UC Santa Cruz students celebrate Hitler’s birthday

According to Akirah Bradley-Armstrong, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at UC Santa Cruz, a group of unidentified students met on campus on April 20, Hitler’s birthday, and reportedly sang “Happy Birthday” to the Nazi leader and served cake “adorned with hateful and horrific symbols.”

“White supremacy has no place at UC Santa Cruz,” Bradley-Armstrong said in a press release statement adding that the university “unequivocally condemns” the incident. “Nor does any action intended to degrade, dehumanize, or intimidate another based on identity.”

The incident has been referred to student conduct officials for “follow-up and adjudication,” she noted.

In another hate incident the following day on April 21, a student “found an antisemitic and anti-LGBTQIA+ flyer on their car’s windshield” downtown, the university said. The flyer included “despicable and degrading claims” about Jews and LGBTQIA+ people.

University officials are following up with Santa Cruz city officials about that incident.

“These disturbing incidents follow a national trend of increased antisemitic rhetoric and violence,” Bradley-Armstrong said. “Whatever the purpose and wherever they take place, we reject any and all acts of antisemitism.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom weighed in on Twitter angrily calling both incidents sick and disgusting adding that these “kinds of acts” have no place in California.

UC Santa Cruz had an enrollment of 19,478 for fall 2022, according to the university, which is located about 75 miles southwest of San Francisco.