UC tells campuses to control student protests

I’m CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn, and I’m subbing for Lynn.

If a rule isn’t followed in the forest and no one was there to enforce it, was it really broken?

That tortured metaphor, compliments of a college philosophy class I took 20 years ago, is a central theme in my story today with CalMatters colleague Matthew Reagan that examines the University of California’s efforts to reinforce rules against campus encampments.

The president of the vaunted public university system last month told campus leaders to basically enforce their own existing rules — the same ones that were on the books at campuses including UCLA and UC San Diego, where pro-Palestinian encampments last spring attracted national headlines, scores of arrests and violence. Most campuses had the rules; those without them should create them, the UC president said.

Tents, graffiti, blocking of entryways to buildings and the other accouterments of last spring’s encampments were generally against existing school policies. So why weren’t those rules enforced before campus leaders at some UCs requested police to sweep the camps?

UC spokesperson Stett Holbrook: “The uniform enforcement of any policy is always a challenge in a system as large and diverse as UC. We strive to strike the right balance between enforcement and flexibility to do what is in the interest of the communities we serve — especially when it relates to expressive activity.”

Why should you care? Though the vast majority of students didn’t take part in protests or the encampments, the freedom to protest is in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, along with free speech and a free press. How campuses balance those rights and student safety will always strike a nerve culturally and politically.

And we can be pretty sure protests will continue. For as long as Israel and Hamas are at war, and the death toll in Gaza continues to mount, students will be stirred to decry the killings and seek concrete demands to end the conflict.

That students protested last spring wasn’t new — they were marching within weeks of Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. As I reported last November after witnessing two protests on consecutive days — one staged by Jewish students in support of Israel and another by pro-Palestinian students (who include Jewish students) — “this wasn’t a dialogue, but a thunderous expression of each side’s anguish.”

And that anguish will continue. As students follow the unfolding headlines in the Middle East and pressure the UC to divest from weapons manufacturers, others are asking the courts to look backwards at how campuses handled the protests and encampments last school year.

Most UC students return for fall term this month. Read more on the issue in today’s story.

Just because you have the right to vote, doesn’t mean you can. It’s not just the struggles Californians with visual impairments face when trying to vote, which CalMatters reporters Yue Stella Yu and Sameea Kamal covered in June.

There are also the thousands of inmates in California jails who legally may vote, but confront a series of challenges in doing so, Sameea reports. 

Thomas Neal, who is serving time in the San Bruno jail: “I shouldn’t have to argue about wanting to vote. It’s my right to vote.”

Most California county jails don’t offer in-person voting, though a pilot program in Los Angeles County is a rare exception. State lawmakers passed a bill by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan that would give three counties state grants to set up in-person voting at their jails. It’s one of hundreds of bills that await Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature or veto.

Learn more about the issue in Sameea’s in-depth piece.

In other political news: Donald Trump was the target Sunday of a second apparent assassination attempt, according to the FBI. The former U.S. president and current GOP nominee for the Oval Office is safe, his campaign said. Trump was at his golf course in West Palm Beach when a member of his Secret Service detail spotted a rifle sticking out of a fence at the golf club and fired on the suspect, who was later arrested.

Here’s your periodic reminder that breaking news is a torrent of initial information that journalists gather in real time. Some details end up being not true or unclear because accounts from authorities and eyewitnesses can change, or reporters gather new material.

In that spirit of balancing accuracy and speed, Stella had a same-day story last week about Trump’s visit to Southern California and the mix of truths and falsehoods he said about California and his opponent in the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris. Read the fact checks in Stella’s story. 

November election: Keep up with CalMatters coverage by signing up for 2024 election emails. Check out our Voter Guide, including updates and videos on the 10 propositions and a FAQ on how to vote. 

Let’s get to some Capitol news: 

EBT theft: In the last three years, California’s poorest families were robbed of more than $350 million in cash aid and food support. And while they were eventually reimbursed, victims say they’ve gone hungry, delayed rent payments and shouldered late fees. A big reason for theft: The debit cards these families receive to access their benefits don’t have the chips that add extra security against digital theft. The state was planning to add those chips to the benefits cards this summer, but will instead likely roll them out early next year, explains CalMatters Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang.

Maternity closures: Four more California hospitals will shutter their maternity wards in November and another four closed theirs earlier in 2024 — bringing to 56 the number of hospitals that have stopped delivering babies since 2012. The tallies come from CalMatters reporters Kristen Hwang, Erica Yee and Ana B. Ibarra, who’ve investigated maternity ward deserts in California and how these gaps in service particularly harm low-income families. The latest planned closures are in Arcata, Glendale, Hemet and Santa Paula. Lawmakers and advocates want Newsom to sign legislation intended to reverse the trend of wards closing.

Solar rules: Lawmakers said that homeowners without a lot of money whose homes burned down shouldn’t be on the hook to rebuild and add solar panels to comply with other state laws, explained CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Ryan Sabalow. Newsom disagreed: On Saturday, he vetoed Republican Assemblymember Joe Patterson’s bill that would have exempted low- and middle-class homeowners from the solar panel requirement if their previous homes didn’t already have the renewable energy technology. The exemption would have applied to homes damaged by natural disasters. In his veto message, Newsom wrote that the bill “undermines the energy resiliency of homes, especially those in high-fire risk areas, and increases greenhouse gas emissions” and that it “would not assist those disaster victims who are the most disadvantaged.”

A longstanding issue in higher education is whether the children of alumni or donors get preference when they apply for college. I wrote about a bill on Gov. Newsom’s desk that would ban legacy admissions in California’s private universities; CalMatters video strategy director Robert Meeks and I have a video segment on that story. Watch the segment, part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. 

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.