UCLA Chancellor Gene Block shared the following message on Oct. 18:

The events that have unfolded in Iran over the past several weeks — including the death of Mahsa Amini and the violent response to ongoing demonstrations — are gravely concerning to me and to many within the UCLA community. The brutal attacks on student protesters at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran — one of our peer institutions of higher learning — are particularly devastating. We mourn for those who have been lost, and express our hopes for the health and safety of those still in harm’s way.

As an institution and as a community, UCLA is deeply committed to women’s rights, to justice and equality, and to human dignity for all. We firmly support democratic norms of free, open, and safe expression of dissent. We stand unequivocally against violence and repression. 

I am grateful to the many UCLA students, staff, and faculty members who have endeavored to bring visibility to women’s rights issues in Iran, educate the broader public about these topics, and generate support for those who have been affected by the recent unrest. UCLA will continue to provide resources to Bruins impacted by the violence in Iran, and will lift up the work of our scholars — in the Pourdavoud Center, Iranian Studies Program, Center for Near Eastern Studies, Center for Middle East Development and elsewhere — who are helping our community and the world make sense of these events. 

This conflict affects many Bruins in deeply personal ways, and so I offer a reminder to those in our community to please seek campus support if you need it. Counseling services are available for students through UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services and employees through UCLA’s Staff and Faculty Counseling Center.