The University of California has announced that it will enforce bans on encampments and masks being used to “conceal identity.”
The 10-campus system will actively be “clarifying and reinforcing requirements for policies impacting expressive activities, including policies that prohibit camping or encampments, unauthorized structures, restrictions on free movement, masking to conceal identity, and refusing to reveal one’s identity when asked to do so by University personnel,” University of California President Michael Drake said.
“Freedom to express diverse viewpoints is fundamental to the mission of the University, and lawful protests play a pivotal role in that process,” Drake wrote in a letter to the UC campus community. “The Free Speech Movement was born at the University of California. We are proud to uphold that tradition today. We make every effort to nurture free expression, and we provide countless opportunities and venues for our students, faculty, other academic appointees, and staff to safely and lawfully share their diverse viewpoints and beliefs. While the vast majority of protests held on our campuses are peaceful and nonviolent, some of the activities we saw this past year were not.”
The announcement comes as a California budget bill compels UC campuses to provide a report on free speech or risk losing $25 million in funding.
According to the bill, “It is the intent of the Legislature that the University of California foster freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas that comply with state and federal law and campus policies while also protecting student, staff, and faculty safety and access to educational opportunities.”
“Each campus of the university shall prepare a campus climate notification by the beginning of the Fall 2024 term,” the bill explains. “The University of California Office of the President will develop a systemwide framework to provide for consistency with campus implementation and enforcement.”
The bill adds that the report must be submitted by October 1, 2024, and “describe campus climate notifications and any and all efforts to ensure consistent enforcement of institutional policies, and state and federal law, that protect safety and access to educational opportunities and campus spaces and buildings.”
“Of the funds appropriated in this item, $25,000,000 shall be released only if the Director of Finance certifies that the University of California campuses have completed campus climate notifications and the University of California Office of the President has submitted a report by October 1, 2024,” the budget bill says.
The move follows a federal judge ordering the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to develop a plan for maintaining equal campus access for Jewish students.
