CAIR Designates University of California, Irvine (UCI) as a Hostile Campus
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization has designated the University of California Irvine (UCI) as a ‘Hostile Campus’ due to the threat to the safety of Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and other students, staff, and faculty who stand against occupation, apartheid, and genocide.
UCI says it supports free speech and academic freedom, claiming these values are meant to protect people from being punished for their views. But in reality, the university has seemingly done the exact opposite. Instead of defending student rights, UCI has reportedly punished students and faculty for speaking out for Palestine. It has reportedly used disciplinary actions, biased and one-sided messaging, and even called in the police to shut down peaceful protests. This has created a campus climate where people, especially those who are Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, or allies, are afraid to speak their minds without being targeted.
UCI claims that “Principles of ‘free speech’ and ‘academic freedom’ are both designed to extend protections against punishment for the expression of ideas or because of a speaker’s viewpoint.” Yet, through reported disciplinary sanctions, biased administrative messaging, failure to protect students from harassment, and complicity in law enforcement crackdowns, UCI has seemingly created a campus environment that suppresses constitutionally protected speech and disproportionately punishes those advocating for Palestinian human rights. In October 2024, the Muslim Legal Fund of America filed a Title VI complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against UCI on behalf of students and faculty on that campus for reported discriminatory treatment of both students and professors who stood against occupation, apartheid, and genocide of the Palestinian people. Students who were suspended from UCI in 2024 have filed a lawsuit against UCI and its leadership, charging the leadership with blocking their academic pursuits for simply exercising free speech in speaking out for Palestinian human rights. UCI’s crackdown on student activism seems to send a clear message: if you support Palestine, you will be silenced.
UCI has also reportedly fostered a hostile environment for Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and other anti-genocide students due to biased administrative messaging. On October 10, 2023, Chancellor Howard Gillman issued a public email that made no mention of the 800+ Palestinians killed by that time and was formally condemned by UCI’s graduate student body, the Associated Graduate Students (AGS), who noted the bias and emotional harm caused by this omission. “We call on UC Irvine to affirm their support for students who speak out against global injustice and to issue a revised statement that clarifies that UCI, as an institution that purports to care about diversity and inclusion, seeks an end to all forms of violence and discrimination that negatively affect its students, including (but not limited to) Islamophobia, antisemitism, colonization, and racism,” the AGS stated. But UCI’s harmful response seemingly did not cease with one email. In the spring of 2024, UCI reportedly retaliated against students and faculty who held peaceful protests and encampments in solidarity with Gaza. The university reportedly facilitated a militarized law enforcement raid on campus that led to the arrest of 50 individuals, including 26 students and two faculty members. Rather than engaging with students’ demands, UCI reportedly escalated the situation by calling for law enforcement intervention. UCI’s actions, both in its silence on Palestinian suffering and in its harsh response to peaceful protest, show a deep disregard for student safety, dignity, and freedom of expression.
UCI’s leadership reportedly took some of the most extreme disciplinary actions in the country against students and faculty who spoke out against genocide in Gaza, and those actions did not go unnoticed. UCI reportedly suspended five students indefinitely without due process. The students’ attorney said, “They seem to be punishing our clients with a method that not only is unprecedented in UCI’s use in terms of responses to protests or student conduct issues, but also it stands out as unusual among the entire UC system.” As part of the crackdown on campus protests, UCI also reportedly issued interim suspensions to multiple student groups, including student negotiators, further silencing student voices.
One of the most disturbing moments occurred during the May 15, 2024 protest crackdown, when a tenured professor, Dr. Tiffany Willoughby‑Herard, was reportedly seen in one video being thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and zip‑tied by officers. When asked whether she feared losing her job after being zip-tied, handcuffed, and charged for participating in a peaceful protest, she reportedly responded, “What job do I have if the students don’t have a future?” A powerful piece titled “Assault on Academic Freedom at UC Irvine” strongly criticized the arrest, highlighting Dr. Willoughby‑Herard’s prominent scholarship. The article reported threats and a “digital billboard truck” targeting her following the incident. UCI has a moral and educational crisis unfolding on campus, where the university’s faculty were seemingly willing to risk their careers in defense of students being punished for standing against genocide. This moment is a symbol of the deep educational and moral failure at the heart of UCI’s response.
The American Civil Liberties Union also expressed serious concerns, stating, in a letter to the Chancellor, that the university was “violating its own disciplinary rules.” Faculty and academic associations condemned the charges against Dr. Willoughby-Herard. Faculty from UCI’s Department of Film and Media Studies issued a public statement decrying police brutality, administrative retaliation, and silencing of free speech. They demanded academic and legal amnesty for all protestors and recognized the legitimacy of anti-genocide protests, “We stress that it was the university administration’s mishandling of a peaceful protest and the actions of militarized police, not the students protesting genocide, that make the UCI community an unsafe space.” New Forum, one of the university’s student-led platforms, reportedly called out the administration for trying to “silence pro-Palestinian efforts” and for ignoring the suffering of Palestinians while punishing those who protested. In October 2024, prosecutors reportedly charged more than 49 protestors, including Irvine students and faculty, with misdemeanors for refusing to vacate encampments during protests. When Irvine Mayor Farrah N. Khan reportedly tried to intervene and ask prosecutors to drop the charges, her request was rejected.
UCI’s pattern of targeting anti-genocide students is not new. One of the clearest examples was reported in 2010, when eight UCI students and three others, later known as the Irvine 11, were reportedly criminally prosecuted for peacefully protesting a speech by the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. The students reportedly stood up one by one and read statements “from International laws that Israel has violated.” Instead of treating the protest as protected free speech, UCI reportedly referred the students for prosecution, and ten were convicted of misdemeanors, seemingly exposing a longstanding bias in how UCI handles dissent when it comes from students speaking out for Palestinian human rights.
UC Irvine has seemingly demonstrated a pattern of discriminatory punishment, targeting, and failure to protect students advocating for Palestinian rights. The combination of criminal prosecutions, administrative retaliation, one-sided political messaging, and civil rights complaints indicates that UCI is not a safe or equitable environment for Muslim, Palestinian, Arab, and other anti-genocide students. Therefore, CAIR designates UCI as a Hostile Campus under the Unhostile Campus Campaign.
