31 arrested after students occupied Cal Poly Humboldt buildings, grounds for week over Gaza war

Law enforcement moved in early Tuesday and arrested 31 people after Cal Poly Humboldt students barricaded themselves inside two administrative buildings for a week on the Arcata campus.

The move came as pro-Palestinian protesters, who are demanding divestment from Israel and an end to the country’s military actions in Gaza, set up several new tent encampments at colleges and universities across California as tensions escalated.

University officials said the protesters, some of whom were students and faculty members, were arrested without incident around 2:30 a.m. and face charges of unlawful assembly, vandalism, conspiracy, assault of police officers and other charges, officials at the remote Northern California school said in a statement.

University officials said 31 people in total were arrested. By afternoon, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, 11 people had posted bail.

The sweeps at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, came several hours after police engaged the protesters late Monday night, telling as many as 150 people over loudspeakers they had to leave. Several hours later, authorities moved in to make arrests outside Siemens Hall — which houses the university president’s office — and Nelson Hall East. No injuries were reported.

“What was occurring was not free expression or a protest,” the university’s statement said. “It was criminal activity, and there were serious concerns it would spread even further on campus.”

Many protesters and faculty thought the closure of campus was unnecessary and that the university had escalated the situation for unwarranted reasons. The occupation of one building did not seem to merit a complete lockdown, they said, as the university accused protesters of causing roughly $1 million in damages.

Many demonstrators also bristled at allegations that they were violent, firing back that they were peaceful while it was police who had been violent.

The demonstration sought to push the university to support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and divest from companies supporting Israel. It marked the first instance in which demonstrators overtook college buildings amid protests across the country in response to the Israel-Hamas war.

“The university had made repeated efforts over the last week to resolve the situation,” school officials said. “This morning’s enforcement action was determined to be necessary to restore order and to address the lawlessness and dangerous conditions that had developed.”

Students who were arrested could face discipline under the school’s administrative policies and Cal Poly Humboldt employees arrested could face disciplinary action, university officials said.

One of the activists arrested, assistant professor Rouhollah Aghasaleh, vowed to reject any bond and embark on a hunger strike until he and all his students were released.

“I refuse to accept the label of criminal for standing up for an ethical reason,” he wrote in a statement before his arrest. “Our arrest on a stolen land and in a place that we consider home is an act of violence.”

Wearing riot gear, law enforcement from several agencies — including the San Francisco Police Department, according to the officers’ union — marched onto campus carrying batons and plastic shields early Tuesday as university officials closed campus through May 10, the day before commencement ceremonies.

Video captured by local news station KAEF showed the walls of Siemens Hall — renamed “Intifada Hall” by the protesters — covered in messages calling to free Palestine.

“This is a difficult day, it breaks my heart to see it, and truly nobody wanted to see things come to this,” Tom Jackson Jr., Cal Poly Humboldt’s president, said in a statement. “We’ve all watched this with great concern, and always with the sincere hope that it would be resolved peacefully.”

Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said in a statement the arrests were “essential” to re-establish order on campus and bring safety back to campus.

Reporter Adelmi Ruiz with a local news stations KAEF and KRCR was also detained but not arrested, according to the stations.

Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, a Democrat who represents the North Coast including Arcata, and his Assembly counterpart, Healdsburg Democrat Jim Wood, said the ordeal would “take time to heal” in the community.

“This has been an extremely challenging week in Humboldt. Protesting peacefully in America is a fundamental, Constitutional right – it’s what our nation is about and, let’s be candid, protesting is part of the fabric of the North Coast,” the legislators said.

“That said, there is a clear line and it starts and stops with destruction of school property, vandalism, and antisemitic hate speech,” the lawmakers said, adding that the campus must be a place “where all faiths and students of all backgrounds feel safe, respected, and included.”

“As protests continue in other parts of the state and nation, it’s important to remember that reasonable ideas don’t have to be in conflict. ... We’re stronger as a community when we learn from our differences and where we’ve been, and move forward together.”

Protests sprout, intensify elsewhere

Protests have intensified at universities across the nation in response to the Mideast conflict. Israel has reportedly killed more than 34,000 Palestinians since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, which killed more than 1,200 people.

At Columbia University, dozens of protesters took over a building, barricading the entrances and unfurling a Palestinian flag out of a window.

At Sacramento State, community members pitched a dozen tents in the library quad Monday to call for CSUs to divest from organizations that participate “in the occupation, colonization, and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.” Campus officials permitted protesters to camp until Wednesday night.

Elsewhere in California, protests have roiled UC Berkeley, USC and UCLA, while students and others have taken up demonstrations at San Francisco State, Sonoma State, UC Riverside, UC Irvine, Occidental and Stanford.

Protesters at Pitzer College, another small school with about 1,200 undergraduates enrolled, have spent several days inhabiting a tent city called the “Palestine Solidarity Encampment.”

At USC, where Los Angeles police arrested 93 people on trespassing charges last week as they cleared an encampment at the center of campus, a reestablished camp site was mostly quiet on Monday.

Dozens of people were arrested Monday during protests at universities in Texas, Utah, Virginia and New Jersey, while Columbia said hours before the takeover of Hamilton Hall that it had started suspending students. Columbia has canceled its main graduation event.

The Los Angeles Times contributed to this story.