STANFORD — Thirteen people were arrested at Stanford University after barricading inside the president’s office during a Wednesday protest in which some of the school’s historic sandstone structures were defaced with profanity-laced graffiti. A pro-Palestine student encampment also was forcibly dismantled following the protest.
The protesters, many of them students, said in a statement that they barricaded themselves in protest of the university’s refusal to negotiate with the organizers of a campus encampment dubbed the People’s University for Palestine. Protesters at the camp have demanded that Stanford divest from companies and other entities supporting Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
Those arrested included 12 pro-Palestine activists and a student reporter from the Stanford Daily, the campus newspaper reported, and were detained at the Santa Clara County Jail as of Wednesday afternoon. Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputies assisted Stanford’s public safety officers in removing the students from the president’s office in the heart of the Stanford campus. The Santa Clara County district attorney’s office said Wednesday that it had not yet received the reports necessary to make charging decisions.
Stanford officials said discipline for occupying students would be severe and will include suspensions.
“We are appalled that our students chose to take this action, and we will work with law enforcement to ensure that they face the full consequences allowed by law,” said Dee Mostofi, a Stanford spokesperson. “All arrested students will be immediately suspended, and in case any of them are seniors, they will not be allowed to graduate.”
Across the Bay Area and beyond, protests about the war in Gaza have roiled college campuses — intensifying in recent weeks. The police response at Stanford follows the arrest of at least 80 pro-Palestine activists from a UC Santa Cruz encampment last week. A spokesperson for the Santa Cruz County district attorney’s office said that police had not yet sent the information needed to bring charges. Last month, at least 12 pro-Palestine demonstrators were arrested at UC Berkeley.
Shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel triggered an intense military response by Israel in Gaza, Stanford students set up their first encampment in White Plaza, a free-speech area, which lasted through February.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Wednesday’s occupation of the university’s executive offices lasted over two hours. The students put up signs “renaming” Stanford University President Richard Saller’s office “Dr. Adnan’s Office,” after a Palestinian physician who died in an Israeli jail. The group called itself an “autonomous group of Stanford University students.”
Protestors entered the office at around 6 a.m. and were cleared out after 8 a.m., according to Mostofi. She said an officer was injured after being shoved by protesters.
The protest group said students have repeatedly unsuccessfully tried to engage the administration. More than 20 rallies have been held since October, and they have included undergraduate and graduate students, alumni and faculty. The group said the university has failed to meet any of their demands.
Another encampment was set up on April 25 at White Plaza, where hundreds of students had been camping out to make the same demands.
But shortly after the arrests at the president’s office, members of the school’s Department of Public Safety and a private security company began dismantling the encampment. They also set up barricades in the area to prevent students from setting up a new encampment.
An officer told students that they would be able to claim their belongings confiscated from the encampment within 90 days.
“This is obviously an act of extreme cowardice. It’s very despicable for us to see the Stanford administration taking down our encampment, our beautiful community space in this way,” said a Stanford student spokesperson for the encampment, who did not want to be identified for fear of sanctions.
The student disowned the graffiti and damage to the president’s office building earlier in the morning, insisting that was a separate group not linked to the encampment.
“That was separate from any student action. It was not planned,” she said. “The messages that we push for in the movement remain united. But that (the graffiti) is not something that students planned.”
By the time law enforcement removed them, the building had “extensive damage to the interior and exterior of the building,” Mostofi said.
“We have consistently emphasized the need for constructive engagement and peaceful protest when there is a disagreement in views,” Mostofi said. “This was not a peaceful protest, and actions such as what occurred this morning have no place at Stanford.”
Mostofi said the building would be closed for the remainder of the day.
On Wednesday afternoon, dozens of people waited outside the Santa Clara County Jail in sweltering heat for those arrested to be processed. Natalie Zahr, an assistant professor of psychiatry, was among the faculty members who came out to support student activists.
“Everyone is very frustrated. We feel like it’s not fair,” said Zahr, a member of the organization Faculty for Justice in Palestine.
She said while they are trying to confirm the possible presence of “outside agitators,” the group is working to support students who were arrested but were peacefully protesting. “For the students who live on campus, where are they going to go? We’re going to do what we can to support them.”
Claudia and Carlos Gonzalez of Santa Cruz County were also waiting outside the jail for their son, who was among the arrested protestors.
“We were worried, but I was not mad,” Claudia said. The couple, who immigrated to the United States from El Salvador, had lived through the Salvadoran Civil War and supported their son’s right to protest.
“He really cares about people,” she said. “He has a really big heart and wishes to change the world.”
