Students at Eastern Mennonite University and Bethel College called for a cease-fire in Gaza with their voices, bodies and two large bells in multiday demonstrations in March and early April.

Activities at EMU in Harrisonburg, Va., addressed not only Israel’s military response and siege of Gaza following an Oct. 7 incursion into Israel by Hamas militants, but also relative silence of EMU administrators. EMU’s Student Government Association had previously sent a letter to EMU administration and board members asking for a statement supporting a cease-fire.

About 80 EMU students, faculty and staff walked out of EMU President Susan Schultz Huxman’s State of the University address March 18 because the institution had not made a public statement supporting a cease-fire. The group grew to about 100 people on Thomas Plaza who sang antiwar songs and shared stories as they called on EMU to speak out.

The demonstration marked the beginning of three days of ringing the campus bell every four seconds — each toll representing one of the more than 33,000 people killed in Palestine and Israel since the start of the war.

Schultz’s office released a statement March 19 condemning the violence in Palestine and Israel, calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, protection of all civilians and the release of all hostages.

Bethel’s Community for Justice and Peace, a student-led group on the North Newton, Kan., campus, invited community members to an April 3 protest and vigil to mourn lives lost in the conflict. Participants gathered on the lawn in front of the Administration Building to sing before three days of ringing Bethel’s historic bell.

Speakers at the event called on the U.S. government to support a permanent cease-fire, investment in aid to Gaza, release of all hostages and prisoners and divestment from weapons of war across the Middle East.

“In 1969, the Bethel College Peace Club, which at that time included my own grandmother, rang this bell for 48 hours to commemorate the 48,000-plus U.S. soldiers who had died in Vietnam at that time,” said Josue Coy Dick. “In doing so, they sought to make real a small part of the immense destruction that war had wrought. This week, we ring this bell again, and for the very same reason: to help us all feel in our bones the magnitude of 33,000 deaths — one hour of ringing for every thousand lives lost in the current conflict between Hamas and Israel.”

In a statement on social media, the college affirmed the student group’s position and asked the broader Bethel community to call on the government to “divest intelligently from weapons of war across the Middle East.”

“Concerning the current war between Israel and the Palestinian people in particular, we affirm that a lasting ceasefire, increased humanitarian aid, release of all hostages and political prisoners, and divestment from Israel’s weapons of war are an important yet limited and insufficient response to this multifaceted conflict,” stated Bethel on Facebook.