More than 800 professors and staff members at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have asked for the chancellor’s resignation following counter-protester violence against pro-Palestinian student demonstrators and a violent police raid on the Gaza solidarity campsite on campus last week.
More than a hundred professors and other teaching staff met on Thursday to submit a letter in support of their students’ pro-Palestinian action, requesting Gene Block’s immediate resignation as chancellor and an academic senate vote of no confidence in him. The letter also urged authorities to remove any charges against students, staff, and teachers who participated in the campsite.
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Pro-Palestinian encampment demonstrations and aggressive law enforcement crackdowns during graduation season have sparked widespread faculty action at one of the most prestigious public universities in the United States.
Professors from various departments held signs reading “Take a walk, Block,” “UCLA faculty and staff… stand with our students,” and “Disclose & Divest” as they recounted the brutal violence by counter-demonstrators on April 30. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators faced large-scale arrests as the police failed to intervene.
“We are outraged at the university’s failure to protect its students from vigilante and police violence, as well as its refusal to uphold its stated values, as evidenced by the forcible removal and arrest of peacefully protesting students, faculty, and staff,” said Dan Froot, a UCLA world arts and cultures and dance professor who represents senate faculty in his department.
A group of volunteer medics who assisted in the care of demonstrators injured by police and counter-demonstrators told reporters that they had treated a variety of injuries, including severe head lacerations, facial fractures, subarachnoid hemorrhages, rubber-bullet wounds, broken bones, and asthma attacks caused by chemical irritants. In a statement from her department’s faculty, Katherine Marino, a history professor, reported that police arrested approximately 200 demonstrators and hospitalized at least 25 students, “dragging visibly injured students away.”
The letter also expressed solidarity with the students’ requests, urging UCLA to produce a report exposing all investments within 30 days and “divest from military-weapons-production companies and supporting systems.”
Anthropology professor Susan Slyomovics presented a statement on behalf of 75 Jewish teachers and staff, accusing Block of “misusing Jews” by suggesting that destroying the encampment was necessary to prevent antisemitism: We assert that criticizing Israel is not presumptively antisemitic, and we must not devalue Jews who support the liberation of Palestine.
The faculty action comes as UAW Local 4811, the largest academic union representing 48,000 graduate student workers across the University of California system, votes on a potential strike over administrators’ response to pro-Palestinian protests. Professor of political science and Chicana/o studies Matt Barreto said the teachers were discussing the “possibility of withholding our own additional labor” until the demands were satisfied. If graduate students go on strike, professors will not cross picket lines or perform their duties, he stated.
UCLA and the Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Thursday. Block announced earlier this week the establishment of a campus safety office under the leadership of a former Sacramento police chief, with the goal of “identifying the perpetrators of the violence and holding them accountable.”
Purnima Mankekar, a UCLA anthropology professor, stated that she felt obligated to defend students at the encampment. She added that the students went to tremendous lengths to de-escalate violent counter-demonstrations. “My responsibility is to ensure that our pupils’ learning and intellectual growth are uninterrupted… When outside instigators or the police perpetrate violence on our pupils, it deeply disturbs me, she expressed.
If students are unable to hold peaceful protests, “the university is not a university; it’s a police state,” she said. “Our students’ parents trust us with them.” It’s our responsibility to keep kids safe.
Gary Segura, a former dean and professor of public policy, political science, and Chicano/a studies, said the letter’s large number of signatories was significant. “Even academics who did not agree with the student demonstrators’ fundamental issues were horrified by the video of LAPD officers shooting [less-lethal munitions] into the crowd. They are students. “I found it absolutely terrifying.”
