The University of Washington has informed an anti-Israel student group that an April 8 rally planned for the campus Quad cannot take place before April 12, citing restrictions tied to the location’s cherry blossom season.
The rally, titled “Take the Quad,” is organized by Students for a Democratic Society, which stated that it chose the timing to coincide with peak visitor traffic for the university’s annual cherry blossom display. Each spring, the Quad’s Yoshino cherry trees draw thousands of visitors and typically reach peak bloom from mid-March to early April, with the season lasting only a short window depending on weather conditions.
SDS shared a flier for the rally, stating, “Expose UW’s refusal to divest from war and genocide during tourism season.”
“As the U.S. prepares to deploy boots on the ground in Iran and the genocidal apartheid state of Israel ethnically cleanses southern Lebanon, we must show UW administration that we still haven’t forgotten their complicity,” the group wrote. “No war in Iran. No genocide in Palestine. UW divest now.”
Victor Balta, assistant vice president for communications at UW, told JNS the university has been in contact with the group and has “reminded them that events and activities are not allowed on the Quad until after April 12.”
As SDS is a recognized student organization, it must seek approval to use campus spaces, including the Quad. According to UW guidelines, “care of the surrounding cherry trees” must also be taken into account for groups using the outdoor space.
Balta did not say whether the student group requested the Quad or was granted a use permit, or how the university would respond if the rally proceeds as advertised.
Super UW, a student organization no longer recognized by the university, is listed as an event collaborator. More than 30 individuals associated with the group have faced charges tied to their May 2025 occupation of a university engineering building.
