Hundreds of students have been arrested following pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the country.
The demonstrations and encampments are in support of the people of Gaza, and come with demands that universities divest from companies that do business with Israel.
The organization behind the national movement is Students for Justice in Palestine, which says it’s supporting over 350 solidarity organizations across the U.S., including at California state universities like Sacramento State.
Cal Poly Humboldt demonstrations escalated over the past week. The university says 31 people were arrested Tuesday morning “without incident” after protesters occupied two campus buildings and defied orders to disperse last Friday.
“The operation’s objective was to establish control of the site; protect the rights, safety, and health of students and employees; eliminate the threat of violence and criminal behavior; and reestablish control of buildings and other property,” a university statement from Tuesday morning reads.
University officials said that “hateful graffiti” had been painted on campus property “in recent days” last week and that they had been in contact with local Jewish leaders. They also said “Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, hatred, and bigotry in all forms have no place at Cal Poly Humboldt.”
The Chabad of Humboldt — an organization serving Jewish people within the county — said that “several students expressed feeling uncomfortable being Jewish on campus” and offered support services for those attending Cal Poly Humboldt.
Cal Poly Humboldt put a hard closure to campus over the weekend that extends through May 10 — the end of the semester. Commencement ceremonies are set to take place on campus on May 11.
Kianna Znika is a student journalist and the station manager for KRFH, the student-run radio station at Cal Poly Humboldt. Sage Alexander is a reporter with the Times-Standard. They joined CapRadio Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez to talk about the ongoing demonstration and overnight arrests.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
What happened overnight? What did you witness?
Znika: Me and all my reporters, we got there at 10 [p.m. on Monday]. A few minutes after our team stepped onto campus, we started hearing the alerts from the campus police cars on the loudspeaker, basically telling students that they had 15 minutes to evacuate, that they declared this an unlawful assembly. And then they did say that anyone still in the area could be subject to arrest, and that there may be use of kinetic projectiles and chemical agents.
This is when a lot of students start putting on their helmets and their goggles, but they did show that they were not going to leave anytime soon. And that same car just circled around campus basically … but even though they kept on saying 15 minutes they went on that cycle for hours. So that first alert was probably said maybe closer to 10 [p.m.], like we assumed it would be, but the cops did not show up until 2:45 in the morning.
So you just see people kind of leaving for the night, one by one and in groups, you know, people thinking that nothing's going to happen. But then [I started] seeing kind of like, unrest in people. I spoke to a few of the student protesters, some of them still seemed in good spirits, some of them were definitely very anxious.
When [the police] finally did come out at 2:45 [a.m.], it was really shocking. There was a massive group of them and it was just like a wave, and they seemed to come from Founders Hall right there in the quad. That’s when students started coming down and putting down barricades, just to make a safe exit for those who did want to go.
What was the scene like on campus this morning, after the arrests?
Alexander: There's been a hard closure of the campus for a few days now, but this one seemed like an actual hard closure. There were police posted at every car entrance to campus and they were refusing the entry of faculty, students and journalists.
We have a freelancer that was there earlier this morning who said he saw the barricades had been removed that were constructed over the last week and a lot of the tents were now gone. At one point there was dozens of tents, and now many of them have been dismantled.
The university released a statement early this morning announcing those arrests and also saying that order has been restored. Is that a fair thing for the university to say?
Alexander: Something that has really struck me over the past week, just going out there and speaking to the protesters, has been [that] everyone's emphasized to me that the protests have aimed to be non-violent. I mean, yesterday morning there were people doing yoga and playing music and blowing bubbles and stuff. A lot of the daytime activity, at least … I don't know if [there] was disorder, but it was a lot of community-building type events and feeding people. I suppose that they removed the people that were hanging out in the quad, but I don't know if order’s been returned.
This obviously has received a lot of coverage. Were there any counter protests on campus or some people who overall disapproved of what was taking place?
Znika: There was just one report of a counter protest, I missed the main peak of it. I walked in, I saw that a group of people were talking to just one person and then I was caught up on what happened, you know, he was coming and blasting country music and saying things to the protesters. They were saying it was intended to agitate them, and it was reported that some of them were willing to fight him physically, but a larger amount of protesters stopped it. They told him “that's not what we're here for, that's not what we're about,” and so a small group of them took him to the side and they started interviewing him and trying to have a conversation with him. And that's the only report I got of that.
Kianna, you’re a senior on campus and are planning to graduate next week. Were you surprised that these demonstrations began last week?
Znika: Yeah, I am. I got notice of something happening that Monday … I did have someone tell me that a protest would be happening around 4 p.m. But I didn't think it would get to this point.
You know, there's been so many protests and demonstrations at Cal Poly Humboldt. There's just a lot of activism here. There's a lot of people who care about their communities and they act upon it, but I didn't think it would get to this point. I didn't think that my last few weeks of senior year would be essentially canceled. I know we still have classes on Zoom, but it feels kind of like the semester just got cut short.
It makes me think of four years ago, when I graduated from my community college, I had to do a drive-through graduation ceremony because of COVID and so the feeling of not being able to walk at graduation is not is not a unique feeling for me.
I haven't heard any word about the actual commencement taking place on May 11, but I was going to be a part of the Latina graduation ceremony on May 10. I think they were trying to look for a new location to still make it happen, but I still don't know necessarily what's happening with that.
