University of California president Michael Drake directed the chancellors of each campus under the state school system to craft rules where no guidelines exist and to publicize and enforce rules that the universities already have on the books against encampments, preventing individuals from moving freely across university grounds, and hiding one’s identity with a mask.
“Our longstanding systemwide policies uphold the constitutionally protected rights of all members of the University community regarding free expression, speech, and assembly,” Drake wrote. “In addition, academic freedom protects freedom of inquiry and research, teaching, and expression and publication. These rights come with the expectation that these activities shall not disrupt the University’s functions, impede orderly operations, or place community members in reasonable fear for their personal safety or infringe on their civil rights.”
To do that, Drake said, universities must provide overviews of existing policies on protests, including clarifying that “no person shall camp, set up or erect a campsite, or occupy a tent or other temporary housing structure on University property, unless specifically pre-approved.” Also, “no person shall restrict the movement of another person or persons by, among other means, blocking or obstructing their ingress or egress of roadways, walkways, buildings, parking structures, fire lanes, windows, doors or other passageways to university property, or otherwise denying a person access to a University facility or space.” Further, “no person shall wear a mask or personal disguise or otherwise conceal their identity with the intent of intimidating any person or group, or for the purpose of evading or escaping discovery, recognition, or identification in the commission of violations of law or policy.”
Drake also clarified that no individual on university property may refuse to identify himself to university officials.
Should any of the campuses in the UC system not already have those rules in place, that campus “should develop and/or amend policies as soon as possible,” he wrote.
Drake’s letter to the chancellors comes on the heels of a federal judge’s ruling that the University of California, Los Angeles, may not allow student activists to create effectively Jew-free zone on campus — activists had been doing so by barring passage to Jews unless they disavowed Israel and also their religious faith. The clarification that individuals on the UC system’s campuses may not block others from moving throughout the campus does not mention Jewish students specifically, and Drake made no mention of this court case in his letter, but the timing of the letter suggests that it is in response to the injunction — which the UCLA administration has appealed.