When university administrators across the country worry about the potential fallout from protests on their campuses, they may have Siemens Hall in mind.
Pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the California State Polytechnic State University Humboldt building, which houses the president's office, for a week, barricading themselves inside and repelling initial attempts by police to remove them. Protesters then tagged the wall, ripped off most of the signage from the brick exterior, and renamed it “Intifada Hall.”
Messages such as “Time 2 Gaza Freedom,” “No Pigs Allowed,” and “Give us back our land” were scrawled inside, according to a video posted by local news site Redhead Blackbelt. They occupied and defaced President Tom Jackson Jr.'s office, spray-painting “Blood On Your Hands'' on a framed wall hanging and “I Will Live Free or Die Trying'' on the door.
The school is more than 445 miles north of San Francisco, nestled in a fog-drenched ancient coastal redwood forest and home to some of the nation's most persistent campus protests. It goes far beyond student quad encampments elsewhere. At Cal Poly Humboldt, demonstrators have taken over the campus's power centers and are rejecting increasingly desperate calls from officials to vacate the grounds.
The university closed its entire campus first for several days, then for a week, and now until May 10, the day before the scheduled start date. After taking over Siemens Hall, demonstrators set up dozens of tents on the lawn surrounding the hall, and demonstrators occupied other buildings to use the restrooms and hold meetings. University officials estimate damages in the millions of dollars.
For those outside Northern California, the show of force at Cal Poly Humboldt in the college town of Arcata was a surprising change in an area associated with hippie pacifism and marijuana farms. But despite its upbeat image, locals say the 6,000-student campus is steeped in a culture of protest and resentment against authority.
Anthony Silvaggio, a professor and chair of the school's sociology department, said, “Activism has a long history, so pitching a tent in front of a building may not be the most effective expression of student activism.'' I am aware of that,” he said. He is on the faculty and was a student at the university in the 1990s.
The area's majestic redwoods attract tourists from all over the world. Nearby, you can drive through trees that are 21 feet in diameter. Forests also date back to the early Gold Rush days when San Francisco became a boomtown, satisfying the growing West's thirst for timber.
However, natural beauty and the timber industry have long been at odds. The area was an early battleground in the “timber wars'' in the 1980s and 1990s, when environmentalists fought logging companies to prevent the destruction of old-growth forests across the Pacific Northwest. Perhaps the most famous protest of that era occurred in Humboldt County. Activist Julia Butterfly Hill lived for 738 days in a California sequoia tree she named Luna.
Cal Poly Humboldt had modest beginnings, opening in 1914 as the Humboldt State Normal School to educate teachers and graduating with 15 women. Its academic mission expanded over the next century to offer a wide range of subjects, including forestry. (The school mascot is a lumberjack).
The campus is isolated from most of California, at least a five-hour drive to San Francisco or Sacramento. According to Hillel International, only 2 percent of the undergraduate student body is Jewish, and there appears to be no active Jewish organization on campus.
Since occupying Siemens Hall on April 22, pro-Palestinian demonstrators have made several demands, including that the school disclose its stock holdings with Israel and that military action be taken in Gaza. These include divestment from companies profiting from the actions, severing ties with Israeli universities; Arrested and dropped on the first night. They are also calling on the university to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 34,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict.
Cal Poly Humboldt leaders responded point by point, clarifying the school's holdings and cooperation with Israel, saying they would “make good faith efforts to respond.'' But by Friday, administrators had had enough. They told building occupiers they would have a short period of “opportunity to leave with assurance that they would not be immediately arrested.” A university spokesperson said several protesters had left the building, but protesters insisted there were no deserters in their ranks.
On Sunday night, the chancellor's team again asked them to “peacefully leave campus now,” but this time there was no offer of immunity.
The university said in a statement that the protests “have nothing to do with free speech or freedom of inquiry” and are harmful to students, tarnish the school's reputation and are “necessary to achieving our core educational objectives.” “This is an illegal act that depletes natural resources.” ”
Demonstrators see it differently.
“The graffiti, the vandalism of property, all of that is poetic symbolism to me, because ultimately the whole point is that humans are worth more than property,” he says of academic social psychology research. said Cozy Hunter, 32, a graduate student.
Jackson became president of Humboldt University in 2019 after serving in the same position at Black Hills State University in South Dakota. Jackson, a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, was instrumental in transforming the campus into a STEM-focused polytechnic, one of his three in California. Did. The renovations received $458 million from the state, a welcome infusion of cash for a school that was at risk of closing due to years of declining enrollment.
“I'm an engineer, so when he brought in the money and turned this into Cal Poly, it was really great, because we've been making cuts over the years,” Geography said. said Jim Graham, professor of spatial science.
Graham said previous university presidents have engaged with student protesters and generally acknowledged the sit-ins, but Jackson has taken a more distant and tougher approach.
In November, after the university discovered that some students were living in cars on campus because they could not afford housing, the university ordered students to leave or face disciplinary action. ordered to be punished. In 2022, Jackson apologized for remarks that some saw as an attempt to cover up reports of sexual assault in the campus community.
“That was kind of the beginning of his complete disappearance,” said Cindy Moyer, dean of the university's School of Dance, Music and Theater. “He doesn't seem to take controversy well.”
A spokesperson said Jackson could not be reached for comment. But last Friday, he told the local Times Standard newspaper that the protesters were “criminals” and did not rule out sending in police at some point. “Everything is on the table,” he said.
Bob Ornelas, a former Arcata mayor and alumnus of the university, said the reaction to the protests in the largely liberal community has been “really mixed.” Ornelas, 70, said many residents are sympathetic but concerned about the impact on local businesses and potential division in the community.
Since the protests began, the 32-room Hotel Arcata has lost about 10,000 yen per day due to cancellations, whether for special events or rooms for graduates' families, said Sherry Potter, 55, the hotel's general manager. There was a loss of $1,000. Although universities have not canceled graduation ceremonies, many are wondering how they will be held.
“I understand where they're coming from, and I agree,” Potter said of the protesters. “But I'm torn. I also see how much damage this is doing to the university and the businesses around it, including ourselves.”
The demonstrators initially said they intended to hold a sit-in and take their concerns directly to civil authorities. Fearing for their safety, they barricaded themselves inside when local police showed up in riot gear. Most declined to give their names, saying they did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation from the university.
“The rate of acceleration and escalation was alarmingly high,” said Ruhollah Agasare, an assistant professor of education who has been working to facilitate communication between protesters and the university.
Over the weekend, demonstrators reinforced barricades, including chain-link fences, rows of chairs and large glass panes, to block off the encampment as the possibility of a police invasion grew. In honor of past environmental protests in the area, they installed a 60-foot-tall tree in a redwood forest near the Quad with the words “Free Gaza” and “End of Empire” written on it. A “tree seat'' with a stand was installed. The protester at the perch, who declined to give his name other than “Ripple,” settled in with a mattress pad, sleeping bag and a crank radio.
“Taking care of a tree actually indicates that you have a desire for a longer-term career,” says Hunter, a graduate student. “Because tree-sitters, especially in this post-Julia Butterfly Hill region, are like, 'Oh, I'm going to sit for Palestine until there's a complete divestment by America.'” That's essentially what this move means. ”
Jose Quesada Contributed reporting from Arcata, California. Sean Huebler Contributed from Sacramento.
