A letter signed by more than 40 students and organizations across the University of California system asks UC Regent Jonathan “Jay” Sures to resign and calls on Board of Regents representatives to meet directly with Muslim and Palestinian student leaders. Written by the office of ASUC External Affairs Vice President Selina Mendez, the letter argues that Sures failed to respond after a speaker at an August summit told Muslim Americans to leave the United States.
Sures was the opening speaker at the Jewish American Summit on Aug. 30, according to the Jewish Journal, which reported that he is one of 18 UC regents and vice chairman of United Talent Agency. Later at the summit, Mosab Hassan Yousef said, “I don’t want Muslims in America,” remarks that The Forward described as anti-Muslim, according to The Forward. The student letter says Yousef also told Muslim Americans to leave the country and return to their countries of origin.
The letter’s signatories include ASUC Middle Eastern, Muslim, Sikh and South Asian-community Senator Aarja Singh, external affairs vice presidents from seven UC campuses, UC Student Association President Candice Phan and leaders of Muslim student organizations. The Daily Californian reported that the letter criticizes Sures for not condemning Yousef’s remarks and that the newspaper found no response from Sures addressing the demands.
Student Leaders Say Silence Has Consequences
Berkeley Muslim Student Association President Isha Saleem said Muslim students should be able to practice their faith and express their identity without discrimination, harassment or intimidation. Mendez said in an email that Islamophobic rhetoric can contribute to discrimination and violence against Muslims and people perceived to be Muslim. Singh said Sures’ failure to act should be taken seriously.
The students’ demand follows an earlier call for Sures’ resignation from the UC Ethnic Studies Council, which represents nearly 700 ethnic studies faculty across the system. In a September social media statement, the council criticized Sures for not commenting on Yousef’s remarks and called for his resignation, according to The College Fix.
The council has also accused Sures of using his position to criticize Palestinian advocacy and challenge students and faculty whose speech he opposes, saying his silence after the summit fits a broader pattern. Mendez’s office is helping facilitate the council’s removal petition, which calls for Sures to resign and says that, if he does not, the Regents should censure and remove him, according to a newsletter from the Substack account ethnicstudiescouncilatuc.
A Years-Long Dispute Over Speech and Power
This is not the first time the Ethnic Studies Council has sought Sures’ ouster. In a letter dated Nov. 15, 2023, the UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council called on Sures to resign amid a dispute over the UC system’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, writing, “Regent Sures, we call on you to resign,” according to a document filed with Politico. The council told Sures at the time that it had no confidence in his ability to govern the university.
Sures has pushed back on the council’s criticism in the past. He wrote a letter responding to an earlier Ethnic Studies Council letter, calling it rife with falsehoods about Israel and accusing it of seeking to legitimize and defend the horrific savagery of the Hamas massacre, according to KQED.
Restraining Order Fight Adds to the Record
Sures’ clashes with pro-Palestinian activists have also played out in court. In 2025, Sures sought a restraining order against a UCLA graduate student following a pro-Palestinian protest outside his home; the Duke Campus Speech Database reports that roughly 50 protesters, including graduate student Dylan Kupsh, demonstrated outside Sures’ residence on Feb. 5, 2025. A judge ruled against Sures that May, granting Kupsh’s anti-SLAPP motion and finding that Sures had not substantiated his claims and that the activity involved constitutionally protected protest.
That August, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered Sures to pay $150,624 in legal fees to Kupsh, Hoodline previously reported on the fee award. The episode has become a recurring reference point for students and faculty arguing that Sures has repeatedly targeted pro-Palestinian speech on UC campuses.
Part of a Broader UC Civil Rights Reckoning
The current demand lands amid a wider reckoning over bias complaints across the UC system. The University of California has resolved nine federal civil rights complaints of antisemitism and bias against Muslim, Arab and pro-Palestinian students stemming from Israel-Hamas war protests at five UC campuses, according to the Los Angeles Times. UCLA alone was a hot spot, receiving more than 150 bias complaints about protests and rallies in October and November 2023, along with reports tied to a pro-Palestinian encampment, per the same report.
As part of the resolution, each UC campus must reexamine all harassment complaints from the past two academic years and evaluate whether more needs to be done, the Los Angeles Times reported. UC also agreed to train employees, public safety personnel and campus police officers responsible for handling such complaints. Against that backdrop, student organizers say their letter is meant to push the Board of Regents toward concrete, binding measures against Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian hate, rather than another round of statements.
UC Policy on Discrimination and Expression
UC’s systemwide policy frames the university’s approach as protecting community members from discrimination while preserving protected expression. The Presidential Policy on Anti-Discrimination took effect Feb. 20, 2024, and is intended to protect community members from discrimination rather than regulate speech, while including protections for freedom of speech and academic freedom, according to the UCSF Office of the Chancellor.
