The nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization has designated UC Irvine as a “hostile campus” for Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students and faculty for what it describes as a pattern of discriminatory treatment toward students and faculty.
UC Irvine joins 23 other colleges, including UCLA, Pomona College and Stanford in California, on the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ list of “hostile campuses.”
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In a statement, a UCI spokesperson said the university “strongly disagrees with this designation and will continue to communicate about and appropriately apply policies and laws that support free speech and peaceful demonstration across the campus.”
“UCI denounces all forms of discrimination against any members of the community,” said spokesperson Mike Uhlenkamp. “The university has a long-standing commitment to fostering a welcoming environment for learning and conducting research where all members of the campus community can pursue their respective educational goals.”
CAIR officials said the designation comes in response to UCI’s crackdown on pro-Palestine protests, the suspension and criminal prosecution of students and faculty, and a “long-standing pattern of suppressing pro-Palestinian advocacy and academic freedom.”
“From criminal charges to indefinite suspensions and violent police crackdowns, UC Irvine has become a national symbol of how universities punish students who dare to speak up for Palestine and against genocide,” said Maryam Hasan, CAIR’s Research and Advocacy Specialist.
Last spring, 47 people were arrested at UCI as police in riot gear from law enforcement agencies across Southern California responded to protests at a makeshift Gaza solidarity encampment that had stood for two weeks. The encampment was broken up during the response.
Several months after the protests, the OC District Attorney’s Office announced it was bringing misdemeanor charges against those arrested.
CAIR says UCI enabled the arrests of peaceful protestors.
UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman, at the time, said he permitted the peaceful encampment to remain against university policy until protesters “dramatically altered the situation in a way that was a direct assault on the rights of other students and the university mission.”
On the day of the arrests, UCI issued an emergency campuswide alert stating that a “violent protest” was in the area. However, the alert did not detail the nature of the violence, and no one was arrested on violent charges.
Later, officials acknowledged some misstatements in school communications, but stood by the response that ended with the 47 arrests, including that of 27 students and at least one tenured professor.
CAIR, on Thursday, also denounced the ensuing suspensions of five undergraduate students who had participated in various pro-Palestine protest activities on campus.
Last July, the five of them sued the UC Regents and UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman in state court, alleging the suspensions “constitute a clear violation of the university’s own rules and the minimum standards of due process applicable to public institutions.”
In September, the parties settled outside of court.