On the day the university’s chancellor testified before Congress about efforts to combat antisemitism on campus, pro-Palestinian activists again set up barricades and established an encampment at UCLA.
Protesters used tables, metal fences, plywood and other materials to block off a section of campus between Kerckhoff and Moore halls, a main walkway used by students traversing the Westwood campus.
The group Students for Justice in Palestine posted on Instagram that it had established “a second encampment at Kerckhoff patio,” adding, “we need support in numbers ASAP.” But the group warned the action could lead to arrest.
“Please take the time to assess your risk before coming,” the group warned.
Campus security was visible around the burgeoning encampment. It was unclear how many protesters were taking part.
The new encampment emerged as UCLA Chancellor Gene Block testified before the House Committee on Education and Workforce about the university’s response to an earlier pro-Palestinian encampment — which was dismantled in early May, leading to the arrests of 209 people. The committee is expected to grill Block and the leaders of Northwestern and Rutgers universities about their handling of protests and alleged failures to protect Jewish students for antisemitism on campus.
In his opening remarks, Block conceded some shortcomings in the university’s response to the original encampment, saying it should have acted to remove the protesters once “the safety of our community was put at risk.”
“We will hold accountable all those who engaged in violence or violated our policies,” Block said. “No student should be threatened or excluded based on their beliefs or identity. While we will always have to strive hard to meet this obligation, we must also maintain our commitment to academic freedom and free speech.”
Earlier Thursday, Block sent a message to the UCLA community saying the university this week is “initiating a broad-based review to address reports of antisemitic and anti-Arab or Islamophobic discrimination and harassment that may have interfered with students* abilities to access the university’s educational programs and activities. We will retain an outside firm to support our Civil Rights Office’s review of these issues.”
Earlier this week, UCLA removed and reassigned university police Chief John Thomas. The chief told the Daily Bruin campus newspaper, “There’s been a lot going on and I learned late yesterday (Monday) that I’m temporarily reassigned from my duties as chief,” Thomas told the paper.
There was no immediate word on what position Thomas had been assigned to. He has been the campus police chief since January.
In a statement, UCLA Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications Mary Osako said Gawin Gibson has been named acting chief.
“John Thomas has been reassigned temporarily, pending an examination of our security processes,” Osako said. “As we said on May 5, UCLA created a new Office of Campus Safety that is leading a thorough examination of our security processes aimed at enhancing the wellbeing and safety of our community.”
UCLA received national attention in early May when a group of largely masked counter-protesters launched a violent attack on the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus, leading to criticism of a slow police response to the assault that left several people injured. Witnesses contended the assault was allowed to continue unfettered by police for several hours before ultimately intervening.
The next night, hundreds of law enforcement officers from various agencies descended on the campus and cleared the encampment, arresting 209 people. The university was forced to close for a day, then temporarily shift to remote learning in the aftermath of the unrest.
Days after the encampment clearing, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block announced that he had appointed Vice Chancellor Rick Braziel as the head of a newly created Office of Campus Safety, with oversight of the police department.
Block who is set to retire at the end of July.
University of California President Michael Drake said the university system has begun an independent investigation of the UCLA response to the violence. The UC hired 21st Century Policing Solutions — a police-tactics consulting firm — to lead the university system’s probe of actions taken at UCLA.
Block, meanwhile, said Braziel was leading a high-tech investigation in an effort to identify the people who attacked the encampment the night before it was cleared.
The Federated University Police Officers Association, the union that represents UC police officers, has laid blame for failures in the response to campus unrest on university administrators. Union president Wade Stern reiterated that point Wednesday in response to news of Thomas’s reassignment.
“The UCLA administration owns the failure of any protest response, and the public should reject their attempts to shift blame to law enforcement,” Stern said in a statement. “UC guidelines … require a trained senior administrator at UCLA to decide how to respond to protests, guided by an existing plan that had been rehearsed and scenario planned with both UCLA PD and outside law enforcement agencies.
“What unfolded at UCLA calls into question whether UCLA complied with the guidelines to have in place senior administrators trained in crowd control response, with written plans for response that were the product of scenario training and consultation with its police department and outside law enforcement agencies,” he said.
Meanwhile, unionized graduate students at UC campuses across the state have been threatening to conduct rolling strikes in response to the handling of pro-Palestinian protests. Workers have already been striking at UC Santa Cruz, and the union has suggested walkouts could occur at other campuses. The union and the UC system have traded allegations of unfair labor practices.
The union is demanding amnesty for employees and students who took part in protests and are facing disciplinary actions, along with guarantees of free-speech protections and the right to political expression on campus. The UC system said any strikes based on such demands would be illegal, since they are non-labor issues that fall outside the scope of the union’s labor agreement.