Faculty join the ranks of Sonoma State solidarity camp

Faculty are calling on the school to disclose and divest from any financial ties to Israel and are joining students to negotiate with administration.
photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCB

What started as a student protest against the war in Gaza, and university ties to Israel, has attracted the support of faculty at Sonoma State.

Asked why they’re standing with students, the answer is mostly the same.

"I'm here because there's genocide happening," said Professor Katherine Lee.

"I'm here because I believe, first of all, in the student's right to free speech and assembly," Professor Ron Lopez said. "Also the ethical and moral obligation to stand up against genocide and unjust war."

"To echo what's already been said, there's a ethnic cleansing going on," Professor Sylvia Soto said. "There's a genocide against the people of Palestine right now."

They’re three of a small contingent of SSU faculty who are working with students to push the university to disclose and divest from any holdings with financial ties to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Professor Lee said she feels a duty to help students make historical connections from past conflicts and movements, to today.

"As ethnic studies faculty, I also feel very strongly about challenging settler -colonialism," Lee said. "As Ron was saying about the power of the youth, right? And the critical analysis that they're offering. Palestine is ethnic studies. I'm trying to build Asian American studies at Sonoma State. So thinking about that lineage and that history of collaboration between Asian American studies and Arab American studies."

Lee, Lopez, and Soto said there’s no shortage of divided opinion among faculty, something SSU Students Affairs VP Gerald Jones said the university hopes to take into account.

"This is a very complex issue," Jones said. "It's been students, staff, faculty, community members that have voiced support or voiced opposition. We welcome that as a campus community where there's a diversity of thought, diversity of opinion, and we're hoping to be able to move forward and use this as a teaching and learning experience for everyone on the campus in the community."

With finals fast approaching, and commencement scheduled for May 18th, it’s unclear whether or not students, faculty, and administration will reach a resolution before the end of the school year.

To the north at Cal Poly Humboldt, graduation ceremonies have been shifted to multiple off-campus locations as the campus remains closed following the removal of the student led Palestine-solidarity encampment in the early morning hours of April 30th.

A Sonoma County Sheriff's Office spokesperson confirmed the deployment of 15 Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies to support University Police and the Humboldt County Sheriff during the clearing of buildings and the encampment, where over 30 protestors, including students and faculty, were arrested.