The Undergraduate Students Association Council passed a resolution calling on the UC to rescind its ban of encampments on all of its campuses Tuesday.

The resolution, which passed with a 10-1 vote during the council’s final summer meeting, states that USAC will continue to support the demands of the first Palestine solidarity encampment at UCLA, including the divestment of UC funds from companies tied to the Israeli military and an academic boycott of Israeli universities.

The resolution follows UC President Michael Drake’s Aug. 19 announcement that the UC would not permit encampments on UC campuses.

[Related: UC President Michael Drake bans encampments on all campuses]

The resolution alleges that, “UCLA’s involvement in the colonial Israeli occupation has made the Palestinian genocide possible” and that the “UC is actively backing the zionist war machine.” It also accuses the UC of assuring “those backing the settler-colonial state.”

After Hamas – a Palestinian political party and militant group – killed around 1,200 people in an Oct. 7 attack, the Israeli military has killed over 41,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Associated Press. In protest, students across the country set up encampments on college campuses in the spring to call for higher education institutions to divest from companies with ties to the Israeli military.

The resolution’s primary sponsor, Cultural Affairs Commissioner Alicia Verdugo, did not respond to requests for comment. In a previous meeting, Verdugo said they had been arrested during the police sweep of the first encampment May 2.

The vote marked the first time the council was not unanimous in the approval of a resolution during its 2024-2025 term. General Representative Chris Ramsey – the sole vote against the resolution’s adoption – expressed concerns about the resolution during the council’s deliberation.

“Encampments have, in some cases, been successful in terms of getting universities to talk about divestment,” he said during the council’s deliberation. “With that being said, given what happened in the spring, I do have concerns in terms of student safety.”

Ramsey said in a separate interview that he supports the goals of the divestment movement, adding that he believes Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip constitute both a war and a genocide. Ramsey said he has in the past voted for resolutions labeling the Israeli military’s actions as such.

However, Ramsey said in the interview that he does not necessarily agree with the means of advocacy that the UC Divest Coalition has embraced and does not believe encampment protests are included in constitutional free speech protections.

During the council’s discussion on the motion, Ramsey also said he was concerned about the resolution’s call on the UC to end study abroad programs in Israel, adding that he believes such a measure would be ineffective and to the detriment of UC students.

In response, Verdugo said they still believe in academic boycotts.

“It is imperative that the (Younes and Soraya Nazarian) Center (for Israel Studies) itself is boycotted and those ties are severed because the existence of Israel itself is a part of the colonial entity,” they said during the meeting. “No one should be visiting occupied land while it is being occupied by a colonial entity.”

Transfer Student Representative Mona Tavassoli, one of the resolution’s co-sponsors, also said during the council’s deliberation that she took issue with Ramsey referring to the Israeli military’s siege of Gaza as a “war.”

“It’s incorrect to call it a war in Gaza when we’ve seen how clearly this is an ethnic cleansing campaign and is a genocide,” she said. “For us to sit here and talk about an encampment ban or a limitation on encampments as being a benefit toward student safety here while our administration, while our regents, while the UC system as a whole is actively not only complicit but profiting off of this violence and this genocide towards other students across the world, towards other educators across the world, is a little upsetting to hear.”

Tavassoli and General Representative Tommy Contreras, another co-sponsor, also did not respond to a request for comment.

In an emailed statement, External Vice President Javier Nuñez-Verdugo, who was not in attendance at the meeting, said they would have voted for the resolution. They added that they believe the encampment ban infringes upon students’ civil liberties and said the resolution reaffirms USAC’s commitment to advocating for Palestinian students.

“We are truly not free until all of us are free, and our community is only strong when we take the time to prioritize our most marginalized and take care of them,” they said in the statement.

A spokesperson for the UC said in an emailed statement the University’s new guidelines, including the encampment ban, are meant to protect free speech while ensuring public safety and freedom from intimidation. The spokesperson declined to comment specifically on USAC’s resolution.

The council’s adoption of the resolution came the night before the UC Board of Regents began its meeting at the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center.

The UC Divest Coalition at UCLA, which organized the Palestine solidarity encampment at UCLA, called for a disruption of the Thursday segment of the meeting in an Instagram post Tuesday. At least four USAC office accounts have reposted UC Divest’s post.