May 3, 2024

We, the undersigned scholars and artists of the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA, express our outrage over the university administration’s complete failure in protecting our students’ safety and their right to freedom of speech. We watched in horror as a violent mob of outside agitators attacked our students in the Palestinian Solidarity Encampment on the night of April 30. The following day, instead of pursuing arrest and conviction of the violent agitators, administration authorized law enforcement to brutalize students in its own community, who were fully committed to peaceful protest. 

We have been moved and inspired by our students’ courage and commitment to peaceful protest, even in the face of ongoing physical, sensory, and verbal assaults from attackers, a lack of adequate response from UCLA administrators, and university-sanctioned police violence in the form of rubber bullets, flash bangs, stun grenades, and pepper spray. 

Declaring the encampment illegal on April 30 and misrepresenting the threats circulating on campus opened the door to the flood of right-wing militia groups that violently attacked the students that very night, spraying them with pepper-spray for hours, using parts of the barricade as a battering ram, and attempting to set tents on fire by throwing fireworks. This event has now been widely documented and reported by national media. The security that UCLA had employed was only hired to protect their property, not the students’ safety, leaving them vulnerable to this onslaught and emboldening the attackers. Those who instigated this violence walked away with impunity, while peaceful student protesters faced arrest the next day. 

When militarized police force and right-wing attackers descended on campus on May 1, the students displayed levels of organization and political commitment that recalls UCLA’s long histories of political protest. Twenty-five student protesters were hospitalized, and four student journalists with the Daily Bruin were attacked. At least 200 student protesters and faculty were arrested. After the encampment had been forcibly demolished, and the protesting students and faculty incarcerated, trucks arrived in the early hours to clear any encampment artifacts.  Historians, librarians, and archivists worked quickly to gather as many artifacts as they could, despite continued threats from the remaining police presence. 

As faculty we stand firmly for the safety and well-being of our students. The glaring gap between the treatment of our students who were committed to peaceful protest, and the treatment of the violent mob of outside agitators a night earlier, is as unconscionable as the gross misrepresentation of these facts by Chancellor Gene Block to justify his actions. We insist upon a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Block for endangering our students.

Furthermore, given the abdication of the university’s commitment to protect our students and defend their rights, we join together to ask for the following: 

• Amnesty for students, faculty, and staff arrested on the night of May 1.

• That the university pay for any and all legal and medical fees that our students, staff, and faculty incur as a result of the violence they faced from police arrests and mob attacks.

• Enter serious and transparent negotiations around the calls for divestment from military weapons manufacturing. 

• Ensure the safety of our students while keeping the LAPD off campus. 

• Cultivate a safe environment for free speech and nonviolent collective demonstration. 

Signed,

[Signature collection ongoing.]