After a violent clash with campus and local police Monday night, students at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt have taken over a campus administration building and barricaded themselves inside, demanding that the university sever ties with Israel and any companies that support “the Zionist entity.”

Cal Poly Humboldt joins several college campuses across the U.S., including Columbia University in New York City, University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California to occupy campus spaces in support of Palestine.

But so far, Humboldt is the only college where students have occupied a campus building.

Inside Siemens Hall, students and community members have barricaded themselves in the administrative building, and have no plans to leave until campus leadership supports a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and divests from companies that support the Israeli military.

Some students reported that there are close to 150-200 students inside the building, while others reported there were closer to 20-30. There is no one group organizing the occupation; a few dozen students entered Siemens Hall on Monday afternoon around 4 p.m., and more students joined as the police presence grew.

The students were met by a janitor who “did not seem down for the cause,” according to one student who goes by Skunk Spray.

A third-year environmental sciences student who occupied Siemens Hall Monday night, Skunk Spray doesn’t call himself an activist.

“I’m certainly acting,” he said, “but I’m just someone who has a conscience and I’m compelled to do what I believe in. And I believe this is what’s just.”

As students occupied the hall, the mood around Siemens Hall was joyful. Several hundred students milled about the quad around the occupied building Tuesday night, making signs, participating in dabke dance lessons from a Palestinian student activist, and lighting candles at a makeshift altar. A local band set up and to play live music as community members settled in for the night in tents while they ate homemade Mexican food, practiced yoga, and burned sage.

The students and community members blocking the doors during Monday night’s occupation were “really awesome,” Skunk Spray said.

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