Students Show Solidarity For the Divestment Coalition’s April 15 Strike

Caroline Cubbin ‘25

SJP Organizer giving opening speech at the Westlands Sit-in. Photo by Caroline Cubbin ‘25.

On Apr. 15, 2024, students gathered on the South Lawn following a call from the SLC Divestment Coalition to take part in a day-long strike. At 9 a.m. promptly, student leaders from various groups within the collective kicked off the day’s agenda with a series of speeches calling attention to the group’s divestment campaign, problematic statements issued by Cristle Collins-Judd, and the ongoing genocide in Palestine. 

“Good morning everyone, it’s a nice day for a strike,” said Hank Odell ‘26, a co-chair of the Socialist Coalition, an active member of Jewish Voices for Peace, and one of several leaders within the Divestment Coalition. “You cannot replace a student body. We are Sarah Lawrence. Without students, this is just an old manor house on a couple dozen acres of stolen land. So I find it interesting that Sarah Lawrence refuses to listen to his student body. I find it very interesting that when the student body says divest, the administration says no.” 

Odell continued his speech, with occasional interruptions in the form of student cheers and whistles. “What [the administration] cares about is protecting their financial investments. So if we're the face of this school, and if we make up this school, and if without us, this isn't a school, and we are gathered here today, then we need to use the single most important tool we have: our participation,” he said. “Today, we choose not to participate. This is no longer a school. Their money comes from us. We make this place real. So we have gathered here today to say through a united voice that we are going to strike because our demands for divestment, disclosure, and condemnation have not been yet. Do not go to class. Do not go to conference. Don't work. Stay right here. Go to our teach-ins. Make it absolutely crystal clear that we are not going to let this school continue to invest in Israeli apartheid, genocide, and death.”

For weeks, the Divestment Coalition has campaigned for the president of the college and the board of trustees to disclose their financial investments, divest from any financial ventures that can be traced back to Israel and condemn the genocide and apartheid in Palestine. The Divestment Coalition on campus consists of student leaders from on-campus groups including SLC Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Sarah Lawrence Socialist Coalition, Trans Action, SLC GROW, Drag Union and Southerners at SLC. “We wish to unite the student body on this cause, under the idea that divestment from mass violence and displacement is a necessary step for Sarah Lawrence and all other American and global institutions,” said the Divestment Coalition in an Instagram statement via @themovementslc. 

A week before the all-day strike, flyers with the heading “Freedom University: For the People, By the People” began cropping up around campus, appearing everywhere from bulletin boards in the Barbara Walters Center to the main flagpole near Westlands to the inside of bathroom stall doors in Heimbold. Details on the strike were also routinely shared on social media in the days leading up to Apr. 15. While the event was coordinated as a means of protesting the college’s policy and response in regard to genocide and violence in Palestine, it was also planned in accordance with the Global Day of Action called for by the Palestinian Youth Movement, a transnational grassroots political movement by young people in support of Palestine. 

“I think our ultimate goal [today] is to put pressure on the college to meet our demands of divestment, disclosure, and condemnation by showing that we're just not going to let business continue as usual. As constituents, as people who pay to go here, as people who love this community, we just will not allow classes to continue, we will not allow business as usual to continue until our demands are met because we do not want this community we care about so deeply to be profiting off of apartheid and genocide,” said Maeve Aickin ‘25, an organizer with the Divestment Coalition. 

Alexandra Abramovitch ‘26, an SJP co-chair, echoed the same sentiment, citing the college’s refusal to meet student demands over divestment and condemnation of Israel. 

“Today we’re trying to garner support for divestment and just show the administration that this is what the student body wants. They keep trying to suggest that it's just a small group of students who are doing all this organizing but that's not true,” Abramovitch said, gesturing to a crowd of students on the South Lawn. “We’re also trying to keep people talking about Palestine,” she continued. 

Although a Monday just weeks away from the end of the semester typically spells classes to attend, conference meetings to keep and long library study sessions to power through, organization leaders encouraged students to partake in the strike and attend a series of alternate events instead of going about their normal schedules. “There will be no business as usual while Sarah Lawrence remains complicit in genocide,” wrote the Divestment Coalition on Instagram. Instead of a typical class day, the group planned an alternate schedule for the day, organized into five blocks, with events like a poetry reading, an art build and a workshop centered around queer liberation in Palestine. Professors involved in Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) offered class sections and lectures all day long, with academic events hosted by professors Emmaia Gelman, Yekaterina Oziashvili, Aysegul Kayagil and Suzanne Gardinier. 

In addition to an action-packed day of events, seminar sections and lectures, students occupied Westlands all day long in a group sit-in. From early morning until late evening, SLC students sat on the ground in the historic building in a silent show of resistance. Over the course of the day, people filtered in and out of the building in between events and joined in to show support. 

As one of many students who attended events held all day long as part of the Apr. 15 strike, Hannah Kissdl ‘24 explained why she felt it was important for her to attend: “I'm Jewish, so I have a hard time understanding how any Jew could support Israel. I'm not the one who's being persecuted right now, but I feel it's very important to use my voice to help those who are. I'm upset that my eyes weren't super open to this until Oct. 7… but I'm going to go to any [events] there are in these past few weeks of school.”

Student leaders emphasized the impact of showing up and supporting the movement throughout the day. “There is no Sarah Lawrence community without us and we need to use that power to pressure our leadership to put human life over profit,” Aickin said.

After passing around a petition showing student support for the divestment proposal, the Divestment Coalition collected over 300 signatures from students who attended the day-long strike.