The story of student activism in California last semester was a story of growing student inventiveness met with escalating administrative aggressiveness, so it’s not surprising that the state’s first major action of the new year is both inventive and cautious.

The Kroeber Makeover is a four-day event modeled on last December’s Live Week at Wheeler Hall. Like the Wheeler event, the Kroeber event features a rolling lineup of events ranging from free meals and art exhibits to activist workshops and planning sessions. Unlike Wheeler, the Kroeber students aren’t staying in the building overnight at all — it’s a makeover, not a takeover.

Kroeber Hall is the home of Berkeley’s anthropology department, and the anthro students behind this action have been careful not to give the administration any pretext for a repeat of the mass arrests that ended Live Week one day early. They’ve been formally reserving rooms, for instance, and scheduling their events to end well before the building closes each night.

Despite  the Kroeber makeover-ers’ conscientiousness, however, the Berkeley administration has taken an aggressive, confrontational stance toward the action. Yesterday they sent out an email to all members of the campus community saying that they expect “full compliance” with regulations limiting speech and organizing on campus, and one student I spoke with said admins have been warning profs sympathetic to the makeover that they’ll be held responsible “if anything happens.”

The Kroeber Makeover is scheduled to continue through tomorrow evening.