Content Warning: This article includes graphic descriptions of police arrests.
The base of campus is empty once again. After a nearly 16-hour standoff on May 31, hundreds of riot police cleared out the UC Santa Cruz Gaza Solidarity Encampment. The campus community has been left in turmoil, confusion, and anger, as many grapple with their experiences observing or being subject to forceful police arrests. Now, many demonstrators now deal with code of conduct violations.
Police arrested 122 people on charges of failure to disperse and unlawful assembly. Of those arrested, there are approximately 110 students, three faculty members, one staff member and eight not affiliated with UCSC.
City on a Hill Press reporters witnessed police throw multiple people to the ground during arrest. Reporters also saw one officer kneel on a protester’s back, other officers remove at least two demonstrators’ shirts during the arrests, and many demonstrators were carried by their arms and legs to police vehicles.
City on a Hill Press spoke to one student about their experience being arrested at the raid.
“The cops definitely took an aggressive approach of individualizing students and taking them on one by one,” the student said. “To just have a bunch of cops all grabbing at your limbs and tearing you away from the group was definitely frightening.”
Critical race and ethnic studies assistant professor Sophia Azeb, one of the founders of UCSC’s Faculty for Justice in Palestine, was one of many faculty members present during the raid. She felt compelled to join the students on the frontlines as police escalated their use of force.
She detailed being grabbed by the throat by one officer and thrown to the ground during her arrest. Azeb sustained bruises on her upper thigh from an officer’s knee, which was originally on her back. Both of her arms have bruises, and her wrist is swollen from an officer pulling her thumb back.
When asked by City on a Hill Press about the accounts of excessive force by police, UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason directed any allegations of misconduct to UCSC’s Police Accountability Board.
“We have high confidence in the professionalism of our law enforcement officers, and we take any allegations of misconduct seriously and will review them,” Hernandez-Jason wrote in an email to City on a Hill Press.
On June 6, the UCSC Academic Senate approved a resolution opposing police deployment against student demonstrations. Academic Senate Chair Patty Gallagher told City on a Hill Press administration did not inform the Senate about plans to take down the encampment.
“We learned about it alongside the community,” Gallagher said.
“The administration was obviously aware of the resolution to not call police on our students,” Professor Azeb said. “What this really demonstrates is that university administrations all over the country have demonstrated their obstinance to any kind of faculty or student governance.”
Demonstrators Receive Trespass Notice
Those arrested were notified they were temporarily banned, as per California Penal Code 626.4, from campus for 14 days, the maximum number of days permitted by the notice. An email to charged students informed them they can submit an appeal, which would then go to a hearing where two University staff will review the request.
Those arrested are banned from using on-campus resources. This ban prevents arrested students from receiving medical care on-campus, including those who rely on CruzCare or UCShip for insurance and health care access. Services are still accessible through telehealth appointments.
Students paying for on-campus housing have been forced to find alternative housing. Scott Hernandez-Jason directed students to a 626.4 Notice FAQ for resources on accessing housing and food, such as Slug Support.
“When I walked out of Coastal Campus [after booking], I had no place to go. I had no clue what the next steps were,” one student said. “I was lucky enough to receive a lot of support from the people around me. But in the absence of that, if I didn’t have that network built up, I would have been in a much worse situation.”
One of the arrestees who received the 14-day ban was Azeb. She spoke of the damaging impacts this ban has on students.
“Our students should not be victimized or harmed by their own university,” Azeb said. “The two week ban explicitly causes harm to our students who are not able to use the meal plans they’ve paid for access, the health insurance that they have a right to, as well as not being able to attend classes and, in some cases, not take their finals.”
Charged students who live on campus were instructed to contact their Resident Advisor (RA) to access their belongings on campus. To make an appointment, students must document their name, student identification number, residence, and email. Following the appointment, they must also be escorted by their college’s Coordinator for Residential Education (CRE) on call.
One RA, who asked to remain anonymous, expressed immense discomfort with the data collection and process for arrested students briefly returning to campus.
“As student leaders, we should not be expected to help kick out students for the use of free speech,” said the RA.
An anonymous CRE said that while they are under orders from administration to enforce the ban, many supervisors are working with students and connecting them to resources so they are not houseless. However, they were frustrated that campus resources for students during this time are very limited.
“When you come to a university, you want to feel like you are part of a greater community that’s going to look out for you, and it has been proven that not everyone here wants to look out for everyone,” the CRE said. “That is a harsh reality trying to navigate as students or full-time employees.”
A letter circulated and signed by over 200 UCSC staff denounced UCSC’s response to arrested demonstrators. Addressed to Chancellor Cynthia Larive, Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer, and Academic Senate Chair Patty Gallagher, the letter calls for the administration to reverse the campus ban for charged students.
“Students have been charged and banned to seemingly arbitrary degrees, have not gone through campus disciplinary procedures, have not been tried, and have no opportunity to defend themselves,” read the letter. “This is an undemocratic, unjust, and heartless way to treat our own students, in order to punish them for protesting a war and human rights violations that have drawn worldwide condemnation.”
In a June 3 message shared with leaders of the Academic Senate, Chancellor Cynthia Larive denied calls for amnesty. She upheld UC President Drake and the Regents’ position that amnesty is “inconsistent” with the student code of conduct or employee disciplinary process.
“The decisions they made after being notified are their responsibility alone,” wrote Chancellor Larive. “The campus must take action when individuals choose to act unlawfully, creating significant safety risks and inflicting harm on countless others across the university. Doing nothing would be a dereliction of the responsibility we have to our students and employees.”
In the days following the tumultuous events on May 31, the violent arrests and poignant display of police and administrative authority at the base of campus will not soon be forgotten by many.
“The fact that we’re being met with this kind of brutality shows just how scared the administration is and how willing they are to sacrifice the safety of their students in order to protect their property and the status quo of their operations,” the anonymous student source said. “It’s horrible to see this sort of brutality […] inflicted against my classmates and the people that I see going to school every day.”
Additional reporting by Bomi Choe.