UC Irvine protests: Online classes only May 16 amid campus tension between pro-Palestine demonstrators, cops

IRVINE, Calif. - UC Irvine has canceled classes Wednesday, May 15 and will only hold online classes Thursday, May 16 as the campus was at the center of a tense encounter between law enforcement, pro-Palestine protesters and counter-protesters hovering outside the demonstration's makeshift fence.

The school made the announcement around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. 

The announcement comes as pro-Palestine demonstrators came face-to-face with armed officers on Wednesday evening after the campus protests have lasted more than a week. FOX 11's crews documented the protester-police interactions as demonstrators were arrested one by one and the encampment was being taken down by officers on campus. 

UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman issued the following open letter after Wednesday's campus clash between law enforcement and student-led demonstrators:

Dear Campus Community,

What a sad day for our university. I’m brokenhearted.

At 2 p.m. on Wednesday, we, along with most other UC campuses, received the latest "demands" from the protesters. The protesters orchestrated a swift departure from their encampment. In a coordinated fashion they moved out of the encampment to the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall, where a small group barricaded themselves in, supported by a large group of community members who had gathered for a scheduled rally.

For the last two weeks, I have consistently communicated that the encampment violated our policies but that the actions did not rise to the level requiring police intervention. My approach was consistent with the guidelines of UC's Robinson/Edley Report, which urges the UC to exhaust all possible alternatives before resorting to police intervention.

I was prepared to allow a peaceful encampment to exist on the campus without resorting to police intervention, even though the encampment violated our policies and the existence of the encampment was a matter of great distress to other members of our community. I communicated that if there were violations of our rules we would address them through the normal administrative policies of the university and not through police action.

And so after weeks when the encampers assured our community that they were committed to maintaining a peaceful and nondisruptive encampment, it was terrible to see that they would dramatically alter the situation in a way that was a direct assault on the rights of other students and the university mission.

The latest campus-specific and systemwide demands made by our encampers and their counterparts across the University of California attempted to dictate that anyone who disagreed with them must conform to their opinions. They asserted the right to oversee many elements of university operations involving the administration, faculty, students, and staff, bypassing customary campus protocols and ignoring the function of the Academic Senate.

Most importantly, their assault on the academic freedom rights of our faculty and the free speech rights of faculty and students was appalling. One can only imagine the response if people on the other side of these issues established an encampment to force me to censor all anti-Zionist academic and student programming.

But my concern now is not the unreasonableness of their demands. It is their decision to transform a manageable situation that did not have to involve police into a situation that required a different response. I never wanted that. I devoted all of my energies to prevent this from happening.

I’m sorry this campus I love so much had to experience this terrible and avoidable situation. I remain steadfast in my commitment to protecting the rights of all members of our community to express whatever viewpoints they believe are essential for others to hear and engage. And I remain steadfast in my commitment to defend our faculty and students from efforts to prevent them from having the same rights of academic freedom and free speech as everyone else on this campus.

My hope is that we can find our way to a culture of peace, mutual respect, and shared commitment to addressing our differences through the norms of scholarly inquiry and debate.

Fiat Lux,

Chancellor Howard Gillman