UCSB Students Continue Hunger Strike

For more than a week, UC Santa Barbara student Maggie Modovsky has lived only on liquids, vitamins, and electrolytes. Forgoing solid food while preparing for her finals has been difficult. But Modovsky is on strike. 

Five days into her hunger strike, a weary Modovsky sat down with the Independent. Speaking softly, she explained that she and four other students are continuing their hunger-striking in protest for Palestinians and against injustices on campus.

“It just felt like the right thing to do,” she said.

These strikes were, in part, inspired by Charlene Macharia, a doctoral student at UCSB’s Gevirtz School of Education, who announced the first campus hunger strike on March 9. She said she was prompted to take that action because of the administration’s handling of the Israel–Palestine conflict and its suspension of the MultiCultural Center (MCC) after anti-Zionist messages were posted around the building in February. 

Macharia, who finished her 10-day hunger strike on March 18, was at the center of an earlier community gathering that called for “one love” on Friday, March 15. Love, she said, has been the driving force behind her actions, which have resonated with students and faculty all over campus. 

On March 18, the five remaining striking students released a statement on the UCSB Hunger Strike Instagram page, clarifying that they are not affiliated with any campus organizations and that they stand for the “liberation of all peoples,” and emphasized that “preparation and safety” are their “top priorities.”

Striking students’ demands, originally made from members of the Department of Black Studies, included calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and recognizing the ongoing “genocide” of Palestinians — more than 31,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since Hamas’s October 7 surprise attack on Israeli communities bordering Gaza that killed more than a thousand people.
Protesters also wish to see the MultiCultural Center reopened with a task force for intersectional racial justice, as well as the end of “all intimidation of students for their activism” with the addition of protections against doxing and harassment — as students experienced in the case of the anti-Zionist signage — among other demands centered around freedom of expression, anti-violence, and support for marginalized groups.

In addition to the above, Macharia added three more demands in her letter to the administration: Divest from weapons manufacturing, divest from the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on native Hawaiian land, and rename North Hall to Malcolm X Hall.

She wrote that “putting her life on the line” may seem “meaningless” or like a “hilarious joke” to the administration, particularly because she is a Black woman. She charged that the UC is “complicit” in the high death toll in Gaza, and asked: “Why should it matter if you have the blood of just one more person on your hands?”

“This is not a suicide attempt,” she wrote. “I love life, which is why I am fighting for all our lives. If anything, this would be a homicide attempt, and you are the ‘homies’ that are being held responsible. You have left us in desperation, and desperate times call for desperate measures.” 

So far, UCSB has not met any of these demands, though some striking students received what they considered hollow messages from administrators offering information about mental health resources. However, Chancellor Henry Yang promised Macharia a meeting. And among faculty members, a few have expressed their solidarity. 

Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval, a professor of Chicana/o Studies, wrote to Macharia and the UCSB community, calling her a “tireless and unwavering voice for a world based on love and justice” and that “Folks have been working on these issues on this campus for many years if not decades now…. I hope and pray that your hunger, the hunger and deep desire that many other people share and have been working to create, comes to fruition — and soon.”

In a statement, the university acknowledged that it “has a passionate student body who care deeply about what is happening in our local community and around the globe.” 

University spokesperson Kiki Reyes stressed campus officials were working toward “opening dialogues,” providing student support services, and addressing concerns raised by different campus organizations.” She said, “There has never been any question that the MCC is a critical resource that will reopen for its full complement of educational and supportive activities” in the spring.

Meanwhile, the five students are continuing their hunger strike, while other students have been called on to support them with donations of sodium packets, Pedialyte, protein drinks, tea, Liquid IV, coconut water, and broth.