“There is a certain stigma that comes with being from Berkeley, and I’m proud of that stigma.”

–New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Fujita, talking politics with the New York Times.

Students at the University of California at Davis are occupying their campus library this weekend, and UCD’s chancellor has announced that instead of disrupting the occupation she’ll keep the library officially open all weekend long.

The Shields library “study-in and slumber party” has been in the works for quite a while, but Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi’s statement came just one day before its scheduled kickoff.

In a response posted to a UC Davis activist blog shortly after Katehi’s announcement, study-in supporters stressed that the concession was not a result of discussions or negotiations between the university and the action’s organizers. It was, instead, a reflection of Katehi’s “recognition of what will happen this weekend,” and of the fact “that she cannot stop it.”

The Davis study-in, like several of California’s fall occupations, boasts a solid lineup of events and activities. You can learn more from the Our University blog, or from the @OurUCD Twitter feed.

Correction: Katehi is the chancellor of UC Davis, not its president. I always screw that up.

On Christmas Eve, I learned that my daughter had a pretty serious congenital heart condition. She had surgery to correct it on Tuesday.

There have been a few bumps in the road since then, but the surgery itself went beautifully, and she’s been healing and gaining strength day by day. I’ve been living on couches in the hospital for nearly a week now, but if all goes well with a couple of final tests she’ll be sent home today.

I’ll be back to on-topic posting soon. I miss you guys. Thanks for all the good wishes on Twitter and via email.

Update | She’s been discharged with a very positive report. Regular posting will resume tomorrow.

“Sitting on that dumb stool was the best feeling of my life.”

—Franklin McCain

Fifty years ago last night, four first-year students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College decided to head into Greensboro the following day and ask to be served at the lunch counter of the city’s Woolworth’s store. Fifty years ago this afternoon, they did just that.

The four students weren’t served that day, but they stayed seated at the counter until the store closed, and by the next day — with a little help from the A&T student government president — they had rounded up two dozen students to join their protest. In days sit-ins were spreading across North Carolina, and within weeks they were happening all over the South. Before long it was a movement — the first student movement of the 1960s.

The sixties began fifty years ago today. And it was four undergraduate students at an obscure Ag and Tech college who did it.