnold Library. "Two students led the march holding a banner stating 'Divest now!' with a picture of hands in chains. Others carried signs exclaiming 'Black blood on white hands,' 'Silence perpetuates racism' and 'Divest now, dammit!'" (TSL)
December 1987
On December 15, 1987, a group of Pomona students erected a “shanty dorm” across from President Alexander’s house, calling for divestment from companies working in South Africa.
February 1991
After numerous student and faculty anti-apartheid demonstrations, the Pitzer College Board of Trustees and the Claremont University Consortium Board of Trustees agreed to withdraw a portion of stocks by the end of the decade. On June 17, 1991, the South African government repealed its apartheid legislation. According to a Feb. 1991 issue of TSL, the other colleges allegedly did not relinquish investments until mandated by California’s Assembly Bill 134, which required all California institutions to sever ties with South Africa.
DROP SODEXO
Mallot Dining Commons
Drop Sodexo was an active student campaign fighting for Scripps to end their contract with Sodexo Quality of Life and Services as their dining provider in Mallot Dining Commons. Sodexo is a French multinational food and hospitality corporation that has been criticized for its connections to private prisons and worker exploitation (Thomas).
The campaign sought to pressure the Scripps administration to end its contract with the company and ideally create an in-house dining hall plan, similar to Pomona College. In their petition, Drop Sodexo demanded that Lara Tiedens, the former Scripps president, “prioritize people over profit,” by ending the 2020 contract with the corporation (Sodexomustgo).
Scripps College re-upped with Sodexo without an open bidding process. In contrast to the College’s quiet approach to re-upping with Sodexo, students engaged in a number of high-profile direct actions, holding weekly Drop Sodexo meetings in the student union, writing blog posts under the “sodexomustgo” banner, and organizing the Scripps student body to eat at other college’s dining halls, thus forcing Scripps to pay those colleges for each meal eaten off-campus. All of this was intended to pressure the administration to drop Sodexo. In 2020, finally exposed to an open bidding process where Sodexo had to defend itself in public rather than just to administrators behind closed doors, Sodexo came to campus and was crushed by a deluge of students at Sodexo’s public presentation. Shortly thereafter Sodexo was replaced by Bon Appetit.
Scripps Class of 2019 Graduation Caps
The Drop Sodexo website connects Sodexo’s practices to racism, sexism, and classism as a rallying cry for their cause. According to their website, the Sodexo corporation perpetuates the organization of the racial experience in this country and internationally because of its connections to and ownership of private prisons. According to Elizabeth Brown and George Bargainer imprisonment practices are purposely racialized and gendered. Over 60% of people imprisoned are Black or brown and this has served to benefit the white population by maintaining surveillance and upholding racial-governance strategies. Also, Sodexo has notoriously denied workers their rights and it has been heavily involved in anti-unionization efforts. They also benefit from worker exploitation, whether that be incarcerated people, who make furniture and goods for next to no pay, or the staff who work in dining halls like Malott who are often not paid a living wage. The Drop Sodexo movement aimed to address the fact that these issues affect people of color.
Movement Formation
"I still remember walking into that room, feeling the electricity from seeing the dozens of faces who wanted what we did: that Scripps drop Sodexo for good. During the rest of that year, we built our above-ground campaign and held our first rally outside of Malott Dining Commons" (TSL).
Balch Hall Demonstration
On February 4th, 2020, approximately 50 protestors (including students, dining hall staff, and campaign organizers) wore “DROP SODEXO” signs and filled Balch Auditorium during Sodexo’s presentation to the college community.
Another Rally: March 8th, 2020
“The Sodexo campaign has met with the Scripps president countless times to voice our concerns about Sodexo operating on our campus, and time and time again the administration has tried to shut us down with arguments of ‘now is not the time,’” Hammond said. “But to that we say, ‘now is the time.’ Sodexo management has gone on for far too long and the time has come for sustainable and ethical practices in our dining hall.”
Our collective recognition of this recent event and rooting it in the spatial history of Scripps’ Bowling Green Lawn Scripps College history is important to maintaining institutional memory of protest events to keep the momentum going for future action and to hold Scripps’ administration accountable for its contribution to human suffering.
Scripps College is dropped Sodexo as its dining services provider in favor of Bon Appétit Management Company, effective July 1, 2020.
KKR KILLS
KKR Kills was a group of students in solidarity with Witsuwit'en and Yoeme communities calling for the removal of Kravis and Roberts from CMC for investing in the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline and Sempra Energy.
CMC Trustees Kravis and Roberts, and their company KKR, are currently pushing through a Liquid Natural Gas Pipeline over Indigenous Witsuwit'en territory. The pipeline is planned to travel under the Wedzin Kwa, a sacred river to the Witsuwit'en. The pipeline's plans will destroy Witsuwit'en people's source of water and subsistence. Kravis and Roberts have donated hundreds of millions to Claremont McKenna College and their names are celebrated on major buildings on campus. The KKR Kills campaign believes that students have the power to disrupt Kravis and Roberts' reputations by calling for their removal and putting pressure on them to stop the pipeline.
Kravis Center
The Kravis Center is a 5 story academic building at Claremont McKenna College that was named after CMC benefactor Henry Kravis '67. Kravis is a co-founder of KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts), the world's third-largest private equity firm. KKR has invested billions into the Coastal GasLink pipeline, the Port Arthur Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) project, and the Cameron LNG project in Louisiana.
Coastal Gaslink Pipeline
in 2020 KKR acquired 65% equity interest in the Coastal Gaslink natural gas pipeline, which crosses unceded Wet’suwet’en Nation land in British Columbia, Canada. The pipeline gained mainstream notoriety in 2020, when Wet’suwet’en activists began protesting its construction.
End of Agua Prieta Pipeline on Yaquí land
An April 2021, KKR began the process to acquire a 20 percent stake in Sempra Energy for roughly $3.4 billion. IE Nova, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, has been developing the Aguaprieta pipeline as part of a larger project that transports natural gas from Arizona to the northern Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa. “From our viewpoint, we saw our territory being colonized by that industry, colonized by people outside of the Yaqui tribe,” said Yaqui lawyer Anabela Carlón, a leader in the movement to stop the pipeline.
End of Agua Prieta Pipeline in MorgArizona/
Colorado river reservation. Built on Yaquì land. In April 2021, KKR began the process to acquire a 20% stake in Sempra Energy for roughly $3.4 billion. IE Nova, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, has been developing the Agua Prieta pipeline as part of a larger project that transports natural gas from Arizona to the northern Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa.
Fossil Fuels Divestment Timeline
Fall 2014
Student members of the Claremont Colleges Divestment Campaign organized a rally on October 11th and a small group gave a presentation to the Pitzer Board of Trustees, both with demands for Pitzer to divest from fossil fuels. Pitzer College refused to make any divestment commitments, instead forming a task force made of students, trustees, and faculty/staff "to explore Pitzer's approach to climate change." In response, Divestment Campaign pushed for a clear commitment to divestment by May 2014.
Spring 2014
After significant student urging and the work of a task force, Pitzer announced that it would divest almost entirely from fossil fuels --> 5C Divest announced plans to move on to divestment campaigns at Scripps and Pomona.
September 2019
Student painting on Pitzer free wall accused Pitzer trustee Robert Fairbairn of profiting from "concentration camps" (wording changed several times). Fairbairn is vice chairman of BlackRock Fund Advisors, which is heavily invested in private prison company GEO Group through diversified investmens. Additionally, nearly a third of Pitzer's endownment was invested with BlackRock (as of 2017), as part of their partnership w/ BlackRock to create a "environmental, social, and corporate governance-focused global equity index fund" that was completely divested from fossil fuels. This shift in investment was motivated by student organizing around divestment in 2014
November 2019
Students in Pitzer's "Energy and Humanity: Past, Present, Future" (HIST 112) create 5C Divest and calls for each 5C Board of Trustees to announce intention to divest from fossil fuels --> focus placed Pomona as next school to divest, hoping that it'll serve as a trendsetter for other schools (FACT CHECK-- Didnt divest 5c already exist)
March 2020
Members of the Students Demand Change Coalition (SDC) wrote a resolution demanding that Pitzer divest from BlackRock due to its investments in harmful industries like fossil fuels and private prisons. SDC sent this resolution to Pitzer Student Talk w/ a request for co-sponsors, as well as posting flyers with the names of those who have died in GEO Group facilities, creating a Change.org petition for divestment, and organizing Parents' Weekend protests in February. The resolution/proposal, which also includes demands from the Latinx Student Union, was set to be voted on by the Student Senate on Sunday, March 8th.
March 2022
ASPC, Pomona Ecoreps, Divest, and Sunrise organized to add measures to divest from fossil fuels and measures to reveal % of endowment invested in fossil fuels to a Pomona student referendum --> 64% of Pomona students voted, and from those, 88% supported divestment from fossil fuels and 96% wanted the Board of Trustees' Investment Committee to disclose how much of Pomona's endowment is invested in fossil fuels
RESOURCES
Consolidated archive of past campaigns:
The Apartheid archive consists of scanned TSL articles in the 1980s. The articles range from 1984-1987 and include opinion pieces on students' thoughts on divestment, responses from Pomona College to student organizing (lots of responses from President Alexander), and the political landscape of the colleges at the time.
The Drop Sodexo archive consists of links to all media related to the campaign. This includes TSL article links, mentions on social media, the Drop Sodexo website, as well as interview content with lead organizers of the campaign.
The KKR Kills archive consists of links to all media related to the campaign, as well as outside media about the pipelines and the people who protested them. The media includes TSL article links, and mentions on social media.
Assorted archives of student activism from 1960s-1990s, including articles, communications from administration, and posters from teach-ins.
Assorted archives from ethnic studies movements and affinity groups from the 1960s-2020s, including BSU, LSU, and CAPAS.
Guidebooks
Divest Now! A Handbook for Student Divestment Campaigns- Navigate to the handbook at the button below:
Claremont Activism Archive: Antiwar Protests at Scripps (1968-1972), Seeds of Change: Defining Black Space at the Claremont Colleges (1968-69), Taking Root: Developing the Black Studies Center at the Claremont Colleges (1969-1979)
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE DASHBOARD
Explore this in-depth map of environmental struggles across southern California. The map includes student struggles in Claremont, organizing across the state, as well as the institutions that contribute to and combat oppression. Toggle on and off the layers on the righthand side of the dashboard by Transit, Education, General Environmental Organizing, Food, Future of Energy, Immigration, Indigenous Legacies, Labor Rights, Legal Industry, Locally Unwanted Land Uses, Prisons/Policing/Surveillance, Public Health, and Water for a more narrow view at a topic. If you want a point added to this map, fill out the Google form in the second tab of the dashboard. The third tab has a short list of action items compiled by the past PJE cohort. Finally, they define neoliberalism in the fourth tab, which outlines the framework with which they conducted their research and decided to include points on the map.
Environmental Justice Dashboard