Students are led in a chant during a rally in support of the student protesters at Bowdoin College on Monday. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

A pro-Palestine encampment at Bowdoin College has ended after organizers reached “an understanding to conclude the encampment” with administrators. The students still inside the building exited during a rally Monday evening.

The protest, which began last Thursday, was organized by Bowdoin Students for Justice in Palestine, which announced the event last week as a response to the college’s lack of action on a student referendum. The Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum, which passed by a wide margin last spring, called on the college to take an institutional stand against the Israeli government and not make future investments in arms manufacturers.

Student protesters set up an encampment inside a student center building Thursday evening. College administrators issued disciplinary warnings to encamped students several times over the course of the protest, including in suspension letters given to eight students Monday morning.

Organizer Olivia Kenney left the building Monday night, and said that while the college still isn’t making commitments to act on the referendum, students consider the protest a victory.

Signs put up by the students inside can be seen through the window during a rally in support of the student protesters who remained at the encampment at Bowdoin College. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

“We concluded this action feeling that it has been an immense success, given that we have successfully proven that advocating for Palestinian liberation on a college campus through mass action can contribute to a national context of discussion,” Kenney said.

Kenney said conversations Monday evening resulted in an understanding between students, organizers and administrators that the encamped students’ good-faith discussions would be taken into consideration during their disciplinary processes, which are ongoing.

“The encampment in Smith Union has ended, with all students leaving voluntarily,” Bowdoin Director of Communications Doug Cook said in an emailed statement Monday night. “The demonstration repeatedly violated policies within Bowdoin’s Code of Community Standards and the participating students have entered the College’s disciplinary process.”

Cook did not offer specifics on the “understanding” described by students.

“Bowdoin is a place where free speech and academic freedom are highly valued and encouraged, and all are expected to abide by our policies,” he said. “We are committed to fostering open dialogues on difficult issues in a manner that is founded on mutual respect and support.”

THE ENCAMPMENT BEGINS

The protest began Thursday when a group of about 50 students set up tents inside the Smith Union. Some of them remained inside the building through the weekend, even as college administrators issued disciplinary warnings.

The protesters said they would stay as long as it took for the college’s administration to divest from weapons manufacturing and to take action on other demands from the referendum.

“We are encamping Smith Union because we demand better from an institution that claims to care about the common good,” organizers said Friday.

The protest was also a response to President Donald Trump’s comments during a press conference last week, where he said the U.S. would “take over the Gaza Strip.”

The protest continued throughout the weekend, with community members and students from other colleges gathering outside the building to support the encampment inside, according to reporting from the student newspaper, the Bowdoin Orient.

Administrators began collecting student ID numbers late Friday night and started issuing notices of disciplinary hearings. On Monday, the college began issuing temporary suspension letters to students.

In a photo of one letter posted to Bowdoin SJP’s Instagram, Senior Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs Jim Hoppe informed the student, whose name was redacted, that they were being placed on immediate temporary suspension for staying in Smith Union past 8:30 a.m. Monday. Students were told they had to vacate the campus by 5 p.m.

Eisa Rafat leads students in a chant during a rally in support of the student protesters who remained at the encampment inside the Smith Union at Bowdoin College in Brunswick on Monday. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Eight students remained in the encampment on Monday, and all eight received suspension notices, according to Bowdoin Students for Justice in Palestine.

“Bowdoin has chosen to crack down and repress the principled dissent of students who asked for nothing more than their institution to live up to its stated values. We are enraged by the weaponization of a disciplinary process against members of this community who have exhausted every other means of advocacy,” the group said in a statement Monday afternoon. “Bowdoin’s decision to scapegoat students for their failure to lead is a show of cowardice.”

”RALLY WITH US”

In response to the 5 p.m. suspension deadline, organizers planned a rally at the same time, inviting students and community members to protest the discipline and continue to press the college on the referendum’s demands.

More than 100 people gathered in freezing temperatures outside Smith Union, chanting along with student speakers while those encamped inside the building looked down from second story windows.

A group of over 100 people walk to meet the student protesters who left their encampment in Smith Union after making a deal with the administration at Bowdoin College in Brunswick on Monday. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

“The more they try to silence us, the louder we will be,” the crowd chanted.

Around 6 p.m. Kenney announced from inside the building over a megaphone that students had reached an understanding with the administration, and shortly after, the students exited Smith Union to cheers and hugs from their peers outside.

“We launched this encampment as a last resort, because we had exhausted all of the processes the college offered us toward the reasonable demands that we presented for removing our complicity in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people,” Kenney said shortly after leaving Smith Union.

They described the college administration’s reaction to the protest as “bad faith” but said Monday evening, in the “eleventh hour” the college finally had a productive conversation with the organizers.

“Unfortunately, it did not result in meeting (the demands of the) Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum. We will not stop, we are not satisfied, we will continue to hold the school accountable for its complicity in genocide,” Kenney said. “Although we reached an understanding to conclude this encampment on the understanding that our good-faith discussions will be communicated as a consideration in the disciplinary process.”

Eisa Rafat, a student organizer who led chants during the rally, said one constant over the five days of protest was community engagement.

“When we called on our students, when we called on our community, they came,” he said.

Rafat said people showed up in snowstorms, at night, and in freezing temperatures. He said Bowdoin can feel far from the parts of the world where action is, but this protest proved that to be untrue, especially when protesters received messages from a university in Palestine, thanking them for their protest.