As we bear witness to the brutal violence that has unfolded in Gaza, we have also seen our students interrupt business as usual and bravely occupy university spaces to demand transparency about university finances; to divest from the weapons companies that supply the Israeli military; to end the Israeli siege of Gaza; and to reject complicity with the U.S.-funded Israeli settler occupation of Palestine. We condemn the use of military and police force against our students, faculty, and communities here at UCI on May 15 and demand that all charges against those who were arrested be dropped. We register our support for the Irvine Faculty Association Board statement and the statement from Black faculty and staff. We condemn the repressive actions by UCI administration and other universities across the nation who are using police brutality to crush the encampments and school policies to punish students. We deplore the weaponization of campus emergency resources to manufacture a crisis in order to suppress student expression. We call on our colleagues to support students who are undergoing disciplinary processes for exercising free speech. We condemn the institutional silencing of student protestors whose ongoing work inspires the revolutionary basis of our respective fields. We pledge not to retaliate against students who participate in strike-related activities. We present our respective departments’ statements (written prior to the police invasion of our campus) to reflect our concern over the current crisis of the university’s response to student protests and the broader context of catastrophe in Gaza.
Signed by the faculty of the UCI Departments of African American Studies, Asian American Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and the Program in Culture & Theory