SAN DIEGO — Outraged students and faculty at UC San Diego are demanding accountability and the resignation of the school’s chancellor after police arrested 64 protesters at a pro-Palestine solidarity encampment on Monday at the university’s campus.
Officers from UCSD Police, California Highway Patrol and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department declared the encampment an unlawful assembly at about 5:45 a.m. on Monday and began dismantling the site along the school’s library walk five days after the demonstration began.
A university spokesman confirmed Tuesday that 64 individuals were arrested that morning at the encampment and charged with unlawful assembly. Forty of these individuals were students, all of whom received an interim suspension, and the other 24 were reported to be unaffiliated with the campus, or their affiliation status was unknown, per the university.
However, a UCSD professor confirmed to the student newspaper, The Triton, on Tuesday that they and one other professor had been among those arrested.
UCSD community members now demand accountability from Chancellor Pradeep Khosla, who released a statement Sunday calling the protest an “illegal encampment” and saying that the tents on Library Walk pose “an unacceptable safety and security hazard on campus.”
“The violation of law and campus policy represented by this encampment, however, is not a peaceful protest. It has become dangerous,” Khosla said, adding that the tents were possibly a fire hazard.
The university’s Ethnic Studies Department released a statement Monday calling for Khosla’s resignation, stating that the encampment posed no threat to campus safety and that calling on police was a “shocking abdication of the Chancellor’s mandate to support and protect our students.”
“Faculty of the Ethnic Studies department at UC San Diego are outraged at the vicious suppression of our students by our administration under the leadership of Chancellor Pradeep Khosla,” the statement said. “Hostile actions by the administration and the police they ordered onto campus caused disastrous upheaval, including physical injuries and an authoritarian fracturing of peaceful student organizing and community.”
The university’s Department of Music issued a statement the same day condemning the arrests.
On Tuesday morning, the San Diego Faculty Association released a letter calling on Khosla to respect students’ free speech rights, reverse suspensions, and drop charges against students. As of Tuesday night, over 200 faculty members had signed it.
“We strongly condemn the recent repression of students across the country and express our unmitigated support for the rights of students to engage in protest and dissent on their campuses and beyond,” SDFA said in their statement.
After the arrests on Monday morning, around 100 police officers continued to push back against protestors for hours. A large crowd attempted to block San Diego County Sheriff’s buses as they tried to leave the campus with the arrested people aboard, resulting in one additional arrest, the university said.
Riot police utilized batons to push people back, knocking some people to the ground and using pepper spray on others. Medics were on the scene to provide first aid. According to the school, one minor injury was reported.
Police also exhibited less lethal weapons containing what appeared to be rubber bullets, and additional officers could be seen on the roofs of campus buildings with additional weapons.
Protests continued that afternoon at the San Diego Central Jail as individuals waited for arrested students to be released. Student organizations and legal representatives reported that all protestors had been released by the end of the day on Monday.
The protest at UCSD follows weeks of similar actions at colleges around the country, as students call for a ceasefire in Gaza and for universities to cut ties with Israel, finding themselves met with an aggressive police response.
At UCLA, police arrested over 200 protestors at the school’s weeklong encampment on May 4, just days after being criticized for a delayed response to attacks on the encampment from counter-protestors. A police consulting firm is now investigating law enforcement’s actions.
Members of the United Auto Workers 4811, which represents 48,000 graduate student workers across the UC system’s 10 schools, are planning a strike vote early next week in response to police action taken against protestors on campuses.
Hundreds of UCSD grad students have signed an open letter condemning the university’s actions, with dozens also holding a rally on campus Tuesday evening.
“This blatant disregard for the rights of students to engage in peaceful protest is unacceptable. Instead of engaging in meaningful dialogue and addressing the concerns of students, the administration has chosen to escalate tensions and resort to violence,” the letter said.
