SCORE
SCORE Statement on the Motley
We, the undersigned groups, stand in unwavering solidarity with the Motley Coffeehouse in light of the administration’s recent decision to close the Motley. The Motley has historically been a student-run safe space for Scripps and other 5C students to gather, workshop ideas, and organize. As the student organizations that make up Scripps Communities of Resources and Empowerment (SCORE), we recognize the importance of free expression on campus. We push back against the administration’s narrative that the Motley’s recent actions jeopardize inclusion on campus. We find it especially harmful to target this center of student life for minoritized, queer, and students of color while the SCORE space remains largely unstaffed and its future unknown. The administration’s surprise decision to close the Motley’s affects not only campus life but the incomes of students who are financially reliant on-campus jobs. Ultimately, Scripps administration is alienating and actively hurting its students, whom the college would be nothing without. We urge the administration to reconsider its choice to shut down a key aspect of what makes Scripps College as we know it, rehire the Motley staff, and commit to protecting free speech.
Signed,
Asian American Sponsor Program
Asian American Student Union
Blend
Café con Leche
Family
Scripps International Community
Scripps QuestBridge Chapter
Watu Weusi
Admissions
10/5/2024
Dear President Amy Marcus Newhall, Dean Deborrah Hebert, Josh Reeder, Dr. Sha Bradley, and Whom Else it May Concern,
As Admissions Ambassadors and valuable front-facing representatives of Scripps College, we find the censorship and violent closing of the Motley Coffeehouse reprehensible and incompatible with our roles as advertisers. We feel we cannot do our job—to present, uplift, and promote our community and institution to prospective students sincerely—when Scripps College has censored our peers and violently revoked their employment. We stand in support and solidarity with the Motley Coffeehouse and the student employees and leaders who work there.
In your initial email to Motley managers, you indicated that the flags and decorations, specifically the Palestinian flag, inside the Motley, violate the “Advertising, Publicity, and Solicitation Policy” in the CoC. This policy states that any flyers for events, commercial offers, or solicitations on campus must be pre-approved. Flags and decor do not advertise events on campus or offer commercial interests, therefore not violating the policy.
Beyond the technicalities of our Code of Conduct, further emails cited that removing flags, posters, and flyers at The Motley was “in line” with Scripps College’s “Principles of Community.” As ambassadors to prospective students, we promote the college because of the community that we, as students, have cultivated here. The actions of the Scripps College administration, not The Motley, are in direct contradiction with these principles and are advertently “restrict[ing] free expression or creat[ing] an unwelcoming atmosphere.” The only thing unwelcoming about Scripps College is that the Palestinian flag, representing people’s nationality, cannot be hung in our student-run coffee house.
One particularly salient line: “Recognizing that such expressions may offend, provoke, and disturb, Scripps affirms its dedication to encourage rather than limit expression. At the same time, Scripps encourages community members to show mutual respect and understanding and to employ reasoned civil discourse.” We have never seen civil discourse from Scripps College surrounding The Motley. Instead, we saw private emails that demanded obedience under threats against student employment. We received emails directed to the entire Scripps community that placed full blame on the Motley managers. Then, you revoke our fellow students’ employment with no distinct warning. How can we promote Scripps College as a place of learning, diversity, and community when our administrators cannot employ the “reasoned civil discourse” they cite against our student-run coffee house?
In our tours, interviews, fairs, info sessions, and online communications, we, as Ambassadors, aim our conversations toward prospective students’ interests, which often include business, entrepreneurship, and on-campus jobs. A focal point among these avenues is highlighting the Motley Coffeehouse. We advertise the establishment, specifically emphasizing its student-run nature. We see how parent and student eyes light up at the idea of a student-run space that fosters campus learning, community, and vibrancy.
Now, our administration has changed the locks to the Motley. They keep student workers, many of whom are on work-study, out of their place of employment as a punishment for not complying with orders to take down a Palestinian flag. How would you like us to frame this on our tours?
Tomorrow, we welcome our Discover Scripps students, mainly first-generation, low-income, and/or students of color, to the Scripps campus. Many current students that Scripps administration chose to abruptly stop employing are from these same backgrounds. There is no honest way to tell them about the Scripps community without telling them this is how Scripps has treated 50+ student employees. Guiding prospective student events this weekend, many ambassadors feel disingenuous and dishonest in promoting Scripps College as an institution that wholly provides a platform for women’s leadership and empowerment.
Last spring, we communicated our solidarity with our peers arrested by Pomona College on April 5th and our peer Pomona Admission Ambassadors. In that statement, we committed to sharing information about the arrests and banning of Scripps students at Pomona College in our tours and activities. As we continue to share this information, we also commit to sharing with prospective students and families the censorship of the Motley Coffeehouse and Scripps College’s revocation of student workers’ employment with no clear warning. So long as our peers at the Motley continue to be restricted in their freedom of expression, we will continue to share student experiences with the administration in their entirety.
In Solidarity,
13 Admissions Ambassadors
SAS
Scripps Associated Students (SAS) Statement Regarding the Closing of the Motley Coffeehouse
We, the members of Scripps Associated Students, stand in unwavering solidarity with the Motley Coffeehouse and its student employees who have had their jobs revoked without warning. These actions are a clear affront and violation of our student body’s Title VI rights and the fundamental values of free speech, student empowerment, and workplace fairness that our institution claims to uphold, and that SAS is committed to championing. The Motley managers are full-time students- many of whom are seniors- who are actively working on their academics while trying their best to communicate with the deans and protect student baristas. Administration’s attempt to regain control over this narrative by claiming that the managers are uncooperative individuals perpetuates problematic ideas about women. Scripps College administration has repeatedly failed to make clear to student managers how they were in violation of Scripps policy on Advertising, Publicity, and Solicitation (4.1) which specifically pertains to flyers, not decorations. We strongly disagree with the decision to place full blame on these students who have had their requests for clarity disregarded.
A majority of these student employees are on work-study and rely on this employment as a financial lifeline and a foundation of their educational experience at this institution. By terminating these positions, the administration is placing the academic and personal well-being of over 50 Motley employees in jeopardy. These individuals are now left without the support of the administration whose job it is to protect and advocate for its students. This wrongful termination sends a disturbing message to all students who wish to feel comfortable expressing their convictions on campus or simply use the Motley as a safe, communal space. We believe that the administration’s demands for the Motley’s decorations are infringing on the rights of our SWANA students under Title VI.
Scripps College cannot exist without its students. The Motley is the cornerstone of the Scripps community and since its inception has always served as a sanctuary for political expression. The college has violated its commitment to its students by placing a heavy blanket of censorship on this space and its employees. This is especially unsettling to us against the backdrop of Scripps’ position as a historically women’s college as the premise of such an institution is to uplift a marginalized group, and Scripps’ recent actions have strayed from this ethos.
We demand the following:
- Immediate Rehiring of the Affected Employees: The Motley student employees should be reinstated to their positions without delay, with a formal apology issued for the harm caused to their wellbeing.
- Commitment to Protecting Autonomous Free Speech and Expression: We call on Scripps College to publicly reaffirm their commitment to upholding autonomous free speech and political expression for all students, especially those employed on campus.
We believe that these steps are essential to restore the trust that has been severed between the student body and the institution, and to ensure that all students feel safe to express their support for oppressed individuals. SAS stands with the affected students and will continue to advocate for justice and equity in all Scripps spaces.
We will be leaving paper hearts outside the Motley along with pens/pencils for students to share their support and solidarity for the Motley workers during this time. Please take the time to stop by to write your thoughts and feelings.
In solidarity,
Scripps Associated Students
NFAS
Claremont SJP stands in unwavering solidarity and struggle with the Motley Coffeehouse, and its 50 student workers who were abruptly fired yesterday morning with NO notice in an act of retaliation against their principled displays of solidarity with Palestine.
Yesterday, Oct. 5th, at 6:01 AM President Amy Newhall Marcus sent an email to the Scrippsc ollege student body declaring that the Motley Coffeehouse will be shut down until further notice. At 6:04 AM Jennifer Berklas, director of HR and Deputy Title lX, sent an email to the student workers who run the Motley, most of whom are work-study and rely on their employment at the Motley, to let them know that they are no longer authorized to be working.
We expected administrations across the Claremont Colleges to employ new tactics to stifle student organizing this semester. Scripps’ administration has done just that with their closure of the Motley, acting under the false guise of “upholding the feminist, intersectional ethos” of the establishment, and “ensuring the spirit of access and inclusion and welcoming space”. The labeling of an expression of Palestinian solidarity as “unwelcoming” is blatantly discriminatory and an example of the Palestine exception to free speech at play. Scripps admin’s decision to leave 51+ student workers jobless without notice to repress free speech and student organizing further contradicts any commitment to creating accessible, inclusive environments.
Scripps College has been overt in its tactics. It is clear what they are committed to: Suppressing all pro-Palestinian organizing and speech, including even the most basic expressions of Palestinian identity. We affirm and support Scripps Associated Students in their demands that the college immediately rehire affected students and commit to protecting free speech/expression, which includes the right to organize against genocide.
Motley workers, we will fight for you. Administration of the Claremont Colleges are scared. They understand the power of our organizing communities. That’s why they keep trying to shut us down. The power of the people will always be stronger than the people in power.
Scripps Scrapps
We, the managers of Scripps Scrapps, stand in unwavering solidarity with the Motley Coffeehouse and the 50+ student workers who were unjustly terminated from their jobs by Scripps administration for refusing to take down the Palestinian flag.
The decision to close the Motley was announced to the entire school at 6:01 AM on 10/5. Just three minutes later, at 6:04 AM, the HR Office officially notified the student workers – many of whom have work-study positions – that they would need to seek new employment. In closing the Motley and in announcing the closure to the public and to employees in this way, Scripps College has completely disrespected Motley staff and their rights. The College has also cut off 5C students, faculty, and staff from one of the most important spaces on campus.
We would like to join SAS in demanding…
PrisAb
This morning, Scripps President, Amy-Marcus Newhall, closed the Motley Coffeehouse, firing their 50+ (largely work-study) student employees. This closure serves to punish baristas and managers for their solidarity with Palestine, which they have maintained despite almost a year of intimidation by admin.
LET US BE CLEAR: This is the “Palestine exception” at play
Admin has refused to explain to Motley staff how this flag violates a specific school policy. This is not about “noncompliance”. There is no version of organizing for Palestine that the administration finds acceptable. But the community will not back down. Claremont students want to see a Free Palestine and a world without cages.
We support Scripps Associated Students’ (SAS) demands …
CSWA
CSWA STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE MOTLEY and the 51 student workers who Scripps just stripped of their the jobs in retaliation for Palestine solidarity speech.
On Saturday morning, Scripps President Amy Marcus-Newhall announced that the administration was closing the Motley, after a student put up a Palestine flag.
In addition to being blatantly anti-Palestinian, Scripps’ decision to close the Motley is shamelessly anti-worker, cutting off the incomes of 51 student workers who are mostly on work study.
In light of Scripps’ lockout of Motley workers in retaliation for their organizing, we renew our expression of solidarity with the Motley and its student workers.
Scripps’ actions are reprehensible.
WE WILL
FIGHT BACK.
SJP
Claremont SJP Stands in Solidarity with The Motley
Claremont SJP stands in unwavering solidarity and struggle with the Motley Coffeehouse, and its 50 student workers who were abruptly fired yesterday morning with NO notice in an act of retaliation against their principled displays of solidarity with Palestine.
Yesterday, Oct. 5th, at 6:01 AM President Amy Newhall Marcus sent an email to the Scripps College student body declaring that the Motley Coffeehouse will be shut down until further notice. At 6:04 AM Jennifer Berklas, director of HR and Deputy Title lX, sent an email to the student workers who run the Motley, most of whom are work-study and rely on their employment at the Motley, to let them know that they are no longer authorized to be working.
We expected administrations across the Claremont Colleges to employ new tactics to stifle student organizing this semester. Scripps’ administration has done just that with their closure of the Motley, acting under the false guise of “upholding the feminist, intersectional ethos” of the establishment, and “ensuring the spirit of access and inclusion and welcoming space”.
The labeling of an expression of Palestinian solidarity as “unwelcoming” is blatantly discriminatory and an example of the Palestine exception to free speech at play. Scripps admin’s decision to leave 51+ student workers jobless without notice to repress free speech and student organizing further contradicts any commitment to creating accessible, inclusive environments.
Scripps College has been overt in its tactics. It is clear what they are committed to: Suppressing all pro-Palestinian organizing and speech, including even the most basic expressions of Palestinian identity.
We affirm and support Scripps Associated Students in their demands that the college immediately rehire affected students and commit to protecting free speech/expression, which includes the right to organize against genocide.
MOTLEY WORKERS, WE WILL FIGHT FOR YOU.
Administration of the Claremont Colleges are scared. They understand the power of our organizing communities. That’s why they keep trying to shut us down.
THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS BE STRONGER THAN THE PEOPLE IN POWER
PDFA
PDfA Stands in Unwavering Support of Motley Baristas
Yesterday, Scripps Admin shut down The Motley and fired 51 students in retaliation for Palestine solidarity.
Who did this?
Scripps President Amy Marcus Newhall.
What the fuck is she doing?
A lockout (they changed the locks Sat. morning), classic tactic used by abusive employers.
Why is Scripps doing all this?
Scripps + all 5C admin are terrified of ALL anti-imperialist organizing. Well organized, pro-Palestine working class students = admin’s worst nightmare.
The contradictions of Scripps are heightening.
Scripps does not give a shit about intersectional feminism because they profit from zionism, imperialism, and the continuation of settler colonialism.
REPRESSION WILL BREED RESISTANCE.
7C Staff 4 Justice
7C Staff for Justice in Palestine stands in solidarity with the Motley Coffeehouse and the 50+ student employees who were terminated for their refusal to take down the Palestinian flag displayed on the Motley walls.
On Saturday, October 6th, Scripps President Amy Marcus-Newhall announced the closure of the Motley Coffeehouse. The decision, which abruptly stripped students of their source of income, was carried out to punish and silence current student workers, as well as intimidate those within the Scripps community who stand in solidarity with Palestine. While Scripps administration claims a desire to preserve a “feminist and intersectional ethos,” their actions indicate otherwise. To label the Palestinian flag as “unwelcoming” is discriminatory and an affront to the values of inclusivity and free expression.
As such, we reaffirm the Scripps Associated Students’ (SAS) demands…
With unwavering support and love for our students,
7C Staff for Justice in Palestine
Nishmat/JVP/Kehilah
As Jewish students from Scripps and across the 5C community, we are writing to express our support for the Motley Coffeehouse and its student workers after the Scripps administration’s sudden closure of the Motley. This decision, which shuts down an important organizing and gathering space on campus, is deeply harmful to the Scripps and 5C community. The Motley has long been celebrated for their commitment to social justice and intersectional feminism, and should not be punished now for standing by their values and allowing students a space to voice their political beliefs.
As a collective of Jewish students, we wholeheartedly reject the implication that the mere presence of a Palestinian flag in the Motley “may inadvertently restrict free expression or create an unwelcoming atmosphere.” Why do Scripps administrators believe a Palestinian flag exludes or silences? Implicit in the administration’s language is the idea that we, as Jews, are being made to feel unwelcome in the space. But that isn’t true.
We reject the notion that our identities are in opposition to those of the Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students on our campus, the idea that comfort for some of us must come at the cost of others’ safety, and the framing that suggests these actions were taken with our community in mind. Expressions of solidarity with Palestine do not make us feel unwelcome. They are signs of a vibrant campus community that embraces our values of political engagement, diversity, and dissent.
We refuse to be tokenized and unfairly used by an administration that cites our supposed safety as a reason to silence student voices, shut down central community spaces, and lay off over 50 student employees — including Jewish students — without warning or justification. We will never be safe so long as we are singled out and isolated from our larger student community, and our grief weaponized to silence the voices of our peers. Though they may claim to, the Scripps administration does not speak for us.
Our political views as a community are varied, but we stand united in condemning the abrupt closure of the Motley. We join many student groups in calling on the Scripps administration to reopen the Motley immediately, reinstate student workers, and commit to protecting the rights of all our peers to advocate for marginalized people within our own community and worldwide.
Signed:
Nishmat
Scripps College Kehillah
JVP at the Claremont Colleges
