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Tomorrow is the one-week anniversary of the first University of California protests (and arrests) against the regents’ decision to impose huge new fees on the students of the system, and UC’s activists show no signs of letting up.
Today saw a rally and march on the main administration building at UC Irvine, and the first arrest of the week at that campus. It also saw a candlelight vigil — still ongoing — at UC Berkeley, in the wake of the news that the university will be investigating charges of excessive police force at protests there last week.
And at UC Davis, where 52 protesters were arrested in an occupation of administration building Mrak Hall last Thursday, students are hunkering down for the night at Mrak again. The Davis activists’ blog reports that between sixty and seventy students are in Mrak now, and they’ve “made a commitment to stay the night.” They’re dancing, they’ve ordered pizza, and they’re settling in to chat about demands.
8:10 pm | Liveblogging of the Mrak Hall occupation is here.
9:45 pm | A Twitterer on the scene says negotiations are happening at Mrak.
9:50 pm | The student newspaper’s Twitter feed says the occupiers have three demands: An apology for police violence on Thursday, action to save student co-ops, and amnesty for Thursday’s arrestees. They say they’re staying until at least two of the three demands are met. Another Twitterer says the cops are refusing to negotiate, but allowing occupiers to leave without arrest if they leave now.
10:20 pm | Via the student newspaper’s Twitter feed (@CaliforniaAggie), the administration is making a new offer: “Police will review alleged violence, even without formal complaint; students won’t be punished by school and admins will ask DA for leniency for those arrested Thurs.; and admins will meet with a representative group about student co-op closure. Protestors say this is not enough. They demand full amnesty for those arrested and a full apology for alleged police violence.”
11:15 pm | There has been a negotiated settlement of the occupation, and the students have left Mrak Hall. More in the morning.
Wednesday | Here’s my follow-up post on what the university agreed to last night, and why this occupation is a milestone in the UC student movement.
In the spring of this year a wave of campus occupations swept Croatia, beginning with the takeover of the school of humanities and social sciences at the University of Zagreb on April 20. The protesters demanded free and universally available higher education, and by the end of their campaign all or part of twenty universities in eight Croatian cities had been occupied.
I had a chance to talk to some of the leaders of the Croatian occupations when I was in Zagreb earlier this month, and those conversations (and others I had there) were a real crash course in the student movements that have swept Europe this year. Much of what I learned is highly relevant to the American situation, particularly now that campus occupations are becoming a regular occurrence here.
The U of Zagreb occupation lasted for thirty-five days this spring. It took place not behind barricades but in a freely accessible building, with democratic governance meetings open to all, regular teach-ins and seminars — even a daily morning yoga session.
Today at a noon mass gathering, or plenum, Zagreb’s student activists voted to take up their occupation again. Occupations are also underway at the Universities of Pula and Rijeka, with a meeting scheduled for tomorrow at Split to consider similar action.
There hasn’t been much coverage of the current European wave of student protest in the United States, and what there has been has often been fragmented and decontextualized. I’m going to make an effort to overcome those problems in the coming days, using Croatia’s occupations — those of this spring and those going on now — as a case study and a starting point for broader discussion. Stay tuned!
The web journal Inside Higher Ed is a go-to source for anyone interested in the American university. Founded in 2004 as a competitor to the well-regarded but stodgy Chronicle of Higher Education, IHE is an indespensible daily guide to the nation’s campuses.
So why isn’t it covering the biggest student story of the year?
We’re now five days into the wave of student protest that has engulfed California since the UC regents approved huge fee increases for their system’s students. Since then thousands have demonstrated on campuses across the state, often clashing with police. Six university buildings at five universities have been occupied. More than a hundred students have been arrested. And IHE has given the story a total of four words.
“As students protested outside, the University of California’s Board of Regents on Thursday reluctantly approved a 32 percent increase in ‘fees’ …” That’s how the IHE opened a one-paragraph piece on the fee increases in its “Quick Takes” section on Friday. That one clause, “as students protested outside,” was the only mention of student organizing in the piece, and the IHE has yet to return to the topic.
At the time the IHE put up that story, students had taken over four UC buildings in response to the fee hikes. Three of those occupations were still ongoing as of Friday morning, and the fourth had ended with mass arrests. Fourteen students had been arrested within the regents meeting itself, and several — despite UCLA’s initial denials — had been Tasered by campus police during the demonstrations that accompanied it. After the meeting, students blockaded the building in which it had been held, blocking the regents’ exit and at one point compelling them to abandon the van in which they were attempting to leave campus.
Since Friday morning, IHE has covered a lawsuit filed by a woman who was fired by the University of Nebraska when they learned she was a witch. It has published a lengthy piece on academic plagiarism. It has written about a physical fitness requirement for obese students at Lincoln University and an athletics director who quit after applying for reimbursement for expenses relating to an extramarital affair. It has run two stories on tax issues.
But on the largest student uprising in recent American history? Nothing so far.
Now, granted, it’s Sunday, and IHE generally doesn’t publish on the weekends. Only one of the stories I list above went up yesterday, and that one was a blog post. But as I say, this was a huge story by Friday morning, and it only got bigger as that day went on.
I’ll be eager to see what they have on it tomorrow.
Monday morning update | Well, it’s tomorrow, and IHE has a 108-word “Quick Takes” story up reporting on Friday’s events at three universities.
The piece makes no mention of the 52 arrests at UC Davis on Thursday, and declares that UCSC’s Kerr Hall “remains occupied,” even though that occupation ended on Sunday morning. Meanwhile, the journal finds room for 645 words on the end of football at Northeastern.
It’s seven thirty on Sunday morning in California, and news is beginning to roll in from the two building occupations at UC Santa Cruz.
There were reports last night that the UCSC campus had been locked down, and claims that the police were planning to retake Kerr Hall and Kresge Town hall at midnight, but that deadline, real or imaginary, came and went without incident. Twitter reports this morning suggest that preparations for police action may be underway, though.
Another tidbit recently posted on Twitter is the news that UCSC professor Bettina Aptheker is planning to enter occupied Kerr Hall. No confirmation on that one either, yet, but Aptheker has made public statements in support of the activists. “I don’t understand why we’re afraid of students,” she said on Friday, reminding the university the protesters are committed to nonviolence.
Kresge Town Hall has been occupied since Wednesday night, and Kerr Hall since Thursday. The occupiers initially released a flamboyant 35-point list of demands, but on Friday they trimmed that back to a more moderate — and shorter — list.
Administrators turned off internet access to Kerr Hall on Friday evening, but communication with the outside world, previously minimal, picked up on Saturday anyway. One student on the scene kept up an ongoing liveblog Saturday evening, and as many as half a dozen Twitterers on the campus have been providing updates — you can find those feeds in the Student Activism UCWalkout2 Twitter list.
7:45 am | Multiple sources, including the UCSC student newspaper, confirm new police activity at Kerr Hall. One unconfirmed Twitter report says riot police have stormed the occupation.
8:05 am | Twitterer @geoffwildanger says the Kerr occupiers have rejected a request from police on the scene to remove the barricades they have set up.
8:25 am | Fifteen minutes after tweeting that the Kerr occupiers had chosen to hunker down behind their barricades, rejecting an offer from the police to end the occupation peacefully,@geoffwildanger tweets that the Kerr occupation has ended without arrests. I’m going to hold off on making any more updates until I get reliable, detailed new info.
9:05 am | New updates at Occupy California and Indybay shed light on the situation. According to OccupyCA, police breached the barricades at Kerr, but occupiers were then allowed to leave without charges. The group — of about fifty — marched en masse to Kresge, which is still under occupation. Indybay tells a similar story, adding the detail that an anthropology professor, Marc Anderson, “fell off a 12 foot staircase as police were forcing students and faculty off of the Kerr patio” and was removed from the scene by emergency personnel.
9:25 am | A new Santa Cruz Sentinel article quotes history professor Emily Honig, who was at Kerr since five o’clock this morning, as saying that “the way in which police force was called out in full gear and weaponry” was “regrettable,” and that she didn’t “think the situation demanded it.”
2:45 pm | The Santa Cruz Sentinel is reporting that Professor Anderson has been released from the hospital and has no major injuries. The Associated Press reports that students involved with the demonstration may still face criminal or disciplinary charges.
4:10 pm | The Kerr hall occupiers have released a statement giving their account of the end of the occupation. They say that the professor’s fall from the balcony was caused by “the administration’s use of force,” and that it took place at a moment when “students and neutral faculty observers were cornered by riot police on an outdoor balcony.” Responding to administration claims that Kerr Hall was left damaged or dirtied, they say that “over 75 students have already volunteered to help clean the space.”
Early this morning several dozen students launched a takeover of Wheeler Hall, a building on the University of California’s Berkeley campus. Their occupation is the fifth in the last two days in the UC system, and comes in response to yesterday’s vote by the UC regents to raise student fees by 32%.
Wheeler Hall, which houses a 760-seat auditorium and dozens of classrooms, including many large lecture halls, is one of the most prominent buildings on the Berkeley campus. It has been the site of many student demonstrations in the past, including occupations calling for university divestment from South Africa in 1977 and Israel in 2002.
Police reportedly confronted students as they were attempting to occupy the building, making three arrests and using pepper spray and batons on protesters. A group of students was able to make their way to the second floor, however, and to barricade themselves inside.
The Wheeler occupiers have hung a banner from two upper-story windows that reads “32% FEE HIKE 1900 LAYOFFS NO CLASS.” They have also been using a bullhorn to address students outside the building. Police have cordoned off the entire building at this hour.
9:20 am | Twitter reports from the protesters suggest that there are about three dozen activists inside the building, and that police are attempting to disassemble doors to the rooms that are being occupied.
9:30 am | Another Twitter report, citing sources among the activists currently occupying Wheeler, says that the students arrested this morning have been charged with burglary. Also, the Daily Cal student newspaper is now liveblogging the occupation.
9:45 am | A statement from the UC Berkeley administration says that Wheeler Hall is closed “until further notice.” It confirms that three people have been arrested, including one non-student. The title of the statement is “Protest Action Closes Wheeler Hall.”
9:50 am | Twitterer @ucbprotest writes: “The protesters inside Wheeler Hall demand the janitors jobs be reinstated and the protesters inside and those arrested this morning go free.” Another tweet: “The protestors demands, again, are that the 38 AFSCME workers that were laid off are re-hired, and that the protestors receive amnesty.”
10:00 am | The Daily Cal has a new story up on the occupation. It quotes an organizer as saying that the group entered the building at about nine o’clock last night, not this morning as has been reported elsewhere.
10:55 am | Multiple reports on Twitter that fire alarms have been pulled in one or more buildings around campus.
11:00 am | A newly posted article says that “several hundred” students are gathered in front of Wheeler Hall to support the occupation. Also, a new statement from the occupiers is now online.
11:55 am | The Daily Cal is now reporting that fire alarms went off in five campus buildings this morning, causing all five buildings to be evacuated.
3:15 pm | I’ve been away from the computer for the last three hours, following the situation via Twitter on my iPhone. It appears that the occupation may be moving toward a negotiated settlement, but the situation is still fluid. You can follow my UCWalkout2 Twitter list to see the feeds of fifty activists, journalists, and others involved in the situation, and watch the story there as it develops.
3:20 pm | The occupiers are squelching the idea that any negotiated settlement is imminent.
4:20 pm | The students in Wheeler have been jousting with the administration over the terms and conditions of any negotiations. Meanwhile, the occupation continues, and the outside support action seems to be going strong.
4:50 pm | Word has come via Twitter that UC Davis’ Dutton Hall is now occupied. This is the sixth UC building occupation in two days, and the fourth to be still going simultaneously at this hour.
5:00 pm | A Twitterer inside the occupation suggests that the cops are breaking down the barricades.
5:05 pm | Multiple reports on Twitter of police use of force against demonstrators outside Wheeler.
5:15 pm | Police seem to be arresting the occupiers. I’ll hold off on posting more until I have detailed, confirmed news to report.
5:25 pm | Police are inside the building arresting students.
6:20 pm | Berkeley is saying that forty-one students were arrested at Wheeler tonight. Fifty-two were arrested at UC Davis yesterday, and fourteen at the Regents meeting at UCLA on Wednesday. That’s more than a hundred UC students arrested in budget protests in just three days.
7:30 pm | The occupiers have been given citations, and are being released into the crowd that still surrounds Wheeler. No bail, no trip to the police station, no headaches trying to figure out how to get the arrestees past the outside demonstrators. The occupiers are being released a few at a time, and the first group was released just moments ago.
studentactivism.net 
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