The College Fix

Activists have raised over $90,000 in emergency funds for students

Student activists at Pomona College in California scored a win late last week when the administration of the school agreed to let protesting students remain in their college dorms even as the rest of the school was shut down due to the coronavirus panic.

The group Occupy Pomona confirmed on its Twitter feed on Sunday that the college “released the decision on Friday at 12pm that they would allow all students still on campus to remain on campus.” The activists last week had been demanding that the school allow any student who wanted to remain on campus to continue to live in the school’s dorms.

#HomelessAtPomona pic.twitter.com/M9oHZJ0aUu

— OCCUPY POMONA (@OCCUPY_POMONA) March 23, 2020

The school’s concession “was great news for students on campus, and we are glad that our work pressured administration to change their decision,” the group tweeted, while still claiming that the school did not go far enough:

However, we know that there are still many students who were forced off-campus without adequate housing due to the dorm walkthroughs Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, as well as poor communication and lack of transparency from the onset. These displaced students will incur various expenses over the next couple of months, including rent for safe and affordable housing and nutritional food.

To that end, the group has raised over ninety thousand dollars in a GoFundMe meant for “reimbursements of room and board, costs of flying students back to their home, paying work study and staff as hours are cut, etc.” Over 800 individuals have donated to the fund, which has a goal of $125,000.

The group said that a “majority of…requests to stay on campus were denied.”

MORE: Pomona students demand emergency coronavirus housing

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