The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is in need of “fundamental, structural changes” following months of violent anti-Israel protests and clashes with police, a report released Thursday found.
The independent investigation by 21st Century Policing Solutions described UCLA’s response to protests as “chaotic” and called for the immediate training of university personnel on university policies and how to respond to campus disruptions, according to the report. The university’s violent protests led to dozens of injuries, property damage and lawsuits over the administration allowing a “Jew Exclusion Zone” to remain on campus.
University leaders were unprepared for the protests and guidance of the school’s policy was unclear, leaving administrators to delay response, the investigation found. University officials and police believed they could not intervene in protests even if university policy was broken unless the demonstrations became violent.
“UCLA did not, at the time of the encampment, have any plans for how to respond to campus disruptions and how decisions about University responses would be made,” the investigation revealed. “Because no codified plans existed, UCLA administrators engaged in a chaotic process in which they needed to make difficult decisions – some appearing to be matter of first impression for many involved – in the midst of ongoing disruption, without clarity on who maintained final decision-making authority, lacking a commonly understood process for reaching decisions, and largely lacking the ability to react quickly to fast-changing events and dynamic circumstances on campus.”
University of California Police officers face pro-Palestinian protesters outside Dodd Hall in the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in Los Angeles, June 10, 2024. (Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images)
The report also found that UCLA has made “repeat mistakes” after failing to adopt earlier recommendations of protest policies a decade prior.
“Our review found, however, that UCLA has not effectively formalized or operationalized these recommendations, leading the University and administrators to repeat mistakes in April and May 2024 that the 2012 Robinson-Edley recommendations were designed to reduce,” the report read.
UCLA should immediately implement a clear action plan for responding to campus disturbances and train university administrators and police on the plan, the report recommended. The university was also called upon to conduct a formal review of every future protest incident that occurs on campus and release a report on the response to the incident.
Protesters in April created a “Jew Exclusion Zone” on campus and required students to prove their support for the cause by identifying themselves with wristbands and publicly denounce Israel in order to enter the zone. Over 100 demonstrators were arrested in May after turning violent. (RELATED: University Illegally Blocked Conservative Event While Pro-Palestinian Encampments Took Hold On Campus, Lawsuit Alleges)
UCLA is also recommended to create new leadership positions for the sole purpose of ensuring campus safety and coordinating police response to unrest, the report stated.
“UCLA is committed to enhancing campus safety and learning from the events of last spring. We appreciate the work that went into producing the report, and will continue to implement the recommended reforms — many of which are already underway.”
This story has been updated with comment from UCLA.
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