4:25 am California time | A report posted on the Occupy CA blog about an hour and a half ago says that the Humanities building at CSU Fullerton has been “barricaded from the inside.” More when I get it.
4:50 am | According to this calendar, today is a regular class day at Fullerton. I can’t quite tell by Googling whether the building under occupation houses classrooms, but if it does, that would make this (to my knowledge) the first of the more than two dozen California campus building occupations this year that has sought to shut down a classroom building while classes were in session.
Update: As regular commenter “*” notes, the December takeover of the Business building at San Francisco State and the first occupation of Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall in November both forced the cancellation of classes.
5:20 am | Occupy CA’s post now says the building has been barricaded with “some fairly heavy materials,” and includes an eight-paragraph statement from the occupiers. The bulk of their statement consists of a critique of the ideas of Michael Parker, CSU Fullerton’s Director of University Planning. Specifically, they challenge his contention that “esoteric offerings such as literature, philosophy, fine arts, and so forth” are only part of the university’s “core” mission to the extent that “they are clearly related to practical concerns.” They are occupying the Humanities building, they say, as a symbol of their rejection of that “University of Phoenix business model.”
6:20 am | A student activist blog at Fullerton, Make Believe Committee, has the occupiers’ statement. The blog doesn’t identify itself as being a project of the students behind the occupation, but I wouldn’t be particularly surprised to find out that it is.
7:30 am | Occupy CA reported about forty minutes ago that police are inside the occupied building “talking to” 15-18 occupiers. Four others who were detained earlier have been released.
8:30 am | Occupy CA is now reporting that the police entered the building through underground service tunnels, and that all of the occupiers have been cited and released.
9:50 am | Commenter mtd says that the occupiers weren’t cited, just released. The non-students among them were ordered to stay off campus for a week, but the students received no sanctions. No confirmation of this, but I thought I’d mention it.
studentactivism.net 
17 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 3, 2010 at 11:02 am
James Logan
Interesting. The University of Phoenix model. I don’t know about all that…and I don’t know all the problems your facing. I can only relate, in small part, to my high school experience.
In a nutshell, teachers were fired, who only needed 1 day left for tenure. When students marched out in ‘protest’, the school board ‘decided’ to have a hearing. At this hearing, all our concerns were aired out and opinions voiced.
Only to find out it didn’t make a lick of difference…the decision had been made, those teachers, many who were loved, would lose their jobs.
Maybe the case isn’t an exact replica, but it should illustrate that, if you are out protesting in the streets, sometimes, you’re wasting all that energy. Start off small(at this point probably impossible)…channel the energy, even after these events, to get your supporters to vote. The cuts occurring across the nation, all seem to be happening in response to ‘budget cuts’. Cuts enacted of course, by Republicans and ‘conservative’ Democrats, trying to dumb down the country.
My point is, once your done with this rally/protest, and things have quieted down…its not over. You need to vote out the clowns who are trying to gut everyone’s education, not just your campus’.
If you can successfully convert this energy into voting energy…you might not only resolve the issue in your state, you might also be able to counter act the forces of ignorance and give Barack Obama the REAL Congress he needs, not a 60-vote-in-sheeps-clothing.
Then, after all that…the almost insurmountable task of getting people to KEEP voting.
Teabaggers, Palin-ites and the like will continue to get out in force to vote for things that are obviously against their own interests…you can’t rest either…
March 3, 2010 at 11:11 am
*
There were classrooms inside Humanities 2 at UCSC (although it finished before it disrupted any classes), Wheeler Hall (Nov.20), SFSU Business Building
March 3, 2010 at 11:18 am
James Logan
Oh, one final thing, read the New York Times article from Paul Krugman about Starve The Beast. Should give you an idea of what you’re dealing with…
March 3, 2010 at 11:27 am
Angus Johnston
Thanks. Wheeler was an open occupation, and it was never clear to me whether UCSC was intended to continue long enough to close the building the following day, but I did forget about SFSU — that was a closed occupation of a classroom building that forced the cancellation of classes.
Thanks again.
March 3, 2010 at 11:32 am
Angus Johnston
And of course right after I posted that I realized that you were referring to the first Wheeler occupation, not the second.
March 3, 2010 at 11:33 am
James Logan
This is what you’re up against folks, from ‘Tea Baggers’:
“TRENTON, N.J. — Conservative Tea Party activists in New Jersey should have the right to try to throw a Democratic U.S. senator out of office, their lawyer argued in a state appeals court Tuesday, even though he acknowledged it is unlikely their effort would succeed.
The appellate panel should wait to weigh in on the group’s recall effort against Sen. Robert Menendez until after the activists collect the 1.3 million voter signatures they would need to put the question on the ballot, said lawyer Daniel Silberstein, representing the Committee to Recall Robert Menendez.
“We are not arguing today for Sen. Menendez’s recall,” Silberstein told the panel. “We are arguing simply for the right to express our dissatisfaction with Sen. Menendez.”
The three appeals judges gave no timetable Tuesday for making a decision in the case, which pits the state constitution against the U.S. Constitution.”
This comes from HuffingtonPost. First of all, the reason I have a problem with Tea Baggers is their constant hue and cry for ‘term limits’, when we already HAVE term limits. So, if you they don’t know there own political system, how the hell are they going to tell ME about how it works? Or what it SHOULD be.
Here are a few ‘conservative’ TeaBaggers CLEARLY asking for a recall of Sen. Menendez, yet, using rhetorical speech to deny the attempt…a typical Republican approach…tell you to your face what you want to hear, but do exactly the opposite. They have their hands in the cookie jar…red handed. And yet, blatantly lying, WHILE OUTSIDE THE COURTHOUSE DURING THE CASE THEY BROUGHT TO TRY TO RECALL SEN. MENENDEZ…by claiming they are just voicing their displeasure with the senator. Of course, taking out an ad in the newspaper would tip everyone off that they are rich and trying to game the system.
And yet, like lemmings, Tea-Baggers follow these clowns right off the cliff…the only difference being, the Tea-Bag leaders aren’t stupid enough to jump…they just watch everyone go overboard.
March 3, 2010 at 11:49 am
James Logan
http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/
Wake up. Stand up.
March 3, 2010 at 12:30 pm
*
Yeah, the first one for sure. In fact, disruption was a key factor in getting outside support as they pulled fire alarms in multiple surrounding buildings to get people out
March 3, 2010 at 1:11 pm
mtd
Actually, the occupiers weren’t even cited, just detained and released. The non-CSUF students there were given “626 orders” (I think that’s the right number, but basically stay-away orders)–each of them are banned from campus for a week, though CSUF students are free to stay on campus. No charges were filed, no notices to appear… let go completely free.
March 3, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Mike McGee
Yeah, those right wingers will do any wacky thing to get their demands met, right? I mean, hanging nooses and whatnot. Geez.
Just keep pretending that Rules for Radicals is not actually used as a handbook for leftist activists and you get a pass to rail against anyone you disagree with for their particular very similar tactics.
FYI, I’m a liberal, which is why I can’t stand the conservatism (statism) of the democrats and their sympathizers. You know statism is conservative, right? You know it’s helping George Soros get richer, right?
March 3, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Mike McGee
By the way, one of the links on this very blog goes to a site stating that the original intent of these protests and sit ins was to take education from the hands of the state and its consumer-driven engines of production. Anti-statism isn’t a creature of the left alone. I happen to agree with elements of both sides.
March 3, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Angus Johnston
Thanks for this info. I’ll update the post.
March 3, 2010 at 3:11 pm
CSU Fullerton Occupation just ended « UC Regent Live(blog)
[…] Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/03/csu-fullerton-building-oc_n_483829.html?ref=fb […]
March 4, 2010 at 7:07 am
De KSU ‘Keek op de Week’ « Kritische Studenten Utrecht | 2010
[…] bij UC Riverside, een kleine rally in de staat Georgia, er was 3 maart een korte bezetting op CSU Fullerton, nog een bannerdrop bij UC Berkeley, hier nog wat propaganda, en hier […]
March 4, 2010 at 12:00 pm
James Logan
Sorry it takes a bit for me to get back…addressing your comment at 1:49, I think, and this is my opinion:
I’m starting to get an idea of anti-statism…and if its what I think it means, I think you’re going about it the wrong way. Holding a protest to ‘take education’ from the hands of the state AND its consumer-driven engines of production, is a two pronged statement.
First of all, if you get rid of the consumer-driven engines of production, which sounds like a good idea, then where does the money come from? Taxes no? You still get back to this idea…its controlling the government, not disposing of it, that will help you achieve your goal.
Now as for that Rules for Radicals, I can’t speak to that either, I’m to damn old to be in college, and even when I do go back, guerrilla tactics SEEM nice at the time, but they they tend to achieve short term goals.
Trust me, your problem isn’t just $250k jobs at the school…its the education budget itself…THAT is the problem. Getting ‘rid of statism’ just sounds like a way to further deplete the real funding source for schools and make it MORE private instead of less. I’ll check back for your response, and in the meantime edu-ma-cate myself on ‘statism’.
March 4, 2010 at 12:07 pm
James Logan
Based on this wikiDefinition:
Statism (or etatism) is an economic position that includes a major state role in directing the economy, either directly through state-owned enterprises and other types of machinery of government, or indirectly through economic planning.
It may also refer to a political philosophy that sovereignty is vested not in the people but in the national state, and that all individuals and associations exist only to enhance the power, the prestige, and the well-being of the state. The fascist concept of statism, which as seen as synonymous with the concept of nation, and corporatism repudiates individualism and exalts the nation as an organic body headed by the Supreme Leader and nurtured by unity, force, and discipline.”
The term is sometimes used to refer to state capitalism or highly regulated market economies with large amounts of government intervention. It is also used to refer to state socialism or co-operative economic systems that use the state, through nationalization, as a means of running industry.
If this definition is correct by your standards, then I stand by my original position. Sit ins are not enough. ‘Occupations’ are not enough. This should be a catalyst for action; the momentum needs to be converted into a usable energy.
If your 18 or older, at at one of these events, BUT you do not vote in your municipal elections nor in the upcoming November elections, you will continue to see education suffer in the manner it has.
Take that as a right or left statement, but take it and do something with it. I’m not the enemy, and NEITHER is the state. It only seems that way because you aren’t controlling it….getting it under control is only the first step, but you gotta take that step.
March 12, 2010 at 5:12 pm
James Logan
I guess I won’t get that reply, yet. I’d like to address something Mike said:
“FYI, I’m a liberal, which is why I can’t stand the conservatism (statism) of the democrats and their sympathizers. You know statism is conservative, right? You know it’s helping George Soros get richer, right?”
Who CARES? So what George Soros is getting richer…I agree with sides of the right and the left…on the right, I agree everyone has the RIGHT to earn as much money as they like. on the left, education is not something purely for the rich. I believe it is a RIGHT for all of us to have that education. How Conservatives think its ok to cut education, when they want every ‘entitlement’ program killed is beyond me…what, is everyone supposed to be dumb and living in the street? Again, you are focusing on the wrong part.
The state is NOT the enemy. The state is YOU.
If the state is ignoring your ideas/wishes…its probably because you aren’t voicing your opinion THROUGH the state(voting in the right people), not TO the state(protests), capece?
If you aren’t voting to keep taxes reasonable(not high, and not non-existent)…if you ignore what seems to be Cali’s penchant for what has been insultingly referred to as a “conservative budget for a liberal population”(education is neither right nor is it left), then trust me, you will continue to suffer educational devastation such as what is going on now.
In fact, I’m curious to see if this website or any other will track what concessions were made to students as a result of these protests.