{"id":91958,"date":"2025-12-12T16:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T16:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/91958\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T16:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T16:02:08","slug":"students-protest-suspension-of-uc-berkeley-lecturer-peyrin-kao-with-study-in-and-hunger-strike-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/91958\/","title":{"rendered":"Students protest suspension of UC Berkeley lecturer Peyrin Kao with study-in and hunger strike | Campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protesting UC Berkeley\u2019s recent suspension<\/a> of lecturer Peyrin Kao for pro-Palestinian speech, STEM4Palestine held a 12-hour \u201cstudy-in\u201d Wednesday in Doe Library, where about 30 participants displayed pro-Palestinian signs and Palestinian flags on library tables and their laptops.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe directive is to put pressure on the university so that this doesn\u2019t get lost,\u201dsaid Stephen Okita, an organizer with STEM4Palestine. \u201cWe are doing mutual aid, and we are studying because everyone is stressed for finals right now, (but also) to prioritize that this is a student movement for Gaza and for Peyrin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same day, several members of STEM4Palestine, including Oktia, began an \u201cextended hunger strike\u201d in solidarity with Gaza, according to an Instagram post from STEM4Palestine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Okita added that the 250-calorie diet they are following reflects the daily rations Palestinians have access to. Several analyses and studies have found that Israel\u2019s blockade of aid into Gaza has caused widespread starvation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c(The diet is) in solidarity with the people in Gaza and to continue on Peyrin\u2019s mission,\u201d Okita said.<\/p>\n

STEM4Palestine hosted a teach-in event the next day on Sproul Plaza, where speakers called for Kao\u2019s reinstatement and for the campus to divest from weapons manufacturing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About 50-60 people attended the teach-in, though attendance peaked during Kao\u2019s address, which came after a \u201cpolitical grounding\u201d that included an overview of the genocide in Palestine. In September, a\u00a0United Nations legal analysis<\/a>\u00a0found that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians during its war on Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kao spoke directly aboutUC Berkeley Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Benjamin Hermalin\u2019s letter<\/a> recommending his suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on my very best behavior because I knew the university was going to keep a close eye on this, and they still weren\u2019t happy about it,\u201d Kao said. \u201cI think what this really shows is it\u2019s not how we talk about Palestine that the university isn\u2019t happy with. It\u2019s that we\u2019re talking about it at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other speakers led their own mini-lectures on topics such as the history of free speech at UC Berkeley, divestment and the role of tech in weapons manufacturing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kao also drew a connection between his name being released<\/a> to President Donald Trump\u2019s administration as part of an investigation into alleged campus antisemitism and his recent suspension, calling it \u201csuspicious.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven all of this context, I think it is entirely valid to ask the question, \u2018Why was it that I was one of these names submitted to the Trump administration in September?\u2019 And then in October through December, they\u2019re running this investigation to suspend me based on evidence that they dug up 18 months ago?\u201d Kao said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the event, organizers posted QR codes for a fundraiser, in which Kao wrote he will lose \u201cat least $68,059 in salary and healthcare benefits\u201d during his suspension. As of press time, the fundraiser has made more than $7,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, he added that the fundraiser itself will support \u201cthe people in Gaza with the salary I would have made,\u201d with 90% of proceeds going towards mutual aid in Gaza. The other 10% will support a hardship fund for University Council-AFT, the union that represents lecturers on campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cVice Provost Hermalin needs to know that he can\u2019t just get away with this,\u201d Okita said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hana Cochinwala contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protesting UC Berkeley\u2019s recent suspension of lecturer Peyrin Kao for pro-Palestinian speech, STEM4Palestine held a 12-hour \u201cstudy-in\u201d Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[50800,14758,143,145,144,38429,2803,26656,48527,149],"class_list":["post-91958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-benjamin-hermalin","tag-doe-library","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-peyrin-kao","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-sproul-plaza","tag-stem4palestine","tag-uc-berkeley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}