Quick Take
Today — Monday, Oct. 7 — is the first anniversary of the terrorist attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. Protests are expected on the campus of UC Santa Cruz, five months after police broke up a large encampment of protesters and arrested 122 people. It comes as the University of California system has promised a zero-tolerance policy toward encampments and any protests that block access to campus roads or buildings.
Protests marking the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza are expected on the campus of UC Santa Cruz on Monday as the university is still on edge over pending charges from the arrest of students and some faculty last spring, a resulting lawsuit and unfair labor practice claim and the promise from the University of California system of a zero tolerance-style crackdown this academic year against protest encampments.
For several weeks in May, students established an encampment with dozens of tents to protest Israel’s extended response to the wide-scale Hamas terrorist attack on the country a year ago Oct. 7. More than 1,500 Israelis and 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, and the United Nations has called the situation a humanitarian crisis.
University of California system President Michael Drake has asked the leadership of local campuses to pursue a zero-tolerance approach this fall to the kind of protests the UCSC campus saw last year.
In a letter earlier this fall, he said that encampments are banned, and that protesters will not be allowed to block roads, paths, entrances or buildings on campus, or to use “masks to intimidate others or to conceal one’s identity after violating a law or policy.”
The fallout from the spring protests at UC Santa Cruz has been significant.
As classes resumed this fall, most of the 122 people who were arrested as police broke up the campus’s Gaza protest encampment are in limbo when it comes to potential criminal charges. The Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s office has postponed court dates for protesters because it hasn’t received formal charges from campus police. Police, in turn, have written letters to those who were arrested saying they have a year to file formal charges and implying that it could depend on whether they resume the protest this school year.
The university’s treatment of protesters sparked a strike in May by 1,500 unionized graduate student workers. It has also led to a lawsuit by students and a faculty member who say it was wrong for UC Santa Cruz to ban them from campus without due process following their arrest. That tactic has also prompted faculty across the UC system, including UCSC, to file an unfair labor practice claim.
In June, UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive defended the university’s decision to break up the encampment, saying it “caused significant disruption, hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional costs to campus (including repairs, vandalism removal, and debris disposal, among others), unquantifiable impact to the educational progress for students, and most worryingly, significant safety risks for the entire community.”
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