Officials at UCI canceled evening classes Wednesday and advised staff to work remotely Thursday after a large group of police moved to break up a campus-based pro-Palestinian encampment and taking protesters into custody.
The move came after school hundred protesters entered the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall on Wednesday, May 15, around 2:30 p.m., prompting UCI officials to call several police agencies and issue a campus-wide alert. In that alert, school officials referred to what they described as a ‘violent protest’ near the lecture hall, though the nature of that violence wasn’t clear. By 3:45 p.m., police were pushing back protesters and taking some people into custody.
By 4:30 p.m., the school announced that classes are canceled for the rest of Wednesday evening. It’s unclear if any classes will be held in person on Thursday.