The Cal Poly Humboldt campus in Northern California has been closed since Monday night due to a protest by several pro-Palestinian students. The protesters have occupied Siemens Hall and are refusing to leave. The university has announced that the campus will remain closed through Wednesday. All in-person classes and activities have been moved to a remote format, and students are advised to check with their professors or other staff about the status of their classes and activities.
The protest is part of a larger movement on college campuses across the country in response to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The students at Cal Poly Humboldt are demanding that the university “disclose all holdings” with Israel, cut ties with Israeli universities, “divest from all ties” to Israel including companies involved “in the occupation of Palestine,” drop all charges and attacks on student organizers, and call for a ceasefire and end to the “occupation of Palestine.”
Around 8:30 p.m. on Monday, the university said the students had barricaded themselves inside the building and announced the campus closure. Since then, the university has disabled key card access and limited access to several buildings nearby. Cal Poly Humboldt is part of the California State University system and is located in Arcata, about 300 miles northwest of Sacramento.
The university has condemned the occupation of Palestine, but has not yet met the students’ demands. The protest is ongoing, and it is unclear when the campus will reopen.
