[Claremont Colleges] Students take over Carnegie Hall, rename it Refaat Alareer University

On Oct. 7, one year after the beginning of the Zionist entity’s intensified genocide in Palestine, student protesters took over Pomona College’s Carnegie Hall for nearly five hours to demand divestment. Students hung a banner out a window renaming the building Refaat Alareer University, after the Palestinian poet and professor killed by a Zionist airstrike on Dec. 6, 2023.

At peak, at least 200 student protesters were inside Carnegie Hall. The takeover followed a 480-person mass walkout at 10:07 a.m. Organizers announced to the crowd that they would vacate the building by 4 p.m.

Almost all students and professors previously inside the building left through the front and back doors shortly after protesters entered, including a group of high school students participating in Pomona's fly-in program. In the then-empty classrooms, students hosted teach-ins on Palestinian resistance, medical skills and protestors’ rights.

During the building takeover, students ziptied the front entrance closed, but kept the back doors open for exiting. Some students also spray painted "INTIFADA," "FREE PALESTINE" and "FUCK POMONA" on the walls and elevator of Carnegie Hall.

When students attempted to leave the building at 3:35 p.m., Associate Dean of Students Brandon Jackson physically blocked the back exit, restraining students while ordering them to show identification. The students eventually pushed through and all students left the building.

On Oct. 8, Pomona Divest from Apartheid, Students for Justice in Palestine and HMC Dissenters jointly posted an Instagram post titled “Dear Pomona College: Carnegie was not under occupation, Palestine is."

“Today, we built a community space that allowed for the radical transfer of knowledge between students from different walks of life. We are stronger than ever. We will not stop, we will not rest,” the post read.

Another PDfA post asked students contacted with disciplinary charges reach out from a non-school email to pomonadivestapartheid [at] proton.me.