The University of California (UC) system, led by President Michael V. Drake, issued a directive on August 19 that establishes stricter policies on protest activities across its ten campuses.
In a letter addressed to the chancellors of all UC campuses, President Drake outlined the measures that are to be implemented this Fall. These include bans on encampments, unauthorized structures, and the use of masks to conceal identities during protests.
The new policies come after a turbulent year at several UC campuses, where pro-Palestinian protesters erected unauthorized encampments in an effort to denounce Israel and the war against Hamas. The encampment erected at UCLA on April 25 was particularly fraught with a multitude of antisemitic incidents. There are well-documented incidents of masked pro-Palestinian protesters physically blocking Jewish students from attending class and vandalizing school property.
In an email sent to the entire UC system, Drake said, “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. My office and campus leaders have spent the summer reflecting with students, faculty, staff, Regents, and others on the events of the past year.”
On the night of April 30 and in the early morning hours of May 1, violence at the UCLA encampment broke out as law enforcement attempted to take down the encampment. Over 200 people were arrested. Drake’s letter to the UC Chancellors shows an eagerness to turn the page on the Spring 2024 campus uprisings, encouraging “free expression and debate, while protecting the rights of all community members to teach, study, live, provide and receive clinical care, and work safely.”
Drake instructed each campus to compile these policies into a single document or webpage available to all members of their respective university communities before the Fall 2024 term. These restrictions include:
- Camping or encampments: Policies must clarify that no person shall camp, set up or erect a campsite, or occupy a tent or other temporary housing structure on University property, unless specifically pre-approved.
- Unauthorized structures: Policies must clarify that no person shall erect, build, construct, set up, establish and/or maintain unauthorized structures on University property.
- Restricting free movement: Policies must clarify that no person shall restrict the movement of another person or persons by, among other means, blocking or obstructing their ingress or egress of roadways, walkways, buildings, parking structures, fire lanes, windows, doors, or other passageways to university property, or otherwise denying a person access to a University facility or space.
- Masking to conceal identity: Policies must clarify that no person shall wear a mask or personal disguise or otherwise conceal their identity with the intent of intimidating any person or group, or for the purpose of evading or escaping discovery, recognition, or identification in the commission of violations of law or policy.
- Refusal to reveal identity: Policies must clarify that no person shall refuse to identify themselves while on University property to University officials who are acting in the performance of their duties in situations where assistance or intervention is needed.
Drake acknowledged that these directives are “intended to be illustrative” but reiterated that each university “may use different language to achieve the same effect.” The directive also aligns with the requirements of California’s Budget Act of 2024 (Senate Bill 108), which mandates that UC campuses clearly communicate their policies on protests and demonstrations, along with the potential consequences for violations.
The new policies are welcomed by UCLA student Eli Tsives. The 19-year-old film and theater major became a prominent Jewish student voice against the hostile actions by the pro-Palestininan protesters at UCLA’s encampments this past Spring.
“It is our responsibility to hold the UC schools accountable to their word and make sure that they enforce these new rules that they put in place,” Tsives said in an Instagram video. “The university administration is one step closer to making our campuses safe again, especially for the Jewish students, but there’s a lot more work that needs to be done. The Fall quarter has yet to begin, and we are already hearing about up and coming pro-Hamas protests. So, to the parents and students—keep sending those letters and emails to administration to stop the one-sided propaganda on our college campuses.”
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Drake’s letter comes just days after U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi ruled in favor of three Jewish students from UCLA who sued the Regents over the school’s failures to protect Jewish students. In his ruling on August 13, Judge Scarsi wrote, “In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. UCLA does not dispute this. Instead, UCLA claims that it has no responsibility to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students because the exclusion was engineered by third-party protesters. But under constitutional principles, UCLA may not allow services to some students when UCLA knows that other students are excluded on religious grounds, regardless of who engineered the exclusion.”
The Fall Quarter at UCLA begins on Monday, September 23.
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