May 06, 2024
LOS ANGELES — UCLA has shifted back to “limited operations” and online classes on Monday, May 6, after protests re-emerged at the campus. “Operations limited today 5/6. All classes moving remote today due to ongoing disruptions,” an alert said, shortly after 10 a.m. Police detained multiple people who gathered in a campus parking garage, according to law enforcement. An apparent “sit-in” inside Moore Hall also disrupted classes, officials said. UCLA officials vowed to resume normal on-campus operations following a week of unrest circling around a now-dismantled pro-Palestine encampment. But it quickly became apparent early Monday that normalcy was not in the cards. Several dozen people gathered on an upper level of a campus parking garage early Monday morning. It was unclear what the group was doing or whether they were specifically protesting university ties to Israel. Reports from the scene indicated that as many as 40 people were detained by police in the garage, allegedly because they refused to give their names or even say if they were students. Meanwhile, 50 or more people gathered around 7 a.m. inside the campus’ Moore Hall, staging an apparent sit-in protest. The nature of the demonstration was not immediately clear. KCAL9 reported that the crowd had dispersed from the building by 9 a.m., but reports of other unauthorized gatherings began materializing in other buildings. The action came one day after Chancellor Gene Block announced the creation of an Office of Campus Safety to administer policing and emergency management in the aftermath of campus unrest over pro-Palestinian demonstrations. It also comes on the heels of a pro-Palestinian encampment in the middle of USC’s main campus was cleared Sunday morning by officers with the Los Angeles Police Department and USC’s Department of Public Safety, ending a high-profile protest that began in April. University officials said among several reasons for the clearing was that “outside agitators” had jumped a fence on Saturday and assaulted officers – a statement challenged by a student journalist at USC’s Daily Trojan. No information on any resulting arrests was available. And no arrests or major confrontations were reported on Sunday when the encampment was taken down, but the campus was closed for several hours. “Earlier today, the University of Southern California Department of Public Safety (DPS) successfully removed the illegal encampment rebuilt on the university’s campus,” Joel Curran, USC’s senior vice president of communications, announced Sunday morning. Monday’s reemergence of protests came as news of a potential temporary cease-fire emerged on the internationals stage. Hamas announced Monday it has accepted an Egyptian-Qatari proposal for a cease-fire to halt the seven-month-long war with Israel in Gaza, hours after Israel ordered about 100,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating from the southern city of Rafah, signaling that a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the deal, and details of the proposal have not yet been released. In recent days, Egyptian and Hamas officials have said the cease-fire would take place in a series of stages during which Hamas would release hostages it is holding in exchange for Israeli troop pullbacks from Gaza. It is not clear whether the deal will meet Hamas’ key demand of bringing about an end to the war and complete Israeli withdrawal. That did not, however, stop Columbia University in New York from canceling its large university-wide commencement ceremony Monday, following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests that have roiled its campus while spurring others,  such as Southern California colleges, to protest in kind. Students at Columbia will still be able to celebrate at a series of smaller, school-based ceremonies this week and next. The decision comes as universities around the country are wrangling with how to handle commencements. Another campus shaken by protests, Emory University, announced Monday that it would move its commencement from its campus quadrangle in Atlanta to a suburban arena. Others, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Northeastern, have pulled off ceremonies with few disruptions. USC was gearing up this week for the replacement to its main graduation, what the university calls a Trojan Family Graduate Celebration, on Thursday event at the Memorial Coliseum. Officials are promising a graduation-like event that includes drone shows, fireworks, surprise performances, the Trojan Marching Band, and “a special gift just for the Class of 2024.” UCLA’s graduation cycle, which goes from June 13-16, appeared to be still in the works as originally planned. UCLA Law, which has the earliest campus graduation, on May 10, also appeared to be happening as originally planned, at Pauley Pavilion. City News Service contributed to this report  This is a developing story. Check for updates.  Related Articles News | Columbia University cancels main commencement after protests that roiled campus for weeks News | Crisis in Gaza revives student activism that some considered long gone News | USC encampment cleared in pre-dawn push by LAPD, campus police News | UCI chancellor says plans are to continue discussions Monday with student protesters News | Pitzer College to release financial information demanded by pro-Palestine students
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