This article covers the first day of the UC Regents’ meeting at the Luskin Conference Center (March 18, 2025). For our full coverage of the meeting, read here.
The UC Board of Regents was met with student-led protests against the university’s investments in the weapons industry on Tuesday, marking their first day of meetings at the UCLA Luskin Conference Center. The UC Divest Coalition rallied outside to demand a public meeting with the Regents while issues of labor rights, accessibility, and immigration also came into focus as the Regents’ Investments Committee met.
The UC Divest Coalition started the day with a press conference outside the Luskin Conference Center at noon. Protesters had begun to gather around 11:30 a.m. in response to a joint call for action by UC Divest, Southern California Students for Justice in Palestine (SoCal SJP) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). Calls for students to protest accelerated in the wake of Israel breaking the ceasefire in Gaza early Tuesday morning, and the organizations urged local residents to “join students, faculty, and community to demand divestment and a full arms embargo.”
The UC Divest press conference centered around the “Unmasking UCLA” white paper published last week for Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine (GSJP) and Rank & File for a Democratic Union at UCLA (R&F). According to the white paper, at least $18.8 billion worth of UC assets are targeted for divestment “based on their links to war, genocide, and apartheid.”
A representative from GSJP started the press conference by acknowledging the Israeli military’s recent escalations in Gaza and stated that “these actions [of war] never really stopped. During the ceasefire, at least 3 Palestinians were killed per day, on average, by the IDF.” They also noted the links between “the LAPD’s regime of surveillance” and Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank, stating that they are connected by the policies enacted and investments managed by the UC Regents.
The GSJP speaker then warned the UC Regents against preemptively conceding to the Trump administration. Federal agencies recently issued a list of demands to Columbia University, including new disciplinary rules and the placement of its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department under academic receivership. These demands were issued after the Trump administration cancelled $400 million in grants to the university and immigration authorities arrested two Columbia students. The speaker said “You can bend to the demands of the right wing, but no concession… will ever satisfy their crusade to silence support for Palestinian liberation,” as the crowd shouted “Shame!” in response.
After a detailed discussion of the UC’s “disturbing” investments and research supporting policing and the US military, the GSJP speaker reaffirmed the UC Divest Coalition’s four primary demands that the UC divest from entities “involved in Israeli occupation, apartheid, and genocide of the Palestinian people,” publicly disclose UC-wide and UCLA Foundation assets, boycott academic ties to Israel, and abolish campus policing.
As the crowd grew to around 200 people, speakers from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and SJP at UCLA condemned UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk and Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus and Community Safety Steve Lurie for their response to pro-Palestine organizing on campus. The JVP speaker denounced the detention of Mahmoud Khalil by ICE, telling the crowd that “the accusations of antisemitism at UCLA are false” and urging the crowd to “stand up to resist fascism.” The SJP speakers affirmed that the UC Regents “will not separate [the students] from Palestine,” saying that “every camera that is pointing at [the speakers] should also be pointing at Gaza.”
Since Israel began carrying out airstrikes across Gaza early Tuesday morning, at least 400 Palestinians have been killed with hundreds more injured. The IDF issued evacuation orders for areas lining Gaza’s entire border like Beit Hanoun, displacing about 65,000 Palestinians. A spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent told BBC News that hospitals in Gaza are overwhelmed by the injured in a crisis exacerbated by the closure of the Rafah crossing into Egypt.
The UC Divest press conference concluded around 12:55 p.m. after remarks from a member of R&F at UCLA, who told the crowd that “the UC is an integral part of California’s military-industrial complex,” and urged campus unions to prepare to strike should ICE arrest any UC student for pro-Palestine speech. He charged the UC with directly enabling the violent attack on the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment by pro-Israel groups, having “built up a McCarthyite infrastructure that will be utilized by the far-right.”
If you don’t like the Regents’ version of democracy, they’ll beat it into you with a police baton.
Speaker from UCLA Rank & File for a Democratic Union
The UC Regents held their first open session shortly after the UC Divest press conference drew to a close, with their Investments Committee opening to public comment around 1 p.m.. While community members echoed protester’s demands, several members of UPTE-CWA Local 9119, a union representing professional and technical employees across the UC that recently went on strike over unfair labor practices, decried actions by the UC that the union has cited as evidence of bad faith bargaining.
A line of UPTE members holding signs that read “Fair contract now” stood each time union members gave public comment regarding staffing issues in the UC healthcare system. One labor organizer condemned the UC’s bargaining team for “ignoring [UPTE’s] proposals, misrepresenting their proposals to [UPTE] members, and failing to make any substantial movements on [UPTE] members’ top priorities,” warning that the union is prepared to strike again.
Throughout the public comment period, several attendees also urged the UC to approve a $10 million budget request to fund paid training and research programs accessible to undocumented students. This proposal was put forward by the Undocumented Student-Led Network and endorsed by organizations that include the UCLA Labor Center and United Auto Workers (UAW). The proposal seeks to open around 2,000 training and research positions across the UC system. A UCLA student giving public comment over the phone urged the UC to “put their money where their mouth is” and to “divest from displacement and genocide and invest in the students and workers.”
Accessibility issues were also raised by students regarding staffing issues at the UCLA Center for Accessible Education (CAE). At UCLA, the ratio of students to disability specialists is far higher than the national average, and students have repeatedly voiced concerns regarding difficulty in receiving appropriate accommodations.
One commenter also condemned the UC Regents for banning the use of face coverings, including non-transparent masks, at their open sessions. In a statement, the Disabled Student Union (DSU) at UCLA wrote that the transparent masks provided by the UC Regents “do not offer the same protection as non-transparent masks like N95s” that are worn by immunocompromised students.
The UC Regents drew condemnation from several alumni at the meeting, one of whom pledged that they “will no longer be donating any funds to UCLA” after its “attacks on students [and] on freedom of speech.” Another alum drew on the history of student protests at UCLA, including demonstrations against the Vietnam War and South African apartheid, telling the Investments Committee that “it’s always been the students on the right side of history, dragging institutions into the light.” The alumni speaker was met with applause as they returned to their seat after demanding divestment from “weapons manufacturing and the war machine.”
Various representatives from the UC Divest Coalition were also present in the public comment session, the first of whom accused the UC of “waging a smear campaign against students” and “seizing on far-right lies to vilify” campus protests. As students and community members rallied outside, another student told the committee that “they will not leave until [the Regents] come outside and engage with the public instead [of] closed-door discussions.”
Outside the entrance to the public comment session near Pauley Pavilion, various speakers from SJP, PYM, Roofers Local Union 36, and the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice addressed the crowd. John Parker, an organizer at the Harriet Tubman Center, discussed the Community Self-Defense Coalition, a group that recently formed to alert and defend migrants in LA from ICE raids and patrols. Parker drew parallels between the coalition and the Black Panther Party, urging protesters to join the group and to “shut down LA City Council.” Members of R&F at UCLA have taken part in the coalition’s patrols across West LA.
A speaker from PYM also denounced Maersk for voting down a shareholder proposal to cease the transport of military equipment to Israel. At its annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday, the Danish logistics company denied shipping arms and ammunition for use by Israel in Gaza. PYM had previously called for a global day of action Tuesday as part of its “Mask off Maersk” campaign, in which activists have targeted the company as part of a “people’s arms embargo.”
As the Investments Committee public comment session drew to a close, demonstrators returned to the Luskin Turnaround to start picketing, chanting “UC Regents, come outside, we will not be pushed outside.” Around 1:45 p.m., 8 UCPD officers arrived at the scene equipped with riot gear, including face shields, batons and zip ties, and lined the east entrance of the Luskin Conference Center. More officers were present shortly after as students continued their picket in the Luskin Turnaround.
After about 25 minutes of picketing, organizers called the protesters to face the police as they decried law enforcement’s response to protests on campus, including the May 1-2 Palestine Solidarity Encampment sweep and arrests made at the protests since. Demonstrators left the turnaround after speakers reiterated their commitment to police abolition on campus, chanting “UCPD, KKK, IOF, you’re all the same” and “No justice, no peace, no fascist police.”
As the UC Divest Coalition then led a teach-in and town hall titled “Who are the UC Regents?”, organizers shared updates from their negotiations. According to the group, Chief Investments Officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher offered to meet privately with organizers under the condition that they identify themselves, remove any face coverings, and do not record the meeting or use speakers.
Students refused to participate in any meeting that was not open to the public. In a statement posted to Instagram Tuesday night, SJP at UCLA wrote that “at a time when universities are working alongside ICE, [they] shame the regents for fearing their own students.” SJP and UC Divest are calling for a “mass mobilization” of students to the Regents meeting at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday to continue to demand a “public, transparent forum” to discuss asset disclosure, divestment, and police abolition with the UC Regents.
After the UC Divest teach-in came to an end, the crowd cheered as an organizer asked “Who’s coming back tomorrow?”. With the ceasefire in Gaza broken, it is evident that students are determined to continue asserting their demands as the Regents meeting continues through Wednesday and Thursday.
