Press release from the Cal Poly Humboldt administration:

The University wants to acknowledge that this has been an extremely challenging time for Cal Poly Humboldt. It has also been a very emotional time for our campus community and beyond, and we have much work in front of us to reset, rebuild, and heal. To clarify misinformation and rumors, here’s a timeline of the events beginning on April 22. We invite people to continue to ask questions and more information will be coming.

The University’s Time, Place, and Manner policy is content-neutral, approved by the University Senate, and fully supportive of First Amendment protections. In fact, this policy exists to protect freedom of speech and assembly while also protecting the rights of the entire campus community to a secure environment that is conducive to our educational purpose.

These approved policies, which have had extensive review, should be supported and enforced regardless of context. There is no First Amendment right to enter and occupy a building to stage a protest and it is a clear violation of the University’s Time, Place, and Manner policy.

• Multiple people called the University Police Department (UPD) concerned due to the actions of the people who were protesting in Siemens Hall on the first day of the protest. Several staff members asked the people who were protesting to leave the building prior to UPD arriving on the scene. The people who were protesting refused.
• UPD officers were inside the building with the people who were protesting and asked if they could facilitate a protest in the public space of the Quad, where it would have been a lawful assembly. Those requests were rebuffed by the people who were protesting.
• Tents in hallways and barricades were being assembled in front of exit doors, and vandalism of the building’s interior had already begun before UPD arrived.
• Students, faculty, and staff who were not part of the protest were evacuated with the assistance of UPD. Classes were canceled out of safety concerns because exits were already being barricaded.
• UPD ordered the people who were trespassing to leave the building. They refused to vacate the building and construction of barricades continued. UPD called for additional police presence on campus.
• Efforts to clear those barricades in the lobby were met with assault on officers. Police were attempting to enforce a lawful order, arrest those who were assaulting officers, and clear the building. Several people who were protesting and police officers were injured. Additional police officers were called from throughout the county.
• On the first night, administrators were told that if law enforcement was removed that the protesters would leave the building.
• The Provost, Vice Provost, and Dean Crane went into the building twice on Monday. The first time to check on the safety of the protesters, establish dialog, and to see if any needed medical attention. The people who were protesting offered a set of demands.
• The second time the Provost, Vice Provost and Dean Crane entered on Monday night was to announce that law enforcement was leaving the scene and that protesters could leave, as they agreed, without consequences. The people who were protesting shouted the Provost down and threw water at her.
• The UPD Chief of Police recommended that law enforcement depart. President Jackson concurred. Law enforcement left the scene. The people who were protesting then reneged on their promise to vacate the building and continued to build barricades.
• On Tuesday, the focus was on deescalation, and administrators waited for the protesters to keep their promise to leave the building. They refused. Efforts to dialog occurred throughout the day with the protesters both inside and outside the building. The people who were protesting refused to let any administrators into the building.
• After Tuesday, administrators realized the extent of the damage to the building and leaving without consequences was taken off the table. Nelson Hall East was then also occupied, doors were barricaded and protesters controlled who was allowed in or out of the building.
• Throughout the week, there were many attempts to get the protesters to agree to leave the buildings, beyond those efforts that were widely discussed. Faculty, staff, and administrators were actively talking with protesters throughout the week.
• We took the protesters’ demands seriously, and researched those demands and answered them to the best of our ability on the 26th of April.
• A total of 12 buildings were vandalized. The John Van Duzer Theatre, Music A, Art A, Founders Hall, Van Matre Hall, Harry Griffith Hall, Student Business Services, Forestry, and the Gutswurrak Student Activities Center were either broken into or attempted to be broken into. Several others were defaced. Fortunately University staff were able to retake these buildings.
• To date, the initial estimate is that there is more than $1.9M in financial impact, which includes physical damage to the campus and emergency operations. This number is not final due to the campus still assessing physical damage, costs to restore the damage, and gathering a full picture of the financial impact.
• It was difficult to dialog with the protesters to leave the building because there was no clear leadership. There were only a few students that began the protest that were on site during the arrests, which is what made ending the protest without arrest so difficult.
• More than half of those arrested were not students.
• The tagging and efforts to reoccupy buildings on campus have continued since the arrests, which is why the campus has not yet been reopened.