Twenty students from St. Mary’s College in Moraga occupied a chapel and eight students began a hunger strike on Wednesday night to push the university to disclose all of its financial investments and divest from any corporations supporting Israel’s war in Gaza.
The students remained in the Chapel of the Most Blessed Virgin, near the entrance to campus, on Thursday. They also called on the school to not remove a vigil dedicated to Palestinian children killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 at the St. John the Baptist De La Salle statue on the campus.
Christine Hutchins, a college spokesperson, said Thursday afternoon that the university was aware that a “very small number” of students was occupying the chapel. Hutchins said in an email to Bay Area News Group that the protesting students accepted the university administration’s invitation to meet Thursday evening so they can “work together to resolve their concerns.” Earlier in the day, she said officials were working with the students to provide food and asking them to meet with administrators.
Hutchins said there was no plan to clear the chapel, and that the school will continue with planned services and events. She said she expected the chapel to be vacated later Thursday after the protesting students and administrators are able to meet.
An earlier statement from campus officials said that “we have been sitting down and visiting with this group of students, offering sustenance as their health and well-being is a top priority, and inviting them to work together with administration to resolve their concerns. … With Saint Mary’s Commencement approaching, we are determined to maintain a safe and welcoming environment for all our students, employees, and visitors.”
The school’s commencement is scheduled for May 26.
Kylie Gutierrez, a co-organizer with the campus’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine and fourth-year digital media student, said that they had chosen to participate in the hunger strike along with seven other students are because it seemed like the university wasn’t taking their demands seriously.
“I wanted to call attention to the genocide that’s happening in Palestine,” said Gutierrez. “I didn’t want to be complicit in it in any sense of the word. If it changes how the university is complicit in it, then I’ll do anything in my power to change it.”
Gutierrez said the students chose to occupy the chapel on Wednesday as it was the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, which recognizes when Palestinians were permanently displaced from their lands during the 1948 war that led to the establishment of the modern nation of Israel. They also said the students “felt very saddened” by the school’s lack of response to their demands as the semester came to a close.
“What’s going on in Gaza is absolutely unacceptable and our school as an institution rooted in the Lasallian tradition needs to be 100% on board with what we’re demanding,” said first-year Washington State student Isa Muniz Simunovic, “which is to divest from any organizations that are involved in genocide of Palestinians.”
Another student participating in the hunger strike is Desiree Sturrock, a 20-year-old junior who hails from Southern California.
“For me personally, what’s been going on over there for the Palestinians has been terrible since at least October, probably way longer,” Sturrock said. “I wanted to show solidarity with those people who are suffering every day. St. Mary’s has had a long history of chapel occupation, so I really felt the need.”
Through Thursday afternoon, the demonstration remained peaceful and the students allowed non-participants to enter the chapel to exercise their religious rights. Gutierrez said that some people have had issues with the occupation and have gone in trying to take down their decorations.
The group has been organizing around this cause for about two months, Gutierrez said. Their actions included a one-day occupation of the same chapel last week, as well as up conducting learning sessions and putting up posters every night.
Students from both Students for Justice and Palestine and the Middle Eastern North African student organization attempted to speak with the university’s president for about four months with no response, Gutierrez said. In an email to students Wednesday shared with the Bay Area News Group, the university president acknowledged that students were demanding the university recognize “the conflict in Gaza” and stated they hoped to address “a number of issues” in their next four-year plan for the college, Transformation 2028.
Officials at St. Mary’s College did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon from the Bay Area News Group.
Rick Hurd contributed to this report.