Belén Yudess ’25 and Charlotte Korer ’27
Copy Editor & Copy Editor Intern
On Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 9:08 a.m., Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Mary Hatcher-Skeers emailed the Scripps student body about new entry protocols for Denison Library. The email read: “Effective immediately, visitors to Denison will be required to present and swipe a Claremont Colleges identification card and allow inspection of bags before entry. Only study materials such as computers, electronic devices, books, paper, or notebooks, and writing instruments will be allowed into Denison. Campus safety [sic] officers will implement the new entry protocols until further notice.”
In her email, Hatcher-Skeers cited a study-in planned for Oct. 17 as part of the rationale for the updated entry protocols. “Student organizations have publicized a planned ‘study-in’ at Denison Library this week. All students at the Claremont Colleges are welcome to study in Denison Library. However, to protect against the escalation that has recently occurred, new entry protocols will be implemented at Denison.”
The new security measures were implemented in the wake of administrative crackdowns after students took over Carnegie Hall at Pomona College on Oct. 7. As of this article’s writing, Pomona has suspended 10 students and banned numerous students from Pomona Campus in relation to the protest without due process.
Hatcher-Skeers justified the decision to restrict access to the library in the context of the takeover in her email. “The escalation observed during recent campus protests violates [the Scripps College’s Principles of Community] and has provoked fear and concerns about protestors assuming control of College spaces,” she wrote.
A Denison student staff member who chose to remain anonymous was confounded by this concern.
“The actual action itself was just people coming to study, maybe wearing a keffiyeh and having a little sign of support for Palestine and the divestment of military institutions that are funding the genocide,” they said. “This peaceful form of protest obeys all the protocols that the library has and could have been the first direct protest for the sake of a free Palestine at Scripps College. To see that administration’s first interaction with that is to immediately shut it down basically communicates that this is not allowed here and that the administration can take away spaces from students at the end of the day.”
Denison student staff were notably not informed of the new security measures before the email. “At 9:25 a.m., student staff working the opening shift found Campus Security [sic] stationed outside of the library’s front gates and emergency exit, which was not communicated in the email to the student body,” Denison student staff said via a statement emailed to Scripps students by Scripps Associated Students. “Campus Security was monitoring student access, searching backpacks, confiscating water bottles, and prohibiting use of Denison’s outdoor courtyard. It was only then communicated to student staff that external Scripps administration decided to limit access within Denison. Student patrons could not access over half of the Library, including the bathroom.”
The anonymous Denison employee commented on the ramifications of the increased surveillance surrounding the library. “We’re always talking about having the space be as successful as possible, for students to come in and study, use materials, and engage,” they said. “The police presence of camp sec is the antithesis of everything that we work towards.”
Despite the added security, a study-in at Denison Library organized by Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP) occurred on Oct. 21 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
SJP explained that a study-in felt appropriate to administrative reactions towards pro-Palestinian organizing at Scripps and the 5Cs and the greater reality occurring in Palestine.
“We chose to host a study-in to show principled solidarity with Palestine during the ongoing genocide in Gaza and to show that shutting down a café will not eliminate pro-Palestine organizing at these colleges,” SJP said in a statement to The Scripps Voice. “While we study here in Claremont, every single university in Gaza has been destroyed. The IOF is committing scholasticide; they destroy schools, penalize students for standing up against apartheid and genocide, and wipe accounts of Palestinian resistance from history. While the Claremont Colleges have increased their crackdown on student speech, it will never be acceptable to stand here and dwell on the repression enacted by our administrations while we maintain an unquantifiable privilege in being here at all.”
Since Campus Safety has been stationed outside of Denison, library staff have seen fewer patrons pass through their doors. “We have seen a decrease in student visits to Denison from all of the campuses, but we only have three days’ worth of data at this time,” said Jennifer Martinez-Wormser ’95, Director and Sally Preston Swan Librarian for the Ella Strong Denison Library.
The Denison student employee cited how these statistics inadvertently revealed the administration’s lack of understanding regarding the importance of Denison within the Scripps community. “They had no idea of how many people come in a week,” they said. “I want to say approximately one-third of the usual people who come in daily have come in and we gave those numbers to administration, and they said, ‘That’s great,’ and we had to tell them that’s only a small percentage of what we usually get.”
This is not the first time the administration has acted contrary to the will of the library staff. The administration’s decision to add security stands in opposition to their decision to forgo increased Campus Security assistance following a break-in at the library during the 2024 spring semester.
“[Martinez-Wormser] had asked for funding and more institutional support when this happened, to which administration said, ‘Do you really need to have night shifts? Do you really need to have weekend shifts? And basically said, ‘you’re on your own with this,’ which is why student workers’ hours have been cut,” the student worker said.
The Denison student staff member specified that this statement is not calling for increased surveillance around Denison, but contextualizes the administration’s narrative of recent events surrounding student protests. “We bring it up because it speaks to the fact that the administration’s claim that this was done in support of the students is blatantly false,” they said.
“There was an incident of potential harm and destruction of property and the institution offered little to no support.”
The decision to reduce the hours available to Denison student workers last semester are part of an ongoing pattern of administrative actions that negatively impact student employees, especially those on work-study.
“These current working conditions [are unfair], especially for work-study students, and for BIPOC, low-income, undocumented students, fill in the blank,” the anonymous student Denison staff said.
Although Denison student staff remain employed, the additional presence of Campus Safety has been a cause of anxiety and frustration for many Denison employees. The Denison student worker pointed out these tactics force a certain expectation upon Scripps students. “There’s this narrative that the ladies need to behave, the ladies need to listen to authority,” they said. “At the same we recognize that there is a silencing that’s going on … our own peers are being banned from campuses, suspended, and being provided no evidence.”
They continued, explaining how the events surrounding Denison and The Motley are subsets of a wider issue surrounding The Claremont Colleges when it comes to student organizing for Palestine. “The Claremont Colleges are trying to replicate this idea of a panoptic surveilled state where they’re trying to communicate this sense of we are watching,” they said. “Denison is just another side of that; it’s communicating where you study and eat … I think it really speaks to the Palestine exception with the colleges.”
Denison staff believe it is imperative to archive and keep track of student statements, like those of Denison and The Motley, to preserve institutional memory regarding the current atmosphere at Scripps.
“As those charged with maintaining and growing the Scripps College Archives, Denison Library staff takes very seriously its role in preserving our collective Scripps history, including recent current events,” Martinez-Wormser said. “It is critical that we work together with not just students but also with faculty and staff to document both the seemingly routine and more dramatic events that happen on campus”.
The Denison student employee added that through archival work, Denison is cementing their legacy in the political discourse surrounding Palestine at Scripps. “A library and an archive is not apolitical — and no matter what Scripps administration will try to force down, an archive can never be apolitical,” they said. “I think what [our letter] communicates into the future and into our archive is … staff workers do not represent the institution’s decisions … and that staff workers are constantly trying to make changes, even if they are small.”
Although Denison staff is unsure how long the current provisions will be in place, they hope that Scripps students, especially student employees, continue to keep their heads held high and hold administration accountable for their treatment of student workers.
“I hope that this leads to a greater discussion specifically on Scripps’ campus about what we as student workers will tolerate from administration and that as student workers, we have power collectively,” the student said. “A discussion of Palestine [is] inevitable as the Scripps administration [attempts to] prevent open dialogue and movement for free Palestine [that will continue] until they divest and boycott all attributing institutions to the wars and genocide in Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, and Congo.”
Photo Courtesy: Frances Walton ’26
