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Transforming Conflict: UCLA’s Chancellor...

Murray, Meghan, Mo...

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Transforming Conflict: UCLA’s Chancellor Gene Block and the Palestine Solidarity Encampment

Murray, Meghan; Modica, Marc W.; Kemp, Bianca

BC-0317 | Published April 9, 2025 | 16 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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On April 30, 2024, Gene D. Block, chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), posted a message to the UCLA Bruin community. It began: “This past Thursday, a group of demonstrators—both members of the UCLA community and others unaffiliated with our campus—established an unauthorized physical encampment on part of Royce Quad…” Several days before, the Palestine Solidarity Encampment had been erected outside of Royce Hall in response to the Israel–Hamas war. A list of demonstrators’ demands of the university had also been posted, which included divestment from companies financially linked to Israel, recognition of Palestinian lives and statehood, and condemnation of Israel as “an apartheid state.” But during that time, there had also been heated skirmishes between demonstrators and counterdemonstrators, shouting, slurs, shoving, threats, and even blood. Block had not sent in riot police or required the encampment be dismantled, however. Could a resolution to the situation be reached some other way? This was neither UCLA’s first bout with activism nor its first time confronting pro-Palestine or anti-Israel sentiment on campus. Back at home that night, Block receives a call: Counterdemonstrators have attacked the encampment and both sides are currently fighting. What measures should be taken? At this point, what should Block do? What can he do? This partially fictionalized, publicly sourced case is suitable for courses on activism and social movements, communication, conflict resolution and transformation, crisis management, ethics, negotiation, and social justice.