On Wednesday, the University of California, Los Angeles was rocked by a strange day. The campus was divided into two parts, with the central courtyard, Royce Hall, being evacuated by police early in the morning. This resulted in the arrest of over 200 students and left the area littered with objects, garbage, and graffiti. Meanwhile, the rest of the campus remained abandoned with hardly any students or tourists around.
The atmosphere on campus was calm but tense after classes were canceled on Wednesday. The fenced-off and graffiti-covered Royce Hall stood as a testament to what had happened. Security personnel were tasked with cleaning up the remnants of the student camp that had been there for nearly a week. The surrounding areas were quiet, with only a few individuals taking advantage of the empty campus.
Groups of volunteers took it upon themselves to collect items like clothes and blankets to reuse or donate them. Paloma Casteleiro, a postdoctoral researcher from A Coruña who decided not to go to campus on Thursday, expressed her surprise at what she saw in America’s universities. She commented that while there is a lot of mobilization within universities about global issues despite visa concerns, she refrained from participating in protests due to concerns about her safety and well-being.
Javier González Vaz, another postdoctoral researcher at UCLA also expressed his surprise at what he saw on campus on this day. He preferred not to take sides without fully understanding the situation and sensitivities involved in this incident.
