About a dozen students from a pro-Palestine student group organized a protest last Friday afternoon, disrupting tours that were part of an admissions event for accepted students called Fridays at Lafayette. The protest elicited formal complaints.
Purposefully held to disrupt EarthFest according to the group’s Instagram, the protest began on the stairs of Farinon College Center and moved to Markle Hall.
Instead of responding to specific questions, Abigail Schaus ’24 sent a statement on behalf of the members of Pards 4 Palestine explaining its motivations.
“At Friday’s rally, we aimed to remind the Lafayette community that while in the West, we continue to live in relative comfort and safety, Israel is razing Palestine to the ground and attempting to wipe out an entire people,” the statement read. “Before our very eyes, Israel is committing a genocide with the backing of our country’s government and institutions. Our coalition’s efforts, both on and off campus, serve to highlight inconsistencies within Lafayette College’s stated values.”
“Lafayette College leads with a complete lack of acknowledgment of Palestine and is currently invested in the state of Israel,” the statement continued. “The extent is unknown, as Lafayette College has not disclosed their full investment. We would like to ask anyone bothered by Friday’s demonstration to consider why a brief disruption to their day is more uncomfortable than the slaughter of over 34,000 Palestinians and the decimation of Gaza.”
The death toll of 34,000 reported by the Gaza health ministry does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
Tour guide Brady Valle ‘25 saw the gathering at Farinon at the beginning of his tour. Valle claims he saw other tour groups being followed during his tour.
“By the time I got back to Markle, there was probably about, I want to say, around 10 to 12 students all sitting on the steps,” Valle said.
Tour guide Tim Reinholdt ‘26 took his group around to Kirby Sports Center before returning to Markle to avoid the group sitting on the steps.
Reinholdt claimed that he and his tour group “were stared down” by protestors and that he felt uncomfortable.
“I totally am in support of protesting, but I just don’t think that it’s fair that we were being used as sort of collateral damage in an attempt to speak to administrators,” Reinholdt said.
“In keeping with the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and as a college devoted to the free exchange of ideas, we welcome and encourage Lafayette students to exercise their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of speech,” wrote Sarah Moschenross, the vice president for student life, in an email. “At the same time, of course, students must also abide by the law and, as members of the College community, the Student Code of Conduct, which helps ensure that all students and employees share a safe learning and working environment.”
“We have received formal complaints about Friday’s protest, and this matter is now under review in keeping with the Student Handbook,” Moschenross continued.
Director of Public Safety Jeff Troxell confirmed that Public Safety had received multiple complaints about the protest and a report was written up and sent to the Office of Student Conduct.
According to Troxell, Chief of Police James Meyer had a “discussion” with at least one member of the group in response to a call about the protest for disruptive behavior. Meyer was not contacted for comment.
Troxell said that he thought the conversation between Public Safety and the protesters “was productive” and that “they could continue to do their protesting.”
According to the Student Code of Conduct, disruptive behavior is defined as “the obstruction of teaching, research, administration, and/or other College-authorized activities” and “noise produced by activities or actions of individuals or groups that interferes with the educational purpose of the College, disturbs others, or conflicts with other College or community events.”
Pards 4 Palestine held a protest in October that appears to be linked to a federal hate probe.
Selma O’Malley ’26 contributed reporting.
Jewish reader • Jun 25, 2024 at 9:07 am
What I can’t figure out is whether the protestors in fact engaged in disruptive behavior. Did they stop tours from happening? Did they try to drown out the voices of the student tour guides? It doesn’t sèm so. I see some kids sitting on steps with a sign in Hebrew. So what’s the issue?
William Neil • May 1, 2024 at 1:02 pm
I write a regular posting at Substack and in a recent one I reminised about the strike at Lafayette in the spring of 1970 over the Cambodian invasion. Favorably to the conduct of all including the strike committee. I invite all interested readers to visit this posting: https..edited out…I write carefully as a serious journalist historian should, so the topics are controversial, and some of my opinions, I respect what all the good teachers at Lafayette taught me.
Best to all and sorry to hear of the disruptions.
Pard • Apr 26, 2024 at 1:46 pm
This seems like a zionist perspective, huh.
Gilad Evans • Apr 26, 2024 at 1:22 pm
Imagine being a Jewish high school student visiting campus only to see that. Protests like these only serve to make Jews uncomfortable whilst doing nothing to stop the issues in the Middle East.
Pard • Apr 26, 2024 at 1:47 pm
I think you forget that some of the most outspoken Pro-Palestinian activists are Jewish themselves… your opinion does not speak for all of us.
Anonymous • Apr 26, 2024 at 8:20 pm
Studies show that 80+ percent of Jews are indeed Zionists. These people understand their target. Labeling Jews as “colonizers” isn’t different from how the Nazis labeled them as “traitors” after WWI.
Michael Curi • Apr 27, 2024 at 11:03 am
Gilad. You are thinking about this wrong. NOBODY is protesting Jewish religion, people or culture. As the other responder said, so many of the protestors are Jewish. Unfortunately like the state of Israel would like you to do, you conflate being Jewish with the Israeli state. As an alumnus with a Jewish wife and Jewish high school student children, I would be so proud if they were on a tour of Lafayette and were able to see the passion of the students at Lafayette College for humanity and fighting against the slaughter and mistreatment of the indigenous people of Palestine by the bigoted Zionists who DO NOT speak for all jews but rather try to impose a ethnonationalist apartheid state in a land that could easily be shared by all. I point you to the speech by Naomi Klein at a Passover Seder in Brooklyn last week.
Class of 24 • Apr 26, 2024 at 12:23 pm
The newspaper continues to go above and beyond in targeted, shameful reporting when it comes to student activism, and this is just an example of that. Relying on commentary from a tour guide?? Brushing over the demands these students were asking for through peaceful demonstrating? Azalea’s op-ed today outshines — and I encourage everyone who hasn’t read it already to go look at it right now — whatever this attempt at covering Friday’s protest was.
Anonymous • Apr 26, 2024 at 12:13 pm
Not y’all downplaying the death toll, wth
Alum '18 • Apr 26, 2024 at 9:54 am
Unfortunately, The Lafayette is continuing the shameful tradition of undermining student activism and acting like the mouthpiece of the administration. Why is a foot soldier of Markle Hall’s (Tour guide) word being believed over these student activists and leaders, the vast majority of them POC and LGBTQ+.
Are the delicate feelings of students more important than our first amendment rights? Than our obligation to speak out against the atrocities being committed by the Israeli state, that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children, with mass graves being discovered in recent days containing bodies of people buried alive.
And what about the newspaper continuously playing a role in bullying these student activists by publishing their name and pictures? All actions of the administration and the newspaper recently have had the intended aim of silencing student activists who dare to speak.
Clearly the standards of the Lafayette have fallen, and the admins like Moschenross, the President are all entirely beholden to a small group of donors and trustees instead of faithfully serving the rich legacy and tradition of student activism at Lafayette. Do better!
Leo Pard • Apr 29, 2024 at 8:09 pm
You are promoting unverified Hamas propaganda and think you’re the good guy? By the way, being POC and LGBTQ+ doesn’t make their argument any more valid about anything. You’re standing with Hamas who committed a terrorist attack and started a war, and now wants to be a victim. There’s a reason why you don’t negotiate with terrorists. Do better!
Anonymous • Apr 26, 2024 at 8:09 am
y’all need to start blurring out faces for student protest images, especially with these students facing active conduct charges
Leo Pard • Apr 29, 2024 at 7:57 pm
I’m sure the moderator won’t let this through because these comments are almost entirely antisemitic, but why should their faces be blurred? They should want everyone to see their faces. Aren’t they proud to stand with Hamas?