University of California, Santa Cruz graduate students and other academic workers in the UAW 4811 union begin a strike and are joined by UCSC students for Justice in Palestine as they picket the main entrance to campus on in Santa Cruz, Calif., on May 20.Police in riot gear surrounded arm-in-arm protesters Friday at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where pro-Palestinian demonstrations have blocked the main entrance to the campus this week.
“We call on these protesters to immediately reopen full access to the campus and return to protesting in a manner consistent with both our community values and our student code of conduct. Denying instructional access is not free speech,” university leaders had said in a letter to the community Thursday.
The confrontation in California came a day after arrests at a pro-Palestinian encampment at a Detroit campus and a student walkout during commencement at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The camp, she said, “created an environment of exclusion – one in which some members of our campus community felt unwelcome and unable to fully participate in campus life.”