By Connor Lālea Hampton, October 21, 2025
Alejandra Lopez, a political science student, was scrolling on her For You page on TikTok when she came across a video she described as horrifying. In the video, a girl explained how a loud buzzing accompanied every phone call with her friend in Palestine. The buzzing, she discovered, was the non-stop surveillance of Israeli drones, relentlessly circling around northern Gaza.
Lopez cried when labeling what she described as the constant torture of civilians in Gaza, including watching children struggle to receive food and shelter.
UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese said the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza could be as high as 680,000, with more than half being children under the age of 5.
College students like Lopez have been sitting at the forefront of the pro-Palestinian movement over the last two years by protesting, organizing teach-ins and tabling at Cal Poly Pomona, largely in consequence of videos like the one she described, which are all over social media.
According to an online poll conducted through The Poly Post Instagram, 76% of CPP students who answered said their opinion on Palestine shifted positively over the last year. On the other hand, 85% of students said their opinion on Israel shifted negatively over the last year. Approximately 250-300 students were surveyed per poll.
This small sample reflects a wider shift in public opinion among young adults. A national poll conducted by the New York Times and Sienna University showed 61% of 18–29-year-olds sympathize with Palestinians, and 84% think Israel should stop its military campaign to protect civilians, even if Hamas has not fully been eliminated.
Compared to 30–44-year-olds who polled at 43% sympathizing with Palestinians and 45–64-year-olds who polled at 25%, there seems to be a larger anti-Israeli government or anti-Zionist sentiment among college-age students.
Students don’t have to be war correspondents to see extreme foreign violence anymore. Lopez said after the media explosion Oct. 7, 2023, is when she began to learn more about the conflict, which has been labeled a genocide by the UN commission of inquiry, through online sources like TikTok, X, Instagram and online news publications.
Sahasra Ottikunta, a visual communication design student and member of Young Democratic Socialists of America at CPP, described a similar experience.
“Ever since Oct. 7 happened, I think there was a clear contrast and disproportionate response on either side,” Ottikunta said. “For the past two years, there is a switch in the public opinion of Israel and Palestine, especially because we see the destruction that’s happening and it’s being livestreamed, and a lot of these victims are children.”
CPP has not been immune to the sling of protests across the nation, which number more than 1,300, and have been overwhelmingly peaceful. California has hosted the largest number of pro-Palestinian protests since Oct. 7. CPP’s Students for Justice in Palestine hosted one Pro-Palestinian protest April 29, 2024.
Lopez said students being able to see these efforts firsthand on their college campuses has made it easier for even more students to get involved and educated about the situation.
The Cal State University system is battling an official complaint of antisemitism from the Trump administration, citing how the organization handled the pro-Palestinian protests. The administration asked for the personal information of employees from Cal State LA, according to Reuters.
The allegations, if proven true, could lead to a loss of federal funding for the CSU system.
ASI leadership passed a resolution last year concerning the support of a ceasefire in Gaza. The Academic Senate recognized the on-campus protests and encouraged university leaders to uphold the right to free speech and maintain flexibility for those affected by the conflict.
ASI Attorney General Cristian Marroquin said these resolutions reflect student opinion and create a historical record of the happenings of our time. Senate leaders draft a resolution after hearing the opinions and concerns of students in their colleges and then use the resolution to put pressure on university leaders.
Outside of student government, clubs on campus have been at the heart of the movement.
CPP’s SPJ has collaborated with clubs such as the Young Democratic Socialists of America to organize and participate in teach-ins, vigils, solidarity protests and other initiatives.
“These have helped bring more awareness to Palestine on campus and strengthened connections between students who care about justice and liberation movements,” said an anonymous e-board member through an Instagram direct message. “We’ve noticed a definite shift in public opinion, both nationally and locally, and student efforts have played a big role in that. A lot of people who may not have been engaged before are now asking questions, learning, and showing up.”
At the same time, however, the anonymous member said campus policy has made it difficult to exercise true free speech. They said administrative restrictions and regulations have limited what the club has been able to do.
Cal Poly Pomona announced new free speech initiatives such as the 2025-2026 Free Speech Event Fund. However, the Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funding if California state universities aren’t careful about their pro-Palestinian protests. Trump has repeatedly labeled these protests as antisemitic and extreme.
“Obviously, there’s no connection between antisemitism and supporting human rights,” Marroquin said. “I think that’s just something that’s been pushed on us, and I really don’t think that’s fair. … These are intentional things the government is pushing on us to give them the excuse of why they should let (genocide) happen.”