Students set up an encampment outside Reid Campus Center at Whitman College in Walla Walla on Friday morning, May 3, to continue their demand that the college divest from Israel.
Setting up the camp, which consisted of several tents, began about 8 a.m., a day after dozens of students protested outside Cordiner Hall. The camp was organized by two groups, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Student Action Committee, which also organized the protest on Thursday evening.
Whitman College students have organized several protests and a sit-in since the start of the Israel-Hamas War last year to demand the college’s Board of Trustees divest from companies that support Israel. Trustees voted against the initial divestment proposal in January.
Alissa Bergman, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP, said on Friday afternoon that about 60 people had been at the encampment that day, and that they had support not only from other students but from faculty members and alumni.
“Community members have stopped by and offered supplies and donations, as well as people all the way down from Pendleton, mostly from the CTUIR (Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation),” Bergman said. “So we’ve had a lot of communal support both within Whitman and then within the much larger community.”
Whitman College officials did not respond to repeated attempts for comment Thursday evening or Friday about the students’ demands.
Bergman said students participating in the encampment had a few goals — to raise awareness, to demand the college be transparent with its investments and to demand the Board of Trustees call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Back in February, SJP — a few of us — wrote a letter on behalf of the entire group to the Board of Trustees asking them to call for a ceasefire, which they have entirely ignored,” Bergman said.
She said student protesters also wanted to show solidarity with other student encampments that are happening on campuses across the country.
“Like every other student encampments, our main focus is Gaza. Our eyes are on Gaza. Our solidarity is with Gaza,” Bergman said. “So we don’t want our work with other student protesters to overshadow the much larger problem, which is that there is a continuing — unrecognized by this institution and by the United States — genocide in Gaza.”
She said students at the encampment did not intend to leave any time soon.
“We’re going to be here until divestment. We’re going to be here until graduation. We’re going to be here,” Bergman said. “We’re going to stay as long as we can.”