By Alissa Gary
Orlando Sentinel bulletin news online news
(Orlando Sentinel) — In the wake of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses nationwide, the University of Central Florida on Tuesday banned camping on its grounds and limited the duration of protests.
The UCF Board of Trustees approved the ban as part of an update to university regulations regarding “university facilities; events and protests.”
“Your proposed amendments will never restrict us,” said Haiden McTee, a senior at UCF, who spoke against the new rule before the board voted.
McTee, who was wearing a keffiyeh, a patterned scarf viewed as a symbol of Palestinians, is convinced the rule change stemmed from the pro-Palestinian protests staged on campus this spring, though a UCF official said the update was routine and in the works more than a year ago.
Trustees didn’t comment on the regulation before they voted to approve it.
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The university already banned overnight events and camping tents, UCF attorney Youndey Cook said during a committee meeting held before the full board met, but the updated regulation defines and bans camping altogether.
“We’re making explicit the camping prohibition with its own paragraph,” she said.
The updates to the regulations started more than a year ago, Cook added, an effort to merge rules that contained similar material and make them easier to read.
The proposed changes come in wake of nationwide campus protests in April and May calling for universities to divest from ties to Israel, sparked by the ongoing war in Gaza after Hamas attacked Israel Oct. 7.
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UCF students staged several protests on the east Orlando campus this spring about the war. On April 26, more than 200 protesters gathered near UCF’s main library. On May 7, a group set up blankets and folding chairs near Memory Mall in the center of campus as part of another protest.
The UCF protesters did not engage in confrontations with police and left campus before midnight as police instructed. No one was arrested.
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Ali Carleton, a 22-year-old UCF graduate student, was one of a handful of people who attended the trustees meeting wearing a keffiyeh, showing their opposition to the regulation. Despite the new regulations, Carleton said, student protesters will continue to show their discontent with the university’s investments.
“They are clearly engaging in student suppression,” Carleton said, “and they’re trying to limit our avenues of using our voices against the horrible contributions that UCF makes.”
The updated rules prohibit camping and shorten the length of protests and other “expressive activities” to five days in a row and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. five days a week — two hours fewer than the previous regulation. Those activities are ones that are “exercises of free speech” under the First Amendment and include marches, protests, parades and picket lines, the regulation says.
Florida State University’s trustees approved a similar change to their policies Thursday, banning tents, the blocking of entrances to buildings and the wearing hoods that cover their faces, according to documents on the FSU website.
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