Campus protests over Israel often target endowments. Community college students find other ways to make noise

While universities nationwide have made headlines this year for student protests of Israel’s war in Gaza, local community college students haven’t seen the same attention. Geographically specific, often smaller in enrollment, and with many commuters, student gatherings can fly by unnoticed.

And unlike universities, most community colleges do not have big endowments. Their schools also typically don’t have the same high-level research contracts to do work that might benefit the Israeli war effort, which was one cause for the recent University of California academic worker strike. So even if there isn't much action for their colleges to take, for many students, they speak out simply because they are passionate.

Some schools do have money

Pasadena City College does have a nonprofit corporation that raises and receives funds intended for the students at the college.

Staff of The Courier, the college’s online news publication, found that the PCC Foundation holds investments in ExxonMobil, RTX Corp (Raytheon Technologies), and Lockheed Martin.

All three companies aid Israel in the war in Gaza. ExxonMobil provides fuel for Israel’s military, RTX helped create Israel’s Iron Dome Weapon System and makes missiles and bombs, and Lockheed Martin has been providing weapons to Israel for over 20 years.

What the PCC Foundation does with its $60 million — half of which came from a Mackenzie Scott gift in 2021 — has concerned the college’s Anti-War Club, which had its first of many protests last year. The club regularly hosts walkouts, protests, and vigils on and off-campus.

Alex Boekelheide, a spokesperson for Pasadena City College, said the data published by The Courier is outdated, and the current investment holdings are in highly diversified mutual funds, rather than individual stocks.

How students use their voices

For colleges with minimal to no financial ties to the war in Gaza, students still make demands.

At Long Beach City College, protests and one-day altars are set up on campus. Cerritos College’s humanitarian club hosted a protest in early May to inform other students about the war. Santa Monica College offers a Students for Justice in Palestine club and a Students Supporting Israel club. Both clubs have put on events this semester, with no reports of altercations.

At East Los Angeles College, 22-year-old Rin Sanchez hosts protests for students to speak about the war in Gaza. They say that if East L.A. College — the L.A. area's largest by enrollment — can pass a resolution demanding a ceasefire, that carries weight in and of itself.

Sanchez hosted their second event of the semester this spring at the campus’ Free Speech Area. The sophomore wore a white keffiyeh draped around their shoulders, along with watermelon earrings — a symbol now synonymous with solidarity for those in Palestine.

Sanchez grew up hearing their father talk about fleeing El Salvador due to the civil war that lasted 12 years. They stated that even though they never experienced that, they know the pain it can bring to not feel safe in one’s home country.

East Los Angeles College student Karma Aguilar attended a protest this spring to “show up and meet people within the community."

(

Cassandra Nava

/

LAist

)

“I hyper-fixated on Palestine and the history of it,” Sanchez said. “The more I read, especially about Nakba, that's when I got more upset and more radicalized about Palestine. And once I saw that USC and UCLA were doing their encampments, I was like, ‘I'm gonna do my own, but for ELAC.’”

Around 25 community members, professors, and students huddled around Sanchez and their megaphone, as they declared the protest an “open mic night,” urging students to express their opinions to the group.

ELAC student Hassan Tehfi shared that when he and his family were in his hometown in southern Lebanon 18 years ago, Israeli bombs dropped around them. They fled from house to house, every day a near-death experience. After two weeks of running, Tehfi and his family were able to flee to the United States.

“I'm just trying to give everyone an idea on how Palestinian families and children feel every single day, from the day they are born to the day they die,” said Tehfi, a kinesiology major. “I only experienced it for two weeks. And thank God it was only two weeks. I just want everyone to feel for the Palestinian children.”

There is no official club Sanchez represents at East LA College, but they hope to create one later this year.

Second-year student Anthony Gomeztagle said that they were happy students were talking about the war in Gaza.

“I didn’t know there were events happening on community college campuses,” he said.