US: Hundreds of faculty, staff demand UCLA chancellor's resignation

Los Angeles, May 10 (IANS) Nearly 900 members of the University of California (UC) faculty and staff have been calling on Gene Block, chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to resign over the university's response to pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

"We will not stand by as our students are assaulted and silenced," said the group in an online petition, Xinhua news agency reported.

"We remain committed to protecting our students' safety and their right to protest, assemble, and speak freely."

A total of 895 people from the 10-campus public university system have signed the petition as of Thursday night. Of them, 642 are from UCLA.

In the petition, the group said that they demand that UCLA recommend all legal charges be dropped and grant full amnesty to all students, staff and faculty involved in the encampment and peaceful protest.

"Following the violent and aggressive police sweep of the Palestine Solidarity Encampment on May 2, 2024, resulting in more than 200 students, faculty, and staff arrested while peacefully protesting, it has become obvious that Chancellor Block has failed our university," said the petition.

UC faculty and staff members also demand that UCLA issue a report within 30 days to fully disclose all investments so that students may understand how the university prioritises their finances and call on UCLA to divest from all military weapons production companies and supporting systems.

In a message to its members earlier this week, the UCLA Academic Senate, representing the university's faculty, said: "Recent events that transpired on our campus deeply dismayed and disappointed many faculty, staff, students and alumni."

The UCLA Academic Senate said it will hold an emergency meeting on Friday to consider a no-confidence resolution and a censure resolution of Block, who has been chancellor of UCLA since 2007.

UCLA's Undergraduate Students Association Council also passed a resolution on Tuesday night calling for the resignation of Block if he does not meet the demands of the Palestine Solidarity Encampment, according to Daily Bruin, the university's student newspaper.