It’s been three weeks since UC Santa Barbara students set up a solidarity encampment for Palestine on a lawn between North Hall and the library. Now, the encampment spreads across three lawns and has more than 100 tents and participants. 

Their demands include the university disclosing and divesting its investments from weapons manufacturers; abolishing the campus police department; and for the university to reinvest money into the campus community. 

UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang and representatives of the Student Affairs Division have visited the encampment, which was set up on May 1, but the administration has not negotiated with the protesters over their stated demands.

Students at the encampment said they’ve been given conflicting information over who can negotiate with them. 

“I’d say the movement is pretty strong,” said Rebecca, a fourth-year political science major and one of the encampment’s media liaisons. “We’re all ready for conversations with the administration.”

Like other encampment representatives, she chose not to share her last name with media.

On May 9, Yang made an unannounced visit to the encampment at 1 a.m. He reportedly told students that he isn’t in charge of negotiations and they would have to negotiate with Margaret Klawunn, the vice chancellor of Student Affairs. 

“That was a little bit confusing for a couple of us because we had invited Margaret into our encampment before, who told us as a collective that it’s not within her jurisdiction to meet our demands,” Rebecca told Noozhawk. 

When asked about plans to negotiate with students in the encampment, Kiki Reyes, UCSB’s media relations manager, referred Noozhawk to a previous statement from the Chancellor’s Office, which stated that the administration was willing to work with student groups that protested peacefully.

Rebecca said students at the encampment don’t plan to leave until their demands are met. 

“As a person who is allegedly going to be walking, I’m more than willing to stay here post-graduation to wait out the administration and see if they will comply with what the students want,” Rebecca said. 

Rebecca said she doesn’t think the university will cancel commencement, but if it does, she’s willing to make that sacrifice.

“As a 2020 graduate, I lost my graduation due to COVID,” Rebecca said. “I’m more than happy to lose another graduation for speaking out against a genocide.”

UCSB has not announced any changes to commencement ceremonies because of the encampment.

There have not been any significant counter-protests to the demonstration as of Tuesday.

UC Workers Could Strike Over Encampment Responses

This week, union members from UAW 4811, which represents academic student employees, academic researchers, and graduate and post-doctoral researchers at all 11 campuses in the UC system, are preparing to go on strike. 

The strike is largely related to administrative actions taken against solidarity encampments at UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego and UC Irvine.

Workers at UC Santa Cruz began their strike on Monday, and workers at UC Santa Barbara are prepared to strike as soon as they receive word from the union’s executive board to do so.

Speaking for UCSB encampment participants, Rebecca told Noozhawk she feels hopeful seeing faculty and staff support the solidarity encampments and their mission. 

“We as students have been dealing with issues of freedom of speech and people trying to suppress and censor student organizations or even people in the encampment,” Rebecca said. “Knowing that that same sentiment is shared with staff and with graduate students is alarming. It fills me with hope to know that they’re also willing to act and call out the administration on their failures.”