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On a warm morning in late May of this year, I completed my four years at Oberlin College with a surprisingly engaging graduation ceremony. Though I had anticipated the administrators\u2019 padded speeches and self-aggrandizement, I was shaken when, in the middle of the ceremony, I saw dozens of my peers stand up and turn away from the stage. Shouts of \u201cFree, free Palestine!<\/a>\u201d sparked my realization that it was a protest, and, after a moment of hesitation, I stood up beside them. As the protest continued, graduates stood and turned in solidarity, one after another.<\/p>\n There is nothing unique about what transpired. Oberlin has been known as a bastion of progressive ideals throughout its history\u2014it was the first coeducational<\/a> college in the United States as well as one of the first to admit Black students<\/a>, and served as a hub for abolitionist organizing before the Civil War. But its inaction regarding the ongoing genocide<\/a> of Palestinians in Gaza has come as a surprise to those who know the college as a progressive institution. The commencement demonstration was directed at Chris Canavan, the chair of Oberlin\u2019s Board of Trustees, who was speaking at the time the protest began. Student activists have pleaded<\/a> with the board since late 2023 to divest Oberlin\u2019s money from Israel\u2019s occupation of Palestinian territories. While the board has been open to dialogue with student activists, it has done little to address their demands. In August 2024, Oberlin\u2019s Board of Trustees officially rejected<\/a> a bid to divest from companies that facilitate Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. In doing so, Oberlin joined the dozens of U.S. colleges and universities that have refused similar appeals, including Brown University<\/a>, Georgetown University<\/a>, and Occidental College<\/a> in Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur act of protest was a rejection of the principle that the ongoing genocide in Gaza should or can be separated from our daily lives, and from [Oberlin\u2019s] financial responsibility as an institution,\u201d Olivia, a recently graduated leader of Oberlin\u2019s student organization for Palestinian rights, Students for a Free Palestine<\/a> (SFP), explained after the commencement protest in an email to The Progressive<\/em>. She asked that her last name be withheld for privacy reasons.<\/p>\n During Canavan\u2019s speech, student activists drowned out his words with chanting as he attempted to deliver his remarks\u2014which focused, fittingly, on the importance of civil disobedience and academic independence. Protesters sat back down after Canavan got through his speech, which he finished despite the students\u2019 continuous chants. Later, as graduates crossed the stage to receive their diplomas, some silently handed white slips of paper that read \u201cDIVEST NOW\u201d in large black print to Carmen Twillie Ambar, the college\u2019s president.<\/p>\n Over the past two years, Olivia took part in a series of meetings between SFP and Oberlin\u2019s administration and board to discuss divestment from Israel. \u201cCanavan told us in our last meeting that he sees a need to separate his own values\u2014which allegedly include the belief that what Israel is doing in Gaza is wrong\u2014from his financial responsibilities as the chair of the board and as a hedge fund manager,\u201d Olivia wrote. \u201cWhen [Canavan] tells us that we must separate our condemnation of the Israeli occupation from our lives and responsibilities as Obies, we must show him that is an unequivocally false, and deadly, claim.\u201d<\/p>\n Pelham, another Oberlin SFP leader and recent graduate who asked that his last name be withheld, expressed a similar sentiment. \u201cWe decided to chant during Chris Canavan\u2019s speech at commencement because we felt it was a moment to disrupt the feeling of business as usual,\u201d he told The Progressive<\/em> by email. \u201cAs we were sitting there celebrating . . . the hard work we have done to get to this point, Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and all of occupied Palestine are being murdered and displaced with our tax dollars and possibly even our tuition. That is not something to celebrate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Other universities have seen similar commencement protests<\/a> during recent graduation seasons, but the demonstrations at Oberlin belong to a prominent history of protest and progressive politics on campus. In recent decades, Oberlin students have been on the frontlines of protest against the Vietnam War<\/a> and U.S. support for South African apartheid<\/a>, even securing Oberlin College\u2019s divestment from the latter in 1987.<\/p>\n Oberlin is clearly proud of its history, and does not hesitate to use its reputation to attract prospective students. On a list<\/a> of \u201c100 reasons to choose Oberlin\u201d published on its official website, the school lists Oberlin\u2019s history as \u201cthe first college to adopt coeducation and race-blind admissions, way back in the 1830s\u201d as reason number twenty. Reason number fifty-four is that Oberlin \u201c[has] always been and always will be focused on progress.\u201d Yet, students argue, the college has failed to live up to its legacy of progressivism on the issue of Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n \u201cOberlin College as an institution has weaponized its progressive history to shield its current failures of living up to its progressive legacy,\u201d Pelham said. \u201cIt draws students in, particularly marginalized students, with this image of social justice and progressiveness it puts forth, but [the administration] is currently making choices that show they aren\u2019t interested in fulfilling these progressive ideals as anything more than a selling point, such as the refusal to divest or their early compliance with the Ohio bathroom bill.\u201d Oberlin, as Pelham notes, was quick to comply with a 2024 Ohio state law<\/a> requiring university students to use restrooms that correspond to their sex assigned at birth. Though the college was bound by law to obey the statute\u2019s provisions, students expressed disappointment<\/a> that Oberlin seemingly accepted the rule without resistance.<\/p>\n Olivia, meanwhile, said she was struck during a meeting with Canavan by \u201cthe irony of the framed pictures hanging on the office wall we were sitting in; these were photos of protests on Oberlin\u2019s campus during the Civil Rights Movement, resembling part of the history of the radical activism that Oberlin vocally prides itself on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As Olivia sees it, \u201cThe administration has failed time and time again to act in accord with the consensus put forth by its community, which includes students, alumni, faculty and staff, and parents. They have fallen short on our demand for divestment from the Israeli occupation, which builds on a movement that has existed at Oberlin College since 2004<\/a>, as well as other urgent demands from our student community, [including] asks for measures to protect our undocumented students<\/a>, and to reform our Title IX Office<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n In the months since several trustee boards across the country rejected student activists\u2019 divestment appeals, many colleges have seen an overall decrease in pro-Palestine protests. Between the spring and fall semesters of 2024, the number of campus protests nationwide dropped<\/a> by 64 percent as the movement lost steam and institutions cracked down on dissent. And since President Donald Trump took office in January, the consequences of protesting for Palestinian rights now include<\/a> detention and possible deportation for noncitizens.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last month, New York University (NYU) student Logan Rozos condemned U.S. support for Israeli atrocities in Gaza during a commencement speech for the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. \u201cThe only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine,\u201d Rozos told<\/a> the crowd. \u201cThe genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars, and has been live-streamed to our phones for the past eighteen months.\u201d In response, NYU withheld<\/a> Rozos\u2019s diploma, calling his statements a \u201cmisuse\u201d of \u201chis role as student speaker to express his personal and one-sided political views.\u201d<\/p>\n Similar punitive measures have been taken across the country against those who speak out for Palestinian rights. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has documented<\/a> a sharp increase in administrative punishments against the national student group Students for Justice in Palestine<\/a> (SJP) since 2021, surpassing the rightwing Turning Point USA<\/a> to become the most frequently penalized student group of 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n Oberlin\u2019s SFP has mostly been spared administrative punishments, but individuals still risk consequences for their activism, including forgoing job opportunities<\/a> and risking their names on pro-Israel blacksites<\/a> like Canary Mission. Though backlash has worked in many cases to dampen the pro-Palestine movement on college campuses, students like those who organized at Oberlin have refused to be silenced.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile I have missed out on some opportunities due to my outspokenness and social media presence, I feel strongly that no opportunity which would disqualify me for my pro-Palestine beliefs is one I would want to take part in,\u201d Juwayria Zahurullah, a rising senior at Oberlin College who is active in SFP, told The Progressive<\/em> in an email. \u201cWhile I may lose out on internships or job offers, the people of Palestine are being robbed of their right to live. There is no comparison in these sacrifices.\u201d<\/p>\n The sacrifices made by students at Oberlin and elsewhere may only make a small dent in the billions of dollars<\/a> the United States spends on military aid to Israel every year, but their activism is still important. It serves to remind people in the United States that their government leaders\u2014and, in many cases, their universities\u2014are funding ongoing violence in Gaza.<\/p>\n As Zahurullah puts it, \u201cI believe there is meaningful impact in not allowing business to continue as usual while our tax and tuition dollars are being used to commit a genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n