The president of the University of California has announced that the system would enforce bans on encampments as well as the use of masks to “conceal identity” in guidance that comes as schools across the US are planning for protests in support of Gaza similar to those that roiled campuses across the country.
Michael V Drake, the president of the 10-campus university system, said in a statement on Monday that the UC was taking steps to “ensure a safe, inclusive campus climate that fosters a free exchange of ideas”.
“Freedom to express diverse viewpoints is fundamental to the mission of the University, and lawful protests play a pivotal role in that process,” Drake wrote. “While the vast majority of protests held on our campuses are peaceful and nonviolent, some of the activities we saw this past year were not.”
Pro-Palestinian protests swept universities across the US and UC saw demonstrations at campuses from San Diego and Santa Cruz to Davis. At UCLA, demonstrators were violently attacked by a group of masked persons as law enforcement and campus security looked on.
The protests unfolded differently on the system’s various campuses, and some schools’ responses drew more scrutiny than others. But many of the schools, and the system as a whole, drew criticism, including by those who said the system was permitting an unsafe environment for Jewish students and those frustrated over the treatment of protesters.
Before classes began this week, Drake clarified policies around prohibiting encampments and “unauthorized structures” as well as masking in order to hide identity and refusing to reveal one’s identity to university personnel. He also directed university leaders to strictly and consistently enforce the rules.
The announcement comes as students, too, have been planning for the fall semester. At UCLA, student organizers with the Palestine Solidarity Coalition (a network that emerged from the school’s spring encampment and includes Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace and UC Divest) spent their summer holding workshops, called the People’s University for a Liberated Palestine. As the new academic year begins, “students are also getting organized to spread education about divestment”, said Marie Salem, a PhD student and media liaison for the coalition.
Student protest efforts at the school may be hamstrung by the legal and academic disciplinary charges still hanging over more than 200 students arrested when police cleared the school’s encampment in May. The majority of those arrests were on misdemeanor charges, which the Los Angeles city attorney’s office handles. A spokesperson for the office told the Guardian that it had received five referrals on those cases. There is a one-year period in which charges can be filed. The county district attorney’s office, which handles felony charges, did not respond to a request for comment from the Guardian, but told the Los Angeles Times in August that all UCLA cases “are currently under review”. At least 55 students who were arrested in May also received letters from the university threatening to place a hold on their academic records or withhold their degrees.
“These legal efforts of repression of specifically our movement set really dangerous precedents for the future,” said Agnes, a recent UCLA graduate and member of Jewish Voice for Peace, who preferred only to use her first name.
Members of UCLA’s Faculty for Justice in Palestine spent the summer connecting students with legal aid and supporting them as they made their first appearances in court, said Graeme Blair, a UCLA political science professor and member of the group. In the new school year, they plan to closely monitor the university and UC system’s policies on encampments and policing on campus. To that end, faculty filed an amicus brief in opposition to a lawsuit three Jewish UCLA students filed that could limit protests on campus.
On 14 August, a US district judge ruled that UCLA cannot allow pro-Palestinian protesters to block Jewish students from accessing classes and other parts of campus. The university immediately appealed the ruling, arguing that protesters, not the university, blocked Jewish students’ access to the school. UCLA administration did not respond to the Guardian’s requests for comment on the injunction or other steps it is taking to prepare for the academic year.
