As an independent, student-run newspaper, we are committed to freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom to resist oppression. We take seriously the power of discourse in shaping collective consciousness and action for the ultimate goal of social transformation.
In our mission statement, we assert: “More than a paper promoting neutrality and objectivity, we want to be a platform for radical voices, creative perspectives, marginalized identities, and uncompromising activism. Student journalism is crucial in today’s social and political climate and we want to be leading the movement towards truth and justice.”
The Scripps Voice was founded in 1991 by a group of minoritized students to platform student voices for social engagement. As Scripps’ longest-running paper, we remain dedicated to ensuring this legacy through our commitment to student advocacy and amplifying marginalized voices. We have acknowledged our biases since the beginning rather than pretending we can be truly objective, and this recognition bolsters our commitment to truth. We are fortunate to have the space to conduct investigative journalistic work.
The first issue of TSV featured a letter to Scripps stating the newspaper’s goals to “let our needs be heard, rather than have them assumed by those who say they are concerned with filling our needs.” This was later reaffirmed by the founding Editor-in-Chief, who wrote for a 2018 issue: “As a feminist, I couldn’t stand the thought of how we could be so silenced. That we had to rely on others to tell our stories rather than speak for ourselves […] So in the Spring of 1991, I gathered together a group of young women to create The Voice. We were made up of a diverse group of individuals… and mostly of minorities — women of color, women of differing sexual orientation, diverse religions, and non-traditional age students […] Still, it is important to remember that it was the most voiceless in the Claremont community that gave Scripps its voice.”
Therefore, we cannot stand idle as our administration attempts to suppress our student body’s commitment to principles of liberation and solidarity. We cannot limit our reporting to news as usual while our peers are being systematically silenced when they attempt to voice their vision for change. We refuse to allow our administration to force us into complicity in genocide.
NO BUSINESS AS USUAL.
Israel has killed countless Palestinians with billions of dollars of U.S. ammunition in the escalation of the genocidal project over the past year after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. It is easy to become numb to the constant slew of graphic images and inconceivable statistics of death and destruction emerging from Palestine. Still, it is crucial to remember that behind every number, there is a person and a story. We mourn each known and unknown life lost and recognize that nothing can encapsulate the absolute devastation and dehumanization Palestinians, Lebanese, and Southwest Asian and North African people have faced in the last year and decades before.
Students across The Claremont Colleges mobilized to protest Israel’s intensified assault on Palestine and demand divestment from the apartheid regime, often met with unprecedented and disproportionate repression and retribution. Pomona College administrators called the police on students engaged in a peaceful sit-in on April 5, 2024, labeling them as dangerous outside agitators. Police arrested 20 students, eight of whom were from Scripps College. We have seen further militarization of our campuses and the deployment of a military-grade weapon on students. On Sept. 11, a Scripps College dean delivered an ultimatum to The Motley Coffeehouse, a student-run business, that their opening was contingent on removing a Palestinian flag hanging in the space. Three weeks after The Motley’s opening with the Palestinian flag, President Amy Marcus-Newhall sent an email on Saturday, Oct. 5, announcing The Motley’s immediate and indefinite closure, revoking work authorization for 50+ student workers, leaving their jobs and financial stability uncertain.
In its mission statement, Scripps College declares that the liberal arts education its students receive empowers and equips them to think critically and stand up for their beliefs as they lead lives of “leadership, service, integrity, and creativity.” Scripps administration claims that the hanging of a Palestinian flag in The Motley “inadvertently” creates an unwelcoming presence. Yet, when Scripps College faced challenges to the academy’s alleged bastion of free speech, it chose to disregard community discourse and disempower its students. In the past year, Scripps College administrators have caved to prioritizing wealth and discarded its student body.
We aim to share the perspectives of the greater student body and community of Scripps College, not of the institution. Scripps College’s neutrality is so removed from justice that we as a publication must actively challenge and question what maintaining neutrality and objectivity, as Scripps College defines it, serves.
We cannot produce a conventional edition while Israel conducts indiscriminate military violence with the military and financial backing of our government. We cannot report as usual while Israel deliberately targets journalists and their families in Gaza, while attempts to hold mainstream U.S. media accountable for truth are suppressed, and academics are censored and face retaliation for acknowledging a genocide.
To report “neutrally” on the present situation globally and at the 7Cs is to accept the dominant hegemonic narrative, to let those in power silence us, to accept lies and present them on a newsprint platter.
We view this edition as part of our duty as ethical journalists. We are contributing to a history of journalists who have diligently committed to honest reporting to combat injustice and oppression. We echo the Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies’ Nov. 2, 2023 Statement as we, “denounce censorship, harassment, intimidation, and repression of any kind, especially targeting Palestinian, SWANA, and Muslim voices who are exercising their right to free speech, academic freedom, activism, and dissent.”
We call on Scripps College to uphold and practice its proclaimed values of intersectional feminism and social change. We recognize the administration’s potential to once again fail its students, and we publish this edition knowing that no matter what happens next, raising our voices against injustice is imperative.
This edition focuses on organizing across the 7Cs for Palestinian liberation, resisting suppression of students’ freedom of expression. This edition aligns with what we have always done and is in line with our ethos as a paper. We thank you for trusting us with your stories of joy and struggle, now and over the past three decades. We hope you take care in experiencing this edition of TSV; it was created with the profound love, intention, and courage of those who realize that fighting for collective freedom is worth it.
In Solidarity,
The Scripps Voice Editorial
Disclaimer: This statement does not, nor can any statement capture all views of TSV editors or staff. There is so much to be said and so much that has already been said well. We, as imperfect students, invite you, imperfect readers, to read this statement and the pieces that follow in good faith. Responses and inquiries may go to [email protected]
