Campus Watch April 11, 2024

Guest Speaker at Mandatory UCLA Med School Lecture Leads “Free Palestine” Chant

A guest speaker during a lecture for a required course for first-year UCLA Medical School students led a “Free, Free Palestine” chant on March 27.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that the guest speaker, Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, was giving a talk on “Housing (In)Justice” and had her face covered with a Palestinian keffiyeh. In addition to the “Free Palestine” chant––which purportedly featured UCLA faculty and administrators watching in silence––Gray-Garcia reportedly ordered students to kneel, touch “Mama Earth” with their fists and pray to “the ancestors.” According to the Daily Mail, Gray-Garcia has previously referred to the Oct. 7 massacre as “justice” and has compared the homeless to the Palestinians.

The David Geffen School of Medicine said in a statement to the Journal, “We take this matter seriously and are looking into the details of what transpired.”

20 Pro-Palestinian Protesters Arrested for Occupying Pomona College President’s Office

Twenty pro-Palestinian protesters, all of whom are Pomona College students, were arrested on April 5 after occupying Alexander Hall, many of whom occupied President Gabriele Starr’s office inside the building.

According to The Claremont Independent, pro-Palestinian groups on campus had built a mock apartheid wall on campus throughout the week; it was taken down by the college on April 5. These groups have also been calling for the college to divest from Israel. Eighteen protesters reportedly occupied Starr’s office and “dozens more” occupied the hallway outside her office, per The Claremont Independent. More than 100 protesters chanted anti-Israel invectives outside Alexander Hall like, “Israel bombs, Pomona pays, how many kids did you kill today?” Starr reportedly told the protesters: “Everyone in this building is immediately subject to suspension. Harassment is following me with a camera, that is now clear. If you do not leave within the next ten minutes, every student in this building is immediately suspended from this institution… If you are from elsewhere, you will immediately be banned from this campus.”

The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Pomona is calling for Starr to resign, accusing her conduct of being “fascistic.”

Columbia Suspends Four Students Over ‘Resistance 101’ Event

Columbia University suspended four students for their participation in a “Resistance 101” virtual event on March 24 that reportedly featured speakers that praised terrorism. 

The Columbia Daily Spectator reported that on April 2, the four students were told by the university that they had 24 hours to leave their campus housing. University President Minouche Shafik said in a statement on April 5 that “a number of students have been suspended and the investigation continues.” She also called the “Resistance 101” event “an abhorrent breach of our values.”

Columbia Professor Shai Davidai posted on X, “Remember: 94 (!) student organizations were involved in this event. Only 4 organizers were suspended.”

Pitzer College Drops Study Abroad Program With University of Haifa

Pitzer College ended its study abroad program with the University of Haifa as being a preapproved program for student enrollment.

InsiderHigherEd reported that the college’s Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Allen Omoto said in an April 2 statement that the Faculty Executive Committeee voted to remove 11 programs––including the Haifa program––because of “lack of enrollments for at least five years, exchange imbalance, or curricular overlap.” Omoto claimed that “these programs are not closed, nor do any of these actions reflect an academic boycott. Pitzer students may still attend these programs through a petition process overseen by the Study Abroad and International Programs Committee.”

AMCHA Initiative Director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin said in a statement, “Anti-Zionist students and faculty launched aggressive efforts to implement academic BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] at Pitzer, using the campus square and classroom to demonize, delegitimize and call for the destruction of the Jewish state, and to vilify, bully, exclude and suppress its on-campus supporters, especially Jewish students. Against the backdrop of such behavior, how could any Pitzer student feel safe attending an Israel-abroad program, taking classes or doing research about Israel, or even simply expressing support for Israel?”

Berkeley Law SJP Reportedly Shares Cartoon of Law School Dean Holding Bloody Utensils

Berkeley Law School’s SJP chapter shared, and subsequently deleted, a cartoon showing the school’s dean Erwin Chemerinsky holding bloody utensils, according to a screenshot obtained by The Washington Free Beacon.

The chapter posted the image after Chemerinsky sent out an email inviting third-year students at the school for dinner at his house. The SJP chapter called for boycotting all of Chemerinsky’s events until the law school ceases ties from companies that do business with Israel. After deleting the cartoon, the SJP chapter reposted the image without blood on the utensils.