Photos and words by Maya Olson PZ ‘25

One signature fixture of Mead is its communality — murals in each staircase and most balconies, shared courtyards and windows facing each other, and of course, towels, posters, and remnants of student life hanging from balconies. My own suite, for example, has consistently had up to five towels hanging at a time off our very public, Mounds-facing balcony. Never have we received any complaints from Residence Life for hanging something off our balcony. So why is Pitzer demanding another suite take down a Palestinian flag hanging from another balcony?

In an email from Bianca Rojo, residence director for Mead Hall and Pitzer @ CCA, to the suite with the flag hanging, she wrote, “I am emailing your suite because your balcony cannot have anything hanging from it … As your Residence Director, I want to uphold your free-speech rights in a way that also aligns with our Residence Life policies. To that end, I encourage you all to hang the flag on the back wall of the suite patio or anywhere within your suite that is not on the balcony, and I am more than happy to provide you with command strips.” 

It is fascinating that the flag has been specifically raised as an issue for a suite, especially given it faces the walkways (where prospective students and the public often walk), whereas other spaces that are less visible are not being asked to do the same. Additionally, the Residence Life Policies, listed on Pitzer’s website, state, “3: No hanging items from the balconies or catwalks (without written permission from your Residence Director or the Facilities Office).” Additionally are rules no. 5 and 6, which state, respectively, “No college owned furniture is allowed on suite balconies,” and, “ No smoking on suite balconies. All residence halls are completely non-smoking.” 

If the upholding of residence life policy is truly the issue, it begs the question of why my suite — whose balcony bears multiple visible chairs (college owned furniture) — is yet to be reprimanded? Why then, is the entirety of Mead not constantly being reprimanded for smoking? It’s not that I’m advocating for a radical enforcement of Res-Life rules, only that I wish to point out the contradiction between a suite hanging a Palestine flag and being reprimanded three times but all other violations of campus policy remaining completely neglected.

These rules, blatantly disregarded by students and staff alike, only point to the drastic obviousness of the double standard. Pitzer’s selective enforcement appears based on how students point out the college’s failings in divesting from weapons manufacturers or showing solidarity with Palestine during the ongoing genocide. As the one year mark of the ongoing genocide looms in just a few days, the college has done nothing but continue to demonstrate a refusal to listen to student voices, weaponizing archaic and irrelevant campus policies whenever it will aid in repression. 

The blatant hypocrisy of Pitzer Administration goes to show that alongside other “safety measures” enacted across the 5Cs, students showing solidarity with Palestine and speaking out against the genocide by Israeli forces are being specifically targeted, as Campus Safety measures seem to directly ban or attempt to stop common organizing practices by students in the past year. As my colleague, Ben Lauren, aptly points out, Pomona College banned masks at their recent Convocation Ceremony, which really brings into question whether they care about public safety, or silencing student protestors who are so afraid of punitive measures, they mask to protect their identities. Remember when Pomona College arrested its own students? And allowed/enabled racially motivated arrest against a professor? We do.

As a collective, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organized a statement on September 26 against the obviously repressive demand for the removal of the Palestine flag. Claremont SJP was informed of the hypocrisy, “and we mobilized,” said one member. “We hosted the [sign making] and coordinating [for the action], but every [Mead] suite involved agreed.” From the balconies of Mead Hall hung “Free Palestine” and signs with similar messaging, including the original flag.

In an email from SJP to their general body on September 30, they addressed the action. “Not only was this a widely successful act of protest against the suppression of pro-Palestinian organizing across the 5Cs, but it was also a stark reminder that Pitzer’s weapons and war manufacturer-invested administration does not represent the people; the majority of us will not stand to be a part of an institution which is funding the genocide of Palestinians.”

It was not an action only of SJP’s organizing, but of Mead residents and the greater Pitzer community that felt that student voices were being silenced. Pitzer, which prides itself on its murals, its Free Wall, and its core value of “Student Engagement,” (don’t forget the pride they take in student senate), seems to pick and choose when student voices are heard. 

If you go on the Pitzer website, the very first page — in overwhelming large font — screams, “A place where creative, engaged scholars push for change – together.” Even better, below that states, “Our Students Write Our Story. Pitzer College attracts savvy, talented students from across the nation and world who are serious about changing things for the better.”

Yet when students act upon these Pitzer tenets and values with the hanging of a flag, Pitzer feels threatened? 

Student protests are a core tenet of social change, and at a school that prides itself on student activism and uses student voice as a ploy to recruit new students in every way. A loose hanging beach towel on the balcony — evidence that students have free time and enjoy the benefits of a Southern California lifestyle, and clearly appealing to tour groups — poses far more of a threat to safety than a fastened down flag. Is Pitzer afraid of its own Core Values in action once the students are admitted and paying? 

The Outback has yet to hear back from Bianca Rojo for comment.