UCLA pushed back Thursday on a federal order that would protect Jewish students’ access to campus areas occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters, calling U.S. district judge Mark C. Scarsi’s ruling “improper.”
“UCLA is committed to fostering a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from intimidation, discrimination and harassment,” Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in a statement. “The district court’s ruling is improper and would hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground and to meet the needs of the Bruin community. We’re closely reviewing the Judge’s ruling and considering all our options moving forward.”
In late April, an encampment was erected by pro-Palestine protesters on UCLA’s centrally located Royce Quad. The entrances to the encampment were guarded, and passersby were only allowed to enter if they wore a wristband that indicated they supported Palestine.
The lawsuit comes from three Jewish UCLA students — Yitzchok Frankel, Joshua Ghayoum and Eden Shemuelian — who say they faced religious discrimination because they have a religious obligation to support the Jewish state of Israel. Because of Royce Quad’s location, the exclusionary encampment made it more difficult for students who supported Israel to get to class.
UCLA has maintained that, though it agrees these students faced religious discrimination, the university has “no responsibility” to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students when it comes to third-party protestors.
After a failed negotiation between the two parties, Scarsi issued a court order about the case on Tuesday. In his ruling, he repeatedly wrote, “Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith” and called what happened “so unimaginable and so abhorrent.”
As part of his ruling, Scarsi ordered that UCLA is prohibited from offering any “ordinarily available programs, activities or campus areas to students” if these activities or areas are not “fully and equally accessible to Jewish students.” UCLA is also prohibited from “knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students.” By Thursday, UCLA must inform its Student Affairs Mitigator/Monitor as well as all campus security teams that they cannot obstruct access to regularly available activities, programs or locations to Jewish students.
Under the definition of this court order, the exclusion of Jewish students also applies to excluding students “based on religious beliefs concerning the Jewish state of Israel.” The ruling also doesn’t prevent UCLA from excluding Jewish students who violate the university’s code of conduct.
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