A Full Campus Shutdown at a California State University

Inside Higher Ed

Johanna Alonso

May 1, 2024

Under cover of darkness early Tuesday morning, about 100 law enforcement officers swarmed the campus of California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, to secure two buildings occupied by student protesters.

Participants had been in one of the buildings, Siemens Hall, a central administrative and academic building, for more than a week. During that time, they broke into the president’s office and wrote phrases including “BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS” and “Viva viva Palestina!” on the walls in spray paint and what looked like permanent marker.

The Unified Command, a group of police officers from across the state that carried out the operation at about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, arrested 31 individuals outside Siemens Hall on charges of unlawful assembly, vandalism, conspiracy, assault of police officers and more. Video from the scene taken by the Lost Coast Outpost, a local news outlet, showed people sitting outside in a circle, arms linked, around what appears to be a pile of supplies, waiting to be arrested. According to Occupy Cal Poly Humboldt, an Instagram account that appears to be run by protesters, they knew the police were coming, thanks to reporting from the institution’s radio station.

In a press release the following morning, Tom Jackson Jr., president of the California State system’s smallest institution, described the occupation as “serious criminal activity that crossed the line well beyond the level of a protest.”

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