Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to the Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. This week, all eyes have been on pro-Palestine encampments at college campuses across the country. Police have moved in to arrest hundreds of students at schools like Columbia, UCLA, Cal Poly, Humboldt and many more. Here in the Bay. Pro-Palestine encampments at universities have continued to grow in.
SFSU GUPS President: Welcome to the rally for solidarity with Gaza.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: On Monday, San Francisco State became one of the latest schools to erect a solidarity encampment with Gaza.
SFSU GUPS President: The legacy of the 1968 student strike, with the first ever black student union, and throw to a Liberation front where the College of Ethnic Studies was born. Reminds us who we are…
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: At UC Berkeley. An encampment set up across the steps of Sproul Hall has been there for nearly two weeks now, and it’s grown to about 150 tents.
Mike Sweeney: The US government, which is the primary sponsor of the genocide in Palestine, will not change unless we make it too costly for them not to change. That’s why we’re here to interrupt business as usual, and make it very crystal clear that we’re not going to stop, until Palestine is free.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And even as graduation approaches at Sonoma State, a smaller encampment at the heart of campus remains intact.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Across all three campuses. The key demands are pretty much the same. Students are pushing their universities to disclose financial ties to Israel. Divest from them. Defend students right to protest and stand up against Israel’s occupation and siege on Gaza. And students say they’re willing to keep protesting until their demands are met.
Malak: I really mean it when I say that all of us are fully prepared to stay until we achieve divestment, and we see that even with Columbia occupying Hamilton Hall today, that is a very powerful strategy that has been utilized also here in California at Cal Poly Humboldt. So we will do what it takes to make sure that divestment is achieved.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Student journalists have been at the forefront of covering what’s happening on college campuses and how their university administrations have responded. So today, we talk with three student journalists covering protests at college campuses around the Bay. Can you just actually start by introducing yourself and then your name and your title?
Cami Dominguez: So I’m Cami Dominguez I am a staff reporter for Golden Gate Express, which is San Francisco State University’s student publication.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: An encampment was erected on Monday of this week. Can you tell me about that? What was the scene like?
Cami Dominguez: We noticed administration surrounding the area, but there was no police presence, which kind of definitely put us at ease a little bit more. It was relatively peaceful. Students just started setting up signs and posters and mic checking the stage. Malcolm X Plaza is always used as the place where it all starts. There’s a variety of speakers and then they go in like march around campus.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And what goes on at the encampments on the day to day.
Cami Dominguez: They have an agenda that they put up every morning of the things that will be going on. They had a poetry reading. They were having to teach in about the importance of labor and how it intersects with, like, the Palestinian struggle. And there was a good amount of people there. They have a medic tent, lanterns, sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, tents. It’s it’s very well planned out. It wasn’t as chaotic as we had anticipated it to be.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: How many tents and how many people are camped out?
Cami Dominguez: 50 ish tents. I’m not sure how many students are inside each, but the amount it grows every night is pretty impressive. Our quad is kind of divided in four little sections of grass. And at first it started with just one section, but now it’s half of our road is now just filled with tents.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: It can be. I know that as a state is a huge commuter school meeting. Like most of the students who attend class out of state, don’t live on campus, don’t live nearby, are commuting from sometimes really far away, right? How has that affected students ability to organize or protest on campus?
Cami Dominguez: See, I think that that’s one of the most fascinating things about state is that, yes, we are a big commuter school, but the sense that I’ve gone off of the encampment is that if anyone is a commuter student and they want to participate in the encampments, the people who do live on campus have offered their places to these people.
Cami Dominguez: So if anyone just needs a space to reset and just like, I don’t know, take a quick shower, just change just anything that commuter students don’t have access to. The people that live on campus have offered that. So I feel it’s it’s a very uniting thing for students right now.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, what has been the university’s response so far to the encampment on Monday?
Cami Dominguez: We did have staff reporters reach out to Lynn Mahoney’s office. She gave Goldengate Express a statement directly, but it wasn’t something that was sent out to the entire university. She said, as a state has a long history of student activism and strong engagement with social and political issues.
Cami Dominguez: Campus activism is part of who we are. I have also repeatedly made clear my deep commitment to freedom of expression and academic freedom. Last fall, we experienced a number of protests. The university remains committed to providing space for peaceful protests.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Okay, so sounds like they’re going to sort of let the encampment be for now. And and no sense yet, though on where they’re at and meeting the demands of the student protesters.
Cami Dominguez: Yeah, I know it’s hard to tell for now.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: How have faculty at the university responded?
Cami Dominguez: The faculty response to this has been also just overwhelming. Along with the students of Gaza that formed on campus, there was also a faculty for Gaza that formed. I think that the relationship that students and faculty have built over the past semester has been one that continues to develop.
Cami Dominguez: Our faculty went on strike last semester and organized closely with student organizers and faculty, made it very clear that they acknowledge the amount of student support, and faculty has made it clear that they are also in support of the student movement and like what they’re fighting for.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Have there been any tensions at all or any counterprotesters on campus?
Cami Dominguez: There has been no counter protests. We do have a Jewish organization on campus, and we do have a Jewish studies department. So we have a reporter going out there right now and kind of getting the sense of what the other side is thinking of right now, but no public demonstrations against the encampment.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: The same day the solidarity encampment went up on campus, Assaf Hillel, a Jewish student organization at San Francisco State, posted on Instagram that it was offering space away from protests if students needed it. Well, you were kind of alluding to this, Cami, but I have to imagine that as a student journalist, you’re watching what’s happening on college campuses. How have you been navigating as a journalist, the sensitivities around this topic.
Cami Dominguez: It’s it’s been hard. This is something that we’ve been struggling with in the newsroom. Any student that is just participating and you go up to them and you ask them like, hey, can I ask you a few questions? They will always redirect us to someone who is media trained.
Cami Dominguez: So we have a very select group of people that can talk to us. We have been trying to see if there’s any way around that, but we also acknowledge the fact that there is a danger to attributing and putting students names out there.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, how would you, I guess, describe the mood of your most recent visit to the encampment and how things are are feeling at this moment?
Cami Dominguez: I don’t think that there’s any active anticipation that anything is going to happen, but there is that sense of just just being aware of surroundings.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Caution.
Cami Dominguez: Yeah, exactly. But generally when I went there last night, it was really the community was just so overwhelming. It was really endearing, almost, to see how receptive students are to each other, how supportive they are. There was a number of students that came in and asked, hey, do you have any extra tents?
Cami Dominguez: There were students that were like around there and say like, oh, I can help you put up that tent. And it would be like groups of three people who would go and help other students set up tents. That sense of community has been really touching.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Cami, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me and share your reporting with us. I really appreciate it.
Cami Dominguez: Yeah. Of course.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Coming up, we’ll hear about the student encampments at UC Berkeley and Sonoma State. Stay with us.
Rae Wymer: My name is Rae Wymer . I’m a sophomore at the University of California, Berkeley, and I am a news reporter for the Daily Californian, the Berkeley’s independent student newspaper.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: What does the encampment look like right now?
Rae Wymer: Right now, covering the almost literally the entirety of the green area. And the Mario Savio steps in front of Sproul Hall Architects. It started out with, like with around 12 tents. When the encampment first started on the 22nd. Now it’s obviously grown. There’s around 150 of them, I want to say, as of our last count.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I know you’ve done some reporting on what life is like at the encampment, including a story that kind of looked at 24 hours at the encampment. What is a typical day like?
Rae Wymer: We were there from the 23rd to the 24th of April. Honestly, 24 hours at the encampment was pretty calm. It was a lot of aid coming in. A lot of people donating. We spoke to some of the organizers, and they said that they were getting donations of like around $2,000 an hour.
Rae Wymer: The first two days they were getting aid, they were getting more food than they can handle. They were getting supplies. And people are just coming. And the numbers were just growing and students were sleeping out, going to class, doing class work, coming back, sleeping at the encampment.
Rae Wymer: And it was a very permeable barrier between sleeping and staying at the encampment and going to class within the last couple of days. It’s changed a little bit. We were there from the first to the second, and with the context of the recent events at LA, it changed. Things were a lot more tense.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Yeah. So it seems like there is this sense that some of the stuff that is happening nationally, some of the violence that we’re seeing nationally at some of these campuses could potentially spill over in Berkeley as well. It seems like.
Rae Wymer: Yeah, there was this lingering sense of. Oh, we think something is going to happen. They didn’t know if it’s going to be a counter-protest by pro-Israeli groups. They didn’t know if it was going to be a response by police. But a lot of people went home who weren’t comfortable staying there.
Rae Wymer: We noticed from our reporting that when people check into the tent, they have to like Mark on their tent with like a piece of tape, whether they are planning to stay for the full stay, if there is a raid or if there is a counter protest, or they mark if they want assistance leaving.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Oh, wow.
Rae Wymer: So even since the beginning, a lot of people seem to be more in tune of. It’s only a matter of when rather than it’s a matter of if. But then the university has been very, very agreeable.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: How has the university administration, you see, generally speaking, responded.
Rae Wymer: To the university statement on it was that they were not planning on changing investment policies and practices, and that basically, as long as the protest and the occupation of the steps does not interfere with the day to day functioning of the university, it’s going to be there until students want to leave.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: It seems like things have remained pretty peaceful on campus at this encampment so far. Have you seen any counter protesters there at all, or any pushback from pro-Israel groups on campus?
Rae Wymer: There has been some pushback. Not much. On the night of the first, there was a confrontation between pro-Israel protesters and pro-Palestinian protesters at the Free Palestine encampment. There was an altercation over a flag where a pro-Palestinian protester tried to grab, an Israeli flag from a counter protester.
Rae Wymer: The incident was kind of contained with controlled. Everything was safe afterwards, but they were more on edge Wednesday night than earlier nights that we’ve been there. There has been new kind of self-directed barricades that have been put up that does show an increased sense of need for security, but it’s hard to know at this point.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I mean, UC Berkeley in particular. I think in kind of be under the microscope sometimes nationally and in national news. Right. Like a lot of people outside the campus like to talk about what’s going on at UC Berkeley. But what do you want people to know about what’s going on?
Rae Wymer: Yeah, I think really the main thing that has been great to hear and has been great to tell people, is how safe it’s been in our own internal conversations with other staffers and with other people covering it. We keep reiterating how lucky we feel. It definitely compared to some of the other universities. It’s been nice to see a difference.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, Rae, I want to thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with us. I really appreciate it.
Rae Wymer: Thank you so much for having me.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: On Wednesday night, the Daily Cal reported that UC Berkeley administration began negotiations with organizers of the Free Palestine encampment. While the campus spokesperson would not confirm nor deny the meeting occurred.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: The Daily Cal spoke with organizers of the camp, who said they’d met with Chancellor Carol Krist and other campus representatives to discuss the coalition’s demands and an end to the encampment. The Daily Cal reports the university made few concessions to protesters demands, and that it’s unclear whether additional meetings are planned.
Olivia Keeler: Hi, my name is Olivia Keeler and I am a senior Communication and Media Studies major at Sonoma State. And I’m also the editor in chief of the Sonoma State Star, which is a totally student run newspaper.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: When did the encampments start at Sonoma State?
Olivia Keeler: The encampment was first set up Friday the 26th. They started with a few tents and a few supplies, and it’s just grown from there. It is the busiest area on campus. It is on Person Lawn, which is just east of the student center. So you have to walk through person line to get to basically anywhere on campus, any time there’s a tabling, anytime there’s like a social like event, it’s it’s on that lawn.
Olivia Keeler: And like that, that lawn is like the center. I feel like the school doesn’t have a big social justice like feeling to it. So when it comes to protests, I feel like this might be the most notable one we’ve had in decades.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, what does it look like right now? How many tents? How many people are we? Are we talking about?
Olivia Keeler: Last time I knew the exact number, it was 20 tents. I think there’s been a few more. There’s a few canopies. There’s like an art section where people can make art, make signs, and there’s like a whole study section with a with like desks and tables and like, charging stations.
Olivia Keeler: There’s, a little tent with, like, a library in it. So there’s like a bunch of books in there. So it’s probably spanning about probably like 60 by 60ft, and there’s probably about 30 people staying like overnight and at all times like 30 to 40 it’s gone pretty well.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And what goes on at the encampments on the day to day.
Olivia Keeler: Day to day, they have little study sessions together. They have like group discussions together. They have a chance. They usually have like a chanting and around like 12 to 1. They have speakers. They had a faculty walk out where, you know, they had four faculty members speak. It’s a very peaceful yet demanding energy.
Olivia Keeler: Like they’re still chanting, they’re still protesting, but they’re kind of staying in that vicinity. And they’ve all formed like a little community. A lot of them have said, like, they didn’t really know each other before the encampment, and they’ve all just grown so close.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: How has the university administration responded so far to to students demands and to students?
Olivia Keeler: Encampment demands haven’t really been acknowledged yet. Administration has been has been saying like, you know, well, we haven’t seen the reason to take any action yet. That’s like a direct quote. They said, like, we respect all students and like we respect, the voice from all sides, basically, and not really acknowledging, like, okay, we want to hear your demands.
Olivia Keeler: It’s more so, you know, this is your First Amendment, right? So we’re going to let you be I know that, the students told me that the chief of police came by and said that, you know, as long as you guys are peaceful, there’s no reason for us to bother you guys. So, students for Justice in Palestine have told me that the police have been pretty relaxed and haven’t given them issues.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: How has the broader Sonoma community responded to the encampment on campus?
Olivia Keeler: The community support has just been abundant because the they have so much food. They have so many supplies. People bring, you know, an air mattress every day, a tent every day. And they have, a food train where community members can sign up for like breakfast, lunch and dinner. And every time I stop by, you know, that they’re like, oh, we have Thai food, we have Mexican food, you know?
Olivia Keeler: So the community’s really shown up to give them supplies and give them support. And during the day, like when they have speakers and, the, the actual, like chanting through the student center, families come. There’s been families with children as young as 2 or 3 that show up and like, participate. There’s elderly people that said, you know, I did this in my day for Vietnam, you know?
Olivia Keeler: So I’m sure they feel like a deep support from the community. And obviously there’s always going to be the other side where, you know, you’re going to see those messages on the articles and you’re going to see that. But they felt that the support has way like overwhelmed the negative.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Yeah, I do want to ask you about that. I mean, have there been any counter. Protests at all. Any pushback?
Olivia Keeler: There hasn’t been any like significant push back where there’s like, like a face to face, like tense conversation. But there has been kind of like a social media thing in the background. There was a whole thing where there’s a Holocaust memorial on, our campus and someone wrote in chalk, like, is not real in front of the, memorial, which is obviously horrible. But, SJP, students for Justice in Palestine have like, urge like, this is not us.
Olivia Keeler: Like anti-Zionism is completely separate from antisemitism. And after that incident, you know, they didn’t want anyone to think that they were protesting, like the actual, like Jewish community and religion. So they put up a sign that said, like, we do not allow antisemitism in any way, like on this encampment, like if you bring anti-Semitic energy here, like we just we don’t allow it.
Olivia Keeler: This whole situation as of now. Like, it’s it’s just a very peaceful energy. But you can tell, like at the faculty walkout, I was, taking a lot of content, a lot of videos and everything there. And you could just feel the tension. Because they go from person one into the student center. And in the student center is where, like the frats and stuff for tabling instead of person lawn where they usually table.
Olivia Keeler: So administration was kind of almost like surrounding those tables. And you could you could feel that it was like a protective energy of the fraternity tables. You know, it was it was almost that like they were kind of like staring over. It was just a heavy tension that particular day.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: It. Is there any fear that you’re sensing among students at Sonoma State recently?
Olivia Keeler: Even in my classes and stuff, like sometimes it isn’t even acknowledged. Almost. So I feel like people are trying to kind of glaze over it. Sometimes people are concerned because, you know, they’re like, where is this going to go? Like, is administration going to support or end up being like pro-Israel in the situation?
Olivia Keeler: Like it’s just like an unsure, earnest right now. It’s just they don’t know if administration is going to end up supporting or, you know, kicking them off. And with graduations so close, you know, with graduation only two weeks away.
Olivia Keeler: Particular like fear that I’ve sensed or the people have told me about right now, I think that the people of the encampment, their biggest fear is just being ignored by administration until like if they just allow them to be there but they don’t take any action. They said that they just feel like they wouldn’t know what the next step was.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, Olivia, thank you so much for making the time to chat with us. I really appreciate it.
Olivia Keeler: Yeah, thank you for having me.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Thank you so much to Cami Dominguez with the Golden Gate Express. Rae Wymer, a staff reporter for the Daily Californian, and Olivia Keeler with the Sonoma State Star. These conversations were cut down and edited by senior editor Alan Montecillo, producer Maria Esquinca and me. Music courtesy of the Audio Network. Thanks as well to KQED s forum team and reporter Sara Hossaini for some of the tape that you heard at the top of this episode.
