Irvine’s Most Hateful
TIFFANY WILLOUGHBY HERARD
In an appalling escalation of campus unrest, 47 people were hauled off in handcuffs at the University of California, Irvine after a pro-Palestine encampment turned into a violent takeover of a lecture hall on campus.
Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, a professor in the global studies department at UC Irvine, was one of those arrested.
Willoughby-Herard shockingly chose to stay despite clear warnings from organizers that arrests were imminent. This was not just a protest – it was a brazen, hate-filled assault with antisemitic chants and Hamas propaganda being shamelessly circulated.
UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman did not mince words, calling the takeover a “direct assault on the rights of other students.”
Protesters’ demands “would require the university to violate the academic freedom rights of faculty, the free speech rights of faculty and fellow students, and the civil rights of many of our Jewish students.”
The protesters, including Willoughby-Herard, attempted to impose their extremist views on everyone else, essentially declaring that dissent would not be tolerated.
Even more horrifying, these radicals handed out pamphlets defending the brutal October 7 attack on Israel, attempting to rewrite Hamas’ internationally recognized status as a terrorist organization into a so-called “national liberation movement.” The absurdity of these claims is beyond belief, especially given Hamas’ long track record of violence and terror.
UC Irvine’s responded with the suspension of several students —yet their names remain hidden from the public eye. As for Willoughby-Herard, she is a tenured professor and has faced no consequences from the university for being arrested.
“These police officers out here today, that’s thousands of students scholarships. Thousands of students could have been able to go to school and have books and have housing but instead, our chancellor, who is very cruel, decided to send thousands of dollars worth of state funding,” Willoughby-Herard said at the time of her arrest.
No word on whether any scholarship money would be freed up for “thousands of students” if the university were actually willing to hold violent protesters accountable.
The university is sending a dangerous message: that the consequences of such violent, extremist behavior will be kept under wraps. These students should not be allowed to slink away into anonymity; their peers, and future employers, deserve to know who they truly are. And faculty members like Willoughby-Herard have shown they will actively participate in violent unrest knowing they can immediately return to the classroom.