The college campus protests sweeping the nation have of course also swept UC Berkeley, with an estimated 175 tents now pitched at Sproul Plaza — up from just a dozen last week — and classes have been canceled at UCLA today amidst an outbreak of violence at that school’s protest.

As the death toll in the Israel-Gaza conflict now approaches 35,000 killed, we are seeing protests at college campuses nationwide. Of course, campus protests are pretty much business as usual at UC Berkeley. But that school, like many others across the country, has a large-scale protester encampment set up, and people have now been camped out at Sproul Plaza for ten days. It started as about a dozen tents last Monday, but KGO reports that UC Berkeley’s “Free Palestine” encampment has now grown to an estimated 175 tents.  

Obviously, it’s unclear how many of the campers are actually university students. And in the case of UC Berkeley, which is in its final week of classes before summer break, there has not been any cancellations of classes or commencement like we’ve seen at USC. Thus far, the Berkeley protests have not caused much trouble aside from a little graffiti here and there, though Jewish students are able to request chaperones to cross the quad if they feel the need.

According to KGO, the university said in a statement, “To date, there has been no disruption of University operations. We will continue to try to respond per policy to any and all claims of illegal conduct for harassment and/or discrimination."

Though as one UC Berkeley freshman told KGO, “It's gonna suck if graduation doesn't go through but they're standing up for a good reason."

Things are far more problematic at other campuses, notably UCLA, as local station KTLA reports that violence broke out Tuesday night at UCLA's pro-Palestine encampment. That violence appears to have been the work of counter-protesters who stormed the encampment, aiming fireworks at the people camped there, and even spraying what “looked like bear spray to douse pro-Palestinian protesters,” according to KTLA.

UCLA has canceled all classes Wednesday, and has closed a couple of campus buildings for the remainder of the week.

Meanwhile, a cleanup effort is underway on the campus of Cal Poly Humboldt, where a weeklong occupation of a campus administration building led to significant damage and graffiti — and were about 35 students and staff were arrested early Tuesday morning, and the occupation was brought to an end.

Related: May Day and Gaza Protests Expected Around the Bay Area Today [SFist]

Image: @atlajala via Twitter