Pro-Palestinian activists occupied Van Pelt Library for over eight hours on Sunday in a study-in that aimed to raise awareness of the Israel-Hamas war's toll on Gaza's education system.
Around 15 protestors affiliated with the Freedom School for Palestine — a self-identified collection of Penn students and affiliates — arrived at the Moelis Reading Room at 10 a.m. and filled one table. Penn representatives asked the demonstrators to leave the reading room at 7 p.m., prompting the group to move to the basement — before finally relocating to Houston Hall around 7:30 p.m. after a representative from Penn's University Life division asked them to leave the library entirely.
In a written statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, the Freedom School wrote that they were "exercising [their] privilege and rights to free speech to raise awareness about the ongoing genocide in Gaza." They wrote that this study-in was to specifically address what they called "educide" — a term referring to Israel's alleged targeted attacks on academic and intellectual figures in Gaza.
The Freedom School hung posters on the furniture and windows of the library, depicting Palestinian scholars and educators who have died as a result of Israeli attacks in Gaza since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. University Life representatives asked Freedom School members to remove the posters from the windows around noon, and they complied.
A University spokesperson said that hanging signs in the room and on the windows is in violation of University policy, adding that building administrators asked the group to remove the signs several times throughout the day.
"The group refused to remove the signs and remained in the reading room, disrupting other students who were trying to study," the spokesperson said. "As a result of this behavior, the students were asked to leave the premises and complied. The University will take appropriate disciplinary action.”
College junior and Freedom School participant Selena Rosario said that the group’s main goal for the study-in — which was originally intended to last in Van Pelt from 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. — was to highlight the privilege Penn students have in accessing higher education, when many universities in Gaza have been bombed or severely incapacitated as a result of the ongoing violence in the region.
“Our university's response to the situation has been remarkably hypocritical for an educational institution, especially one of such prestige and high power,” Rosario said. “We are a place that likes to tout how laws without morals are in vain, and yet there doesn't seem to be any morality or care for fellow scholars and educators across the world and other students who are in Palestine who have lost their families and their right to be able to learn.”
Later, members of the Freedom School were asked to remove the posters from all furniture, including from on top of the table they were sitting at. At around 7 p.m., protestors were asked to leave the Moelis Reading Room, with Senior Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs Tamara Greenfield King referencing complaints received from other students.
Rosario described the University’s actions as "targeting," since the Freedom School’s demonstration was “completely silent and non disruptive.” She said that participants did not interfere with other students’ studying or attempt to distribute their papers to others.
“We were just existing there, papers on the table, and that was enough of a presence for them to consider us a threat to the space and try to force us to leave,” Rosario said. “And that's quite unfair considering there are many other students sitting at those tables with papers out, but for some reason our papers were the ones that were deemed offensive."
After the group relocated to the Van Pelt basement, King told a Freedom School liaison that they needed to leave the library entirely.
The liaison told King that the group had the right to be in the library, and they had complied with administration's requests to take posters down from the walls.
“We took the posters down from the walls, we have the right to exist,” they said. “It's very disappointing that, as students, we are not allowed to use this space to study and to exist. That's quite ridiculous that our very existence has become politicized, and we've become blocked out of a space that is meant for us. We all pay to go to this university.”
King responded that the Freedom School “lost that privilege” for the day because of the study-in.
The group of around a dozen protestors left Van Pelt after the interaction, holding banners and making their way to Houston Hall, the site of the Freedom School’s six-week sit-in last year. They gathered in the Class of 1968 Reading Room and hung their posters and banners around the upper-level platform.
At around 9 p.m., two Houston Hall employees informed the group of protestors that their signage violated University Life’s Space and Events Policy. The policy states that “[n]otices (flyers, posters, etc.) may not be posted on walls, doors, or woodwork” and that such posted material “will be removed and thrown out,” according to the Space and Events University Life website. The Houston Hall employees declined to comment.
In response, demonstrators hung a banner that was previously displayed over the window to the back of a couch, which was facing the rest of the room.
The Freedom School formed in November 2023 as a collection of students, staff, and faculty supporting the Palestinian cause. Starting Nov. 14, the group held a multi-week teach-in in the Reading Room in Houston Hall, alleging a lack of support for pro-Palestinian students and faculty. In a press advisory, the group made three demands for the University: calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, protecting freedom of speech, and establishing what it described as critical thought on Palestine across campus.
During the original teach-in, a University spokesperson told the DP that Penn administration intended to "balance open expression and university operations."
On Feb. 14, the Freedom School held a "Lightning Lecture" outside Van Pelt, drawing around 15 attendees. The lecture marked the first of a planned weekly series to educate Penn community members on Palestine.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to include a statement from a University spokesperson.
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