Students who formed an encampment in support of Palestine at UC Santa Cruz escalated their protests on Tuesday. They blocked both entrances to the University, preventing traffic from moving on or off of campus. The roadblock caused several hours of disruption and forced classes online through at least Thursday.
Negotiations between UCSC administrators and student protesters failed two weeks ago. But an undergraduate student, who would only speak anonymously, says escalations will continue.
“Every day we see horrible, horrible images, each worse than the last coming out of Gaza. And the university stays silent. The U.S. continues to fund them, and we're going to be out here until that ends,” he said.
Protesters blocked both entrances to campus using plywood signs, pallets and rocks.
“Today we blocked a road to stop people from coming onto campus, to stop the flow of capital, to really force the university to acknowledge us and to try to bring our demands back to the table,” said the student.
Police closed the roads leading to campus, and people waited hours for exits to open up.
Amanda Process is an employee who went to campus to feed lab animals. She was trapped for five hours, but she says she supports the message.
“I know a lot of people who did have to remain on campus or couldn't be at the front lines, do support what they're doing, and they're okay with the inconvenience,” she said.
In an emailed statement, chancellor Cynthia Larive called the roadblocks “extremely dangerous” and said the actions will carry “severe penalties.”
Next to the main entrance, graduate student workers continued striking over unfair labor practices. The strike is separate from the roadblock, but union reps say they’re in solidarity with the protesters. The student protesters say they’re prepared to stay for as long as it takes.
