Bone marrow drive, divestment sit-in converge on Beinecke Plaza An annual drive to aid cancer treatments and a sit-in for Yale divestment from arms manufacturers were among the causes promoted on the central plaza on Wednesday. Word by Ethan Wolin. Photos by Samad Hakani, Christina lee and Ellie Park.

Beinecke Plaza was home to a mix of campaigns on Wednesday, as a drive for bone marrow cancer treatments coincided with an encampment of students pushing for Yale to divest from military arms makers.

The confluence of disparate causes — which also included a pro-Israel table and advocates of Yale investment in summertime food for New Haven youth — came on the last morning of Bulldog Days and during a week of heightened student activism before a Yale Corporation meeting this weekend.

“It’s the center of Yale’s wealth. It’s a gathering place for people. It’s a symbol of Yale’s power,” divestment activist Adam Nussbaum ’25 said, referring to Beinecke Plaza. “Today, we had the Mandi Schwartz marrow drive alongside of us, and they’ve been lovely neighbors.”

While tents for the marrow drive stood by the Schwarzman Center entrance, pro-divestment protesters filled a part of the plaza in front of the World War I memorial, surrounded by works of art and stacks of books.

The group Occupy Beinecke and more than a dozen mostly graduate students calling themselves Hunger Strikers for Palestine have urged Yale to divest from the makers of weapons being used in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. By late afternoon on Wednesday, the sit-in’s third day, the protesters vacated the plaza amid light rain, while the University released a statement saying it would not divest from military weapons manufacturers.

“It seems like a very active campus,” said Ann Evans, who works for the National Marrow Donor Program and supported Wednesday’s drive.

Larry Ciotti, an advisor to the football team and an organizer of the bone marrow drive, said that he had been concerned that the sit-in would prompt tension between the groups about their shared space. But, Ciotii said, his worries were not borne out.

Robby Tattersall ’27, a wide receiver on the football team, said there was little interaction between the two camps. He said that he and other volunteers for the bone marrow drive were sometimes energized by cheers from the Occupy Beinecke area.

“It seems to be bringing more people to the space,” Tattersall said. “The more eyes we get, hopefully, the more people we can draw into the drive.”

The various groups on Beinecke Plaza had created “a lot of sensory overload,” an American Studies graduate student who has participated in the hunger strike for five days told the News on the condition of anonymity.

Volunteers boosting the marrow drive avoided using megaphones on Beinecke Plaza, as they normally would, so as not to disturb Occupy Beinecke events, according to Ciotti.

Avery Chesek ’26, a women’s ice hockey player, said she thought the variety of causes present on Beinecke Plaza left some passers-by confused and less inclined than last year to participate in the bone marrow drive. “We try and make today the most about Mandi as we possibly can,” Chesek added.

By 5 p.m., when the drive ended, 600 people had provided samples — within the typical range of between 400 and 900 swabs for the annual one-day effort, Ciotii said. He said the drives at Yale have resulted in nearly 100 bone marrow matches to date.

The bone marrow registration effort and the divestment sit-in did not represent the only groups with a message to convey on Beinecke Plaza on Wednesday.

Yale Friends of Israel set up a table on the plaza, a move from its position on Cross Campus the day before. The group displayed a banner urging the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, as well as many Israeli flags.

“People are coming by Commons to swab their cheeks. We want to get in on the action,” said Kira Berman ’25, the organization’s president.

Berman said she had come to the pro-Israel table directly after a class and noticed that a peer from class had gone to the Occupy Beinecke area. Soon, Berman joined her a cappella group across the plaza to sing for the bone marrow registration drive.

Earlier in the day, organizers affiliated with the organization Witness to Hunger came to Beinecke Plaza to hand out flyers calling for Yale to donate $100,000 annually to a program that offers food to New Haven families when public schools are on summer vacation. The flyers included a QR code linking to an online petition with 372 signatories as of Wednesday evening.

The Hewitt University Quadrangle, the official name of the area directly west of the Schwarzman Center, has previously been the site of protests for arms divestment during South African apartheid and for recognition of Yale’s graduate student union, Local 33–UNITE HERE.

Christina Lee, Josie Reich and Laura Ospina contributed reporting.

Contact Ethan Wolin at ethan.wolin@yale.edu.