Classes go online at University of California, Irvine after pro-Palestinian encampment dismantled by police

LOS ANGELES, May 16 (Xinhua) -- The University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) will only hold online classes on Thursday after a pro-Palestinian protest encampment was dismantled by police Wednesday evening at the university.

"Instruction on Thursday, May 16 will be conducted remotely. All employees, unless otherwise specified, should also work from home," said UC Irvine, one of the ten campuses of the University of California system, in an emergency update.

The decisions came after the arrest of multiple protesters and the clearance of a Gaza solidarity encampment on the university's Southern California campus Wednesday evening. The encampment was set up more than two weeks ago as pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been spreading at colleges and universities across the United States amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.

UC Irvine said a group of several hundred protesters entered its campus and began surrounding the university's physical sciences lecture hall on Wednesday afternoon.

The university said it put out a call for mutual aid to local law enforcement agencies and has received on-site assistance from the Irvine Police Department and Orange County Sheriff's department as protesters swarmed the campus joining a group of protesters who had established an encampment on the campus.

In a letter to campus community later in the day, UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman said "What a sad day for our university. I'm brokenhearted."

Gillman stated that "For the last two weeks, I have consistently communicated that the encampment violated our policies but that the actions did not rise to the level requiring police intervention."

"But my concern now is not the unreasonableness of their demands. It is their decision to transform a manageable situation that did not have to involve police into a situation that required a different response," he added.

Pro-Palestinian protests have spread across campuses of the University of California. The public university system has more than 280,000 students and 227,000 faculty and staff.

Over 200 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested on May 2 as police moved to dismantle an encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and more than 60 protesters were arrested last week by police at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego). UC Riverside announced earlier this month that school officials reached a peaceful agreement with protesters at the university to end the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus.