University of California protest restrictions miss the mark, some faculty and students say

Thousands of students are returning to Cal State and University of California campuses this week as the war in Gaza — a major flashpoint between demonstrators earlier this year — continues to wear on.

But the rules of engagement for future demonstrators will be very different as administrators try to head off the kind of violence and destruction that was seen prior to summer as pro-Palestine and pro-Israel demonstrators clashed, many of them on campuses in Southern California, including USC and UCLA.

The California State University, the nation’s largest public university system, was the first to issue new restrictions. UC President Michael Drake followed suit, reminding the entire 10-campus system that encampments, masks that hide a person’s identity, and blocking walkways are not allowed.

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Drake said the restrictions will ensure campus safety and protect free speech. But some students see the restrictions as sidestepping the administration’s responsibility to listen to protesters.

“I think this restriction is very in line with the university's efforts to not address these concerns that we're bringing up as students,” said Mona, a UCLA undergraduate student who didn’t want her last name used because she’s worried about retaliation.

Mona said her main concern is to stop university involvement with Israel’s killing of people in Gaza through divestment.

Some faculty members said they opposed the restrictions because they believe the protesters weren’t responsible for the violence that took place.

“The things that were disruptive to learning and education were actually the decisions to call in, on the [UC Irvine] campus for instance, 21 outside police departments to deal with a few dozen peaceful student protesters,” said UC Irvine English Professor Annie McClanahan.

While the UC system has a Board of Regents and a central Office of the President, each of the 10 campuses and the presidents who lead each one are given wide discretion over campus matters.

And that led some faculty to bristle at Drake’s top-down solution.

Curtis Marez is a professor of Ethnic Studies at UC San Diego who joins on campus protests in between teaching his classes.

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He was under “a great deal of pressure from the UC Regents” to stop protests like those in the spring to happen again in the coming academic term, McClanahan said.

The restrictions come as the new academic year begins and fallout from this spring’s campus protests continues to affect universities, with students and professors who protested the war in Gaza saying they continue to oppose it.

Here are the restrictions

The systemwide letter from Drake underlined that people cannot do the following on campuses:

• Camp or build encampments with tents or other temporary structures unless approved beforehand
• Restrict another person’s free movement by blocking or obstructing their ability to enter or exit roadways, walkways, buildings, parking structures, fire lanes, windows, doors or other passageways or denying a person access to a campus space.
• Use a mask to conceal their identity, with the intent to intimidate, or evade or escape after breaking the law
• Refuse to reveal identity to a university official acting in official duty

Some faculty members raised concerns that the mask prohibition could affect people who use them for health reasons.

Some Jewish faculty welcome the restrictions

University faculty members and students who are Jewish raised alarms during the protests against the war in Gaza that they were leading to more anti-Semitic acts and had prompted some Jewish people on campuses to fear for their safety.

Some of them believe the protest restrictions address some of those issues.

“I personally welcome them, greatly,” said Ron Avi Astor, an education researcher at UCLA.

He said his research looking at peace projects between Palestinians and Jewish kids in Israel was labeled as being complicit with genocide.

“I think these [restrictions] will enable free speech from both sides, without restricting one side's ability to debate and talk about the topic,” he said.

But he and others said they don’t think the restrictions will guarantee that similar protests and incidents won’t happen in the fall.

“What we've seen across the country is that the attempts of university administrations to put in place these kinds of restrictions only make it feel more urgent for students to push back against those restrictions,” McClanahan, the UC Irvine professor, said.

She also sees students motivated to protest by taking over public spaces, carrying out sit-ins, and organizing boycotts.