UC regent proposes making anti-Israel protesters pay for damage they caused, totaling $12 million
One University of California regent suggested making anti-Israel protesters foot the bill for damages the campus incurred.
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has reportedly spent millions of dollars during and in the aftermath of the pro-Palestine demonstrations on its campus, leading some officials to consider forcing participants of the anti-Israel displays to help foot the bill.
According to The Los Angeles Times, one University of California regent said that he was “surprised” by the amount of money spent in response to the encampments and that the university system should demand reimbursement from students who committed specific acts of vandalism and destroyed school property.
In May, for instance, one group of protestors was detained by law enforcement officials, who found that they had zip ties, metal pipes, super glue, and “documentation encouraging violence and vandalism.”
By contrast, Graeme Blair, a political science professor at UCLA and a member of the school’s “Faculty for Justice in Palestine” group, argued against the use of taxpayer dollars entirely, characterizing the protests as students “standing up for their beliefs.”
“We should spend precious California tax dollars on teaching and learning,” Blair stated. “Not punishing our students for standing up for their beliefs and the Palestinian people.”
UCLA spent nearly $12 million on increased campus security during and in the immediate aftermath of the protests, according to an estimate from the UCLA Compliance Office that was obtained by The Daily Bruin.
On top of that, the university reportedly spent nearly $500,000 on restoration following the damage that was done by the anti-Israel demonstrators.
UCLA’s expense for managing and cleaning up the results of the protest constitutes only a plurality of the expenditure of the University of California system as a whole, which, as Campus Reform has reported, spent around $29 million responding to the pro-Palestine encampments.
A UCLA spokesperson said that the funds used for protest related purposes do not come from tuition paid by the students, but rather through “discretionary funding available to the chancellor,” according to The Daily Bruin.
Not all of the money spent by the UCLA administration went to preventative measures against the encampment. As Campus Reform recently reported, UCLA has allegedly admitted that it “set up barricades reinforcing” the anti-Israel encampment on campus.
In total, there were three different pro-Palestine encampments at UCLA, which led to dozens of arrests.
Campus Reform has contacted the University of California, Los Angeles for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
