UCLA Says Police Presence At Two Week Student Sit-in Is ‘Routine’

Students at UCLA have been staging a campus sit-in for almost two weeks, calling on the administration to provide accessible hybrid learning options for disabled students and to address demands to solve the “lack of support for students from marginalized communities.”

Disabled Student Union co-founder Quinn O’Connor says her group has been advocating for these options since August. She says that the administration has not offered an adequate response to DSU's demands and that campus police officers have walked through the sit-in to try and intimidate protesting students.

In a statement to LAist, the university says the walkthroughs are standard practice. “UCPD routinely go through campus buildings, including Murphy Hall, as part of security protocols,” said Bill Kisliuk, director of UCLA media relations.

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O’Connor says the administration has left hybrid learning decisions up to faculty.

“But at the same time UCLA is not providing adequate resources and technology to the professors to actually make hybrid learning possible and effective,” O’Connor said.

UCLA spokesperson Steve Ritea says the university uses a shared governance model with the Academic Senate to make certain decisions, including the choice to have hybrid learning determined by faculty.

UCLA also has a center where students with medical conditions can request accommodations. He says it supports faculty live streaming lectures and making other adjustments to support students.

DSU is joined by five other student organizations with demands, including the establishment of scholarships for Native American students and more representative recruiters.

The Academic Senate leaders and the university’s chancellor have been meeting with the students, according to Ritea. The university has “committed to supporting a number of their requests,” including increasing funding for the Black Bruin Resource Center and hiring a diversity coordinator for recruitment.

"[We're] working actively with them ... to find some common ground so that we can support as many of these as possible," Ritea said.