Several thousand activists gathered outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday to protest the war in Gaza, echoing demonstrations last spring on college campuses. But protests this school year may look different, at least in California. Michael V. Drake, president of the University of California, issued a new order to the chancellors of all 10 campuses, directing UC leaders to strictly enforce a ban on encampments, protests that block campus pathways, and masks intended to conceal protesters’ identities.
A U.S. district judge issued a preliminary injunction last week directing UCLA Student Affairs and all campus police and security teams to not "aid or participate in any obstruction of access for Jewish students to ordinarily available programs."
The recent call to enforce the ban may partly be a response to the injunction, says Jaweed Kaleem, education reporter for The LA Times. “I think they were trying to figure out: How do we prevent things like this lawsuit? How do we prevent … police having to make all these arrests, or people being beat up at UCLA? … I think they're trying to address a lot of issues at once.”
Grad student Benjamin Kersten, who helped organize protests with Jewish Voice for Peace at UCLA, says the order upsets him.
“It seems like the idea of Jewish safety is once again being deployed to enact policies that invite greater police presence, which is part of what exposed me and many of my peers to violence, and now also to risk public health. … The encampment did not permit an unsafe environment for Jewish students. It did not restrict access on the basis of one's Jewish identity,” Kersten says. “I know this because I was there, because me and many others were invited to hold Passover Seder and Shabbat as part of the encampment’s programming.”
He adds, “It's also abundantly clear to me that the violence that occurred at the hands of vigilantes and the police just simply did not have to happen had the university taken meaningful steps to engage with the demands and values of such important parts of the campus community. … The university is taking … what I would call a sort of authoritarian response to political dissent. Because students said there is an egregious conflict going on that has now killed upwards of 40,000 people in Gaza, and we understand our university to be complicit, and we need more just and democratic investment practices.”
Kersten says protesting is just one tactic in pressuring the university to meet his community’s demands of divestment. He lists other methods such as political education, student referendums, and calls for meetings with those who oversee financial investments for the UC Office of the President.
Last year, UCLA drew national attention when counter-protestors incited violence on campus, attacking the encampment. Kaleem explains that police didn’t respond for a long time, then made one arrest, but the charges got lowered. “There's several people out there who were committing violence that was clearly illegal and targeted, and they have not been charged right now,” he points out.
So what can people expect as the school year begins? What might demonstrators plan on Cal State campuses or community colleges?
“Talking about deaths in Gaza — that has only increased. Talking about U.S. political and financial aid to Israel — weapons aid — that's only increased,” says Kaleem. “So the issues people are concerned about are the same and bigger. I've seen protesters, since October 7, change their tactics, become more creative, become more bold. And the ones I've spoken to said they do not plan to stop.”