Ongoing support needed for the Bowdoin encampment, Bowdoin College, 255 Maine St, Brunswick, ME

The Bowdoin students occupying a campus building to press for divestment need our urgent support !!!

WHERE THINGS STAND:

- Fifty students are now encamped in the Smith Union* on the Bowdoin campus, with fellow students & community supporters present at the entrance.

* Renamed the Shaban al-Dalou Union by occupying students.

- Currently, the college is permitting delivery of food and other items (see list below of items you can provide).

- Looking forward, there is sure to be a crackdown. The Bowdoin Dean for Student Affairs, Jim Hoppe, orchestrated the forcible removal and arrest of pro-Palestine protesters last year as a dean at Emerson College in Boston. Hoppe has already sent an email threatening disciplinary action against participating students in the Bowdoin encampment.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

- Come stand in solidarity, at any time day or night*, outside the Smith / Shaban al-Dalou Union (8 Polar Loop, Brunswick - parking available on Park Row and other streets).

* If the building is cleared and arrests made, the police are less likely to be violent if observed and filmed (do not film students where they can be identified).

- Join us at a big support rally on Saturday, February 8, 11 am on, in front of the occupied Smith / Shaban al-Dalou Union building. Bring family, friends, colleagues - we need Bowdoin to know that Maine supports the students!

- Write to Bowdoin's Dean Jim Hoppe, telling him to respect the rights of students to protest without interference.

Click Email Hoppe

- Bring needed items to the occupying students, which can be delivered, as of now, through the building entrance doors. Priority items are:

-- Sleep stuff (tents, blankets, etc.)

-- Food & Drinks (high protein, some gluten free, tea bags, disposable cups, etc.)

-- Body stuff (body wipes, period pads, etc.)

- Contact the media in your community, asking them to cover this story, and write letters to the editor supporting the students at Bowdoin and the movement for justice for Palestinians.

Thank you! Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights

Instagram / @mainecoalition4palestine