Breaking his silence, UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla explains his crackdown on Gaza protest encampment

The University of San Diego ordered the removal of a large and growing pro-Palestinian encampment on May 6, fearing that escalating tensions could lead to violence, Chancellor Pradeep Khosla told the Union-Tribune of San Diego in his first substantive public remarks on the incident.

Khosla made the remarks last Friday, shortly after the Union-Tribune obtained an analysis of events produced by his senior staff three days after the incident and widely distributed to campus leaders. Throughout May, Khosla was unavailable to answer questions from the Union-Tribune.

The chancellor said he particularly wanted to avoid the kind of melee that occurred nearly a week earlier at UCLA, where a mob arrived late at night and attempted to demolish a similar pro-Palestinian encampment. UCLA police were immediately criticized for waiting hours before intervening.

At UCSD, five days later, tense but peaceful protests took place outside the camp by pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators. Khosla said the event marked a “turning point” that led to his decision to involve the police the next day.

“The temperature between the two groups, in my mind, rose significantly, based on the information I was receiving,” said Khosla, who spoke to the Union-Tribune by Zoom on Friday as protesters gathered in front of his La Jolla home. “So we had to think about how this was going to be handled, because at that point I was afraid that an altercation between two random people could lead to what happened at UCLA.”

Khosla was also informed by campus police that “the risk of the camp becoming unmanageable and unsecure had reached heightened levels,” UCSD leaders said in their six-page summary of events.

The chancellor had also been informed by his advisors that camp members would not allow a fire marshal and a health inspector into the tent city.

The Union-Tribune asked Khosla if it was fair to compare the situation at UCSD to that at UCLA, where the campus police chief was immediately criticized for his department’s slow response and would then be reassigned.

“All I knew was there was an altercation at (UCLA). I had no idea why this happened,” Khosla replied. “All I knew was that there had been an altercation that led to a significant escalation.”

When asked for details a few days later, Khosla said through a spokesperson that he did not know all the details of the incident at UCLA, but that he had acted because he wanted to avoid a similar incident in La Jolla.

The UCSD incident came to a head shortly after dawn on May 6, when police from three agencies dismantled the illegal encampment and began arresting dozens of people.

Some protesters began clashing with police and many gathered in front of buses full of those arrested, trying to prevent them from leaving.

Sixty students were arrested, along with two faculty members and four people not affiliated with the university, officials said Tuesday. Officials would not say how many, if any, of the arrested students were eligible to receive a diploma this weekend.

The tension did not end there.

The university is bracing for the possibility that protesters might try to disrupt spring commencement Saturday, where former Vice President Al Gore is scheduled to deliver the commencement address.

Prior to the ceremony, the UCSD chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine announced plans to hold its own graduation ceremony on Friday.

And the school’s Academic Senate is engaged in what some professors have described as a bitter debate over whether Khosla managed the camp properly — and whether his decision to authorize the use of police force external authorities deserves a vote of censure and his dismissal.

The situation represents a dramatic turnaround for Khosla, who received a $500,000 pay raise last year. He is currently undergoing a routine performance review, scheduled weeks before the encampment controversy.

Confusion and distrust

The university has seen numerous protests against the war in Gaza since October, but struggled to establish a protest camp early last month, its six-page summary of the official response says.

Protesters pitched about 20 tents near Library Walk for 20 minutes on May 1, using materials that had been stored at the nearby Price Center. Afterward, campus officials quickly showed up and told them the encampment was illegal, their internal briefing document says.

A protest liaison asked “what the campus was doing to keep the encampment safe and ensure the violence that happened at UCLA would not happen to them,” the document said. He adds that a student affairs observer responded that “allied security, police and SAM would be present at different levels.”

Neither a spokesperson for UCSDivest – the coalition that organized the encampment – nor the university chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine responded to requests for discussion of the university’s actions or the report of synthesis.

After the camp was built, campus police shifted to emergency personnel (12-hour shifts, no days off) to provide security, officials said in their summary, “diverting resources from other public safety activities and imposing an enormous burden,” he adds. .

The university described its communications with protesters as “increasingly difficult,” according to its review. “There was no consistent person to communicate with, no one claimed to have any authority, and changes in representatives diverted responsibility for communications, actions or follow-up. »

On Thursday, Khosla canceled Sun God, a popular annual music festival scheduled for Saturday.

“We didn’t have enough staff to keep the rest of campus safe,” Khosla told the Union-Tribune. “We had a choice to make: expose everyone to risk or just cancel the Sun God,” he said, referring to his fear that pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protesters would start fighting.

Dueling protests and fears of violence

Days later, summarizing recent events on campus, Khosla’s advisors described having similar concerns after the May 5 protests.

“The camp participants left the camp and occupied Library Walk at the same time that the counter-protesters were marching in the same area. This caused hundreds of individuals from both factions, within feet of each other, to shout and wave objects at each other. Fortunately, this incident did not result in violence, but the camp’s decision to provoke and confront counterprotesters significantly increased the risk of violence erupting, as occurred at UCLA. the university said in the document.

“If a fight had broken out, it is likely that campus security resources would have been overwhelmed,” officials added.

UCSD police were present at the protest. The university’s summary does not specify how the officers were tasked with handling the protest and counter-protest.

It was a polarizing moment for activists.

Martha Hoffman, a counterprotester from La Jolla, told the Union-Tribune at the time: “The university should not allow them to chant ‘Intifada.’

Hala Abdulah, a pro-Palestinian student protesting at the camp, told the newspaper that her group would not leave.

“We’re not going to rely on UCPD to protect us,” she said. “No cops, no administration, no one will protect us. We will protect ourselves. »

“Growing concerns”

By Sunday, the UCSD encampment had tripled in size and the counter-protest was taking shape nearby.

Khosla called Senate Academic President John Hildebrand “to express growing concerns and the likely need for action if the situation continues to worsen,” according to a separate two-page timeline prepared by Senate staff. UCSD.

“The president did not agree with the use of police to disband the camp and expressed concern that people would have access to their personal belongings in the camp if action was taken.”

Later that day, Hildebrand “texted the chancellor thanking him for not sending a force to disperse the counter-protest,” the timeline states.

But by then, Khosla had already decided to order the removal of the camp.

“We have a 2,000-acre campus that we need to protect,” Khosla told the Union-Tribune. “My job was to keep them safe.”