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“There is an enigmatic quality about March 4th, and no-one can foresee what will happen. We eagerly anticipate this uncertainty.”

–from the video Berkeley Pre-Game Communiqué: That’s Not the Sky, it’s the Ceiling

I’m not sure what to make of this, but a news release just sent out by the University of California at San Diego says the campus police have completed their investigation of the library noose incident and “filed” it with the San Diego City Attorney “as a possible hate crime.”

Does this mean the UCSD police disbelieve the student’s account? Does it mean that a prosecution is likely? I have no idea. But it seems pretty clear that this latest development isn’t going to ameliorate the confusion that has surrounded the event since it happened.

I’m turning off comments on this post, because I’m not interested in arguing about a subject that none of us have enough data to form thoughtful opinions on. If you’ve got information to share, you can reach me at the email address on the site’s About page, and I’ll be happy to pass it along.

Rumors of this incident have been circulating all day, and they’ve just been officially confirmed. The statement doesn’t seem to be up on the UCSD website yet, so I’m posting it below. (Later: It’s up on their site too.)

3:40 pm California time | I have to say, I’m flabbergasted by UCSD’s inability to get out in front of these stories. It took them fifteen hours to put out a statement on the hood incident, which has been circulating on Twitter all day. Just four hours ago, a campus spokesperson told the UC Davis student newspaper that they didn’t know anything about it.

Meanwhile, it took UC President Mark Yudof just six hours to post to Twitter debunking a joke site that claimed he’d resigned.

5:20 pm | Commenter Jeremy has noted that Seuss published some racist cartoons early in his career, and that it’s possible the hood was a reference to that. Doesn’t seem particularly likely to me, but it’s possibile.

Having said that, though, I’ll say this as well: I’m really not interested in having this post’s comment thread swamped with idle speculation about the motivation behind the incident. If you’ve got solid information, by all means share it, but if you’re considering commenting just to tell us how sure you are that it’s a hoax, or real, or a prank, or whatever, don’t bother. We’re all aware of what the possibilities are.

5:00 am Wednesday | I didn’t mention this last night, but police say that in addition to the Klan hood, a rose was found in the fingers of the Seuss statue.

The symbolism of carrying a rose at UCSD this week is worth noting, as students anonymously left roses on desks in the library on Monday, and encouraged students to carry them throughout the day as a gesture of community and solidarity in the struggle for “safety, dignity, and equal opportunity” on campus.

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The above map, an ongoing project charting all of the events in tomorrow’s March 4 Day of Action, currently includes well over a hundred actions in some thirty-two states, with more being added all the time.

If you click on any “pin” on the map, you’ll be taken to a short description of the action, along with links to further details and contact information for the folks involved.

For new readers, the March 4 Day of Action to Defend Education is a grass-roots event in which students, faculty, and others are coming together around the country to speak and act. The Day of Action was originally conceived in California as a response to the current crisis in higher education in that state, but it has since grown to encompass students and others at educational institutions at all levels in all parts of the country — from Berkeley and San Diego to Portland, Maine and Montgomery, Alabama.

Please see this post for updated information going forward.

Today is a statewide lobby day for higher education in California, with students, faculty, and staff — and even regents and top administrators — descending on the capital to make their case to members of the state assembly and senate.

There’s been a lot of activity in Sacramento today, and I’ll have a full report on it tomorrow, but right now I’m trying to get on top of one breaking story: students are apparently conducting sit-ins at the offices of two state legislators at this moment.

4:00 pm California time | All the info I have so far is coming in via Twitter, so it’s a bit fragmentary, but apparently students are sitting in at the offices of Assemblyman Jim Nielsen (R) and State Senator Darrell Steinberg (D). Twitterer @educatethestate is in the Steinberg offices, and @babysharkie is at the Nielsen sit-in.

4:06 | Tweets from @educatethestate suggest that State Senator Leland Yee has been negotiating with police on students’ behalf at the Steinberg sit-in, seeking to have any arrested students cited and released at the scene rather than being taken to jail for booking. Meanwhile, @babysharkie indicates that five students have just been arrested outside of Nielsen’s offices.

4:11 | The latest tweet from @educatethestate seems to indicate that five more students have been arrested at Senator Steinberg’s offices.

4:45 | Correction: no students were arrested at Steinberg’s offices.