Lower Merion police responded to Bryn Mawr College in the Philadelphia suburbs on Saturday morning after a Students for Justice in Palestine protest disrupted a Board of Trustees meeting and included an alleged assault, college officials stated.
“Shortly after 8 a.m., 30 to 40 individuals wearing masks gathered in front of the Hepburn Teaching Theater to form a protest,” college president Wendy Cadge wrote in a message to faculty, staff and students on April 25.
Protesters blocked entrances, impeded traffic and prevented people from entering and leaving the building, Cadge said. During the demonstration, one person was physically assaulted by a protester, and others reported “auditory injuries” from bullhorns used at close range.
After multiple warnings, officers from the Lower Merion Police Department were called, and the protesters dispersed. No arrests were immediately reported.
“While Bryn Mawr stands firmly in support of free expression as a hallmark of the student experience, we have clear guidelines around protest,” Cadge wrote. “In no uncertain terms, the actions of protesters today violated these guidelines. We have zero tolerance for physical violence.”
Cadge said the school is working with authorities “to investigate the assaults.”
In a social-media post shared after the protest, the SJP chapter called the trustees “the board of blood” and said the meeting concerned what it called “genocidal investments.” The group maintained that the protest was peaceful and urged the college to divest from Israel.
Separately, the group is urging supporters to wear keffiyehs on campus on May 3 to “disrupt” promotional photography during the college’s annual end-of-semester celebrations.
