Pro-Palestinian protests grow at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara

Pro-Palestinian protests grew Thursday at California colleges and universities, including a new encampment at UCLA and demonstrations at UC Santa Barbara, a day after police in riot gear arrested 93 protesters at USC.

Fallout over the Israel-Hamas war grew Thursday as USC announced that it would cancel its main stage commencement ceremony after more than a week of national controversy over its decision to pull a pro-Palestinian valedictorian’s speaking slot from the May event that was expected to draw 65,000 attendees.

The university cited new safety measures, saying that the “time needed to process the large number of guests coming to campus will increase substantially.”

Dozens of smaller graduation ceremonies and celebrations at USC will continue under a new ticket policy and security checks.

At Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata, the campus remained closed and classes shifted online, with pro-Palestinian students occupying multiple buildings since Monday night.

And at UC Berkeley, 50 tents remained up by Sproul Hall, the historic home of the campus’ free speech movement. On their fourth day of a “Free Palestine Camp,” students called for the university to divest its endowment from weapons manufacturers tied to Israel.

Tensions were high at USC, where the campus was rocked at the end of the semester by President Carol Folt’s decision to cancel the valedictorian’s speech and then a commencement address by film director Jon M. Chu, before calling off the main commencement altogether.

An encampment that launched before sunrise Wednesday morning at Alumni Park grew to about 200 protesters — students, faculty and outsiders — before the late-night arrests by the LAPD. By Thursday morning, the encampment had been cleared, with campus security picking up the remaining tents and signs.

On Thursday, the university fenced off the park — the site of the called-off commencement — to set up a brunch for 2024 graduates scheduled for Friday morning. There were no protesters and few signs of Wednesday’s unrest, besides chalk messages on nearby sidewalks in support of Palestinians.

The campus remains closed to the public through weekend, and professors have moved classes online.

“This is a series of poor decisions by USC, from banning the valedictorian to calling in police to arrest peaceful students,” said Luke, a USC sophomore who was arrested Wednesday night and released early Thursday morning. “I don’t know what this university thinks it’s doing, because none of it makes sense.”

Luke did not share his last name because he said he was worried about his safety and repercussions to his enrollment at USC, where campus safety officers on Wednesday told students that they could face discipline for violating rules over camping and use of amplified sound.

Amelia Jones, a professor at the Roski School of Art and Design who joined faculty in protesting on Wednesday, said there was a growing “lack of trust” at USC between the administration, faculty and students.

“They just massively escalated by calling in LAPD,” she said.

A Jewish community group condemned the USC protests, while a Muslim civil rights group condemned the arrests.

“While students have a right to protest, they do not have the right to intimidate or threaten Jewish students,” said a statement from USC’s Hillel. “Today’s events on campus included a protest action that again employed antisemitic chants including ‘there is only one solution, intifada revolution’ and ‘long live the intifada.’ These actions reflect a disturbing and quickly escalating situation nationally and on our own campus at USC.”

In another statement, the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations spoke out against the arrests of peaceful protesters.

“It is deeply concerning that USC’s response to students demonstrating peacefully in solidarity with Palestine is forcible suppression of free speech and assembly,” said CAIR-LA legal director Amr Shabaik. “This mirrors a nationwide trend of colleges and universities attempting to censor pro-Palestine advocacy on campuses.”

At UCLA, about 100 students, faculty, staff and alumni occupied the Palestine Solidarity Encampment on Thursday with more than 20 tents surrounded by wooden pallets and protest signs.

The effort was organized by UC Divest Coalition, which was made up of several student groups.

Outside Royce Hall, students and others stood in line to check in before entering the encampment.

Participants said they had seen minimal police presence — mostly officers passing by in squad cars.

Marie Salem, 28, a graduate student studying public health, said the encampment is a community of people demanding a change from UC administrators.

“It’s about our community realizing that we no longer can go to a university that is complicit in genocide, and we no longer can go to a university that is invested in this genocide of the Gazans,” Salem said.

George Dutton, a professor of Asian language and cultures, said he and others wanted to observe the protest to ensure that students can safely practice their 1st Amendment rights.

Dutton said it was “deeply disturbing” to see a large police presence on campuses across America this past week as students protest the war in Gaza.

At UC Santa Barbara, hundreds occupied the student resources building Thursday for a daylong series of workshops, art projects and other actions to express solidarity with Palestinians, call for a cease-fire and demand an end to Israel-related investments.

A few tents were set up inside the building, but no encampment is planned, said Bisnupriya Ghosh, a professor of English and global studies and member of Academics for Justice in Palestine. She added that no police were present, and the event was proceeding peacefully.

“It’s centered around education about Israel-Palestine, as well as antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of racism and hate,” Ghosh said.

Times staff writers Melissa Gomez, Jenny Jarvie and Teresa Watanabe contributed to this report.