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Saturday, November 21, 2009 - Students at CSU-Fresno took over the university library, keeping it open for 24 hours from Friday - Saturday morning. About 100 students and supporters occupied the second floor of the Madden Library, demanding that more university resources go towards keeping the library open for more hours. Ali Espinoza, one of the student leaders who helped organize the takeover, said the university keeps their bowling ally and pool hall open more hours than the library.
The student demands, however, go beyond longer library hours - they want a larger voice in how the university is run. In addition to more library hours the students want co-governance and greater transparency in financial matters on campus. The “study-in” ended at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning, with the students saying progress had been made in discussions with the dean of library services.
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In anticipation of fee hikes, students planned a series of occupations and strikes across the state for November 18th through 20th. On Thursday, November 19th, the University of California Regents approved a 32% increase in undergraduate fees, pushing fees to over $10,000 a year for the first time. Student Regent Jesse Bernal was the only vote in opposition. Protests, sit-ins and occupations took place at UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, CSU Fresno, San Francisco State and San Francisco City College. Students occupied Campbell Hall at UCLA, Kresge Town Hall and Kerr Hall at UC Santa Cruz, Mrak Hall at UC Davis, Wheeler Hall at UCB, and the library at CSU Fresno.
At UCLA, there were uncounted incidents of police violence against students during the three days of protests while the UC Regents held their meeting on the UCLA campus. LA-IMC reports confirmed use of tasers, pepper spray and much baton use on peaceably assembled students.
A total of fifty-two students were reportedly arrested at UC Davis. On Thursday, students occupied Mrak Hall, and were later arrested for trespassing. On Friday afternoon, students sat-in at Dutton Hall and were dispersed by police that evening.
In the early hours Friday, about 40 people occupied Wheeler Hall at UCB — three were arrested as police arrived. Solidarity crowds outside grew throughout the morning. As metal barricades were set up by police, police beat demonstrators with batons, including smashing one woman's hand which required surgery. At least one demonstrator was shot with a rubber bullet. Occupiers voluntarily left the building with misdemeanor citations in the evening. That same evening, students at CSU Fresno occupied Madden Library and held it overnight.
On Wednesday, hundreds of students rallied at the two entrances to the UC Santa Cruz campus, shutting them down for several hours. Also on Wednesday, students began an occupation at Kresge Town Hall. On Thursday, students occupied UCSC's main administrative building, Kerr Hall. Both occupations ended on Sunday morning after UC Police and Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Officers dispersed the people outside of Kerr Hall and those occupying the building.
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UCB Wheeler Occupation updates |
An Open Letter to Chancellor Birgeneau
San Francisco:
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Santa Cruz:
Hundreds Demonstrate at UCSC Against 32% Fee Hikes |
UCSC Students Occupy Administration Building and Issue Demands
Los Angeles:
LA Indymedia Coverage
See Also:
Video: Occupy Everything! Full Report on Student Solidarity Action In NYC |
Photos: NYC Solidarity March with UC Occupiers |
Occupation and campout at Napa Valley College Nov. 30th |
"WE ARE STILL HERE" mural at SF State University honors the First People
Previous Related Indybay Feature:
A Call for Days of Action Against the Tuition Hikes
On Wednesday, November 18th, hundreds of UC Santa Cruz students occupied the Kresge Town Hall following large rallies against a 32% tuition hike. The rallies obstructed the two entrances to the UCSC campus for several hours. On Thursday, UCSC's Kerr Hall, which contains the offices of the administration, vice-chancellors, and chancellors, was also occupied by students as part of the Days of Action Against the Tuition Hikes. Hundreds of students occupying the lobby created a list of demands which was read and given to UCSC's Executive Vice Chancellor David Kliger and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Felicia McGinty.
On Friday afternoon, hundreds of students, faculty and staff rallied outside Kerr Hall. After a general assembly on Friday evening, students issued a rebuttal to statements made by UCSC EVC David Kliger and also " edited their demand list for a more immediate satisfaction." The Occupy California website also reports that as of Friday evening, "The administration has cut off internet completely" which "potentially demonstrates the administration’s attempt to silence occupiers" and has "damaged student journalists’ ability to report information."
The occupations continued into the weekend. On Saturday, students attempted to negotiate with the administration, but their consolidated demands were rejected. CNN reported, that according to UCSC spokesman Barry Shiller, the administration intends "to wait out the takeover" and "hopes the students will leave voluntarily." The administration used a different line with the students, promising to send in police no later than midnight to break up the occupation. Students barricaded themselves inside Kerr Hall and a large number of supporters rallied outside throughout the night.
The occupation of Kerr Hall ended on Sunday morning. By 6:50am, UC Police and Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Officers clad in riot gear arrived at Kerr Hall to disperse demonstrators. A press release from Occupy California reports that at one point during a confrontation, students and neutral faculty observers were cornered by riot police on an outdoor balcony. As the police advanced towards the students and faculty, one faculty member fell from the balcony, injuring his back.
In order to enter the building, the front and back doors to Kerr Hall were cut by the Fire Department. Everyone inside, approximately 50 people, exited out a back door. Students chanted, "We'll be back!" as they marched to the Kresge Town Hall for a rally. The occupation at Kresge Town Hall ended after the rally.
UCSC Expands Occupations | UC Santa Cruz Students Occupy Kerr Hall | A Letter of Discontent | Kerr Hall on November 21st | Timeline of Occupation Eviction | Press Release: End of Kerr Hall occupation | Solidarity from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Previous Indybay Coverage: Hundreds Demonstrate at UC Santa Cruz Against 32% Fee Hikes
On November 14th, students in the EA Hall Middle School MEChA Club held a free community arts event at the Brown Berets Bike Shack warehouse in Watsonville. The event was initially supposed to be held at the city owned Youth Center, however City Staff were opposed to a fee waiver for this event due to the "political nature" of the bands lined up to perform. This has created a stir with some conservative people in the community who are afraid of anything that promotes Mexican or Xicana/o identity.
On November 13th, students at UC Santa Cruz conducted a study-in at the Science and Engineering Library. Due to budget cuts, both of the large UCSC libraries have severely reduced hours which detrimentally affects employee pay and students with study needs late at night.
Students attempted to enter the building during normal library hours, but were denied access without handing over student ID to administrators at the door to keep until their later departure. People are not typically required to provide identification when entering the library.
Read more and watch video | newUC
Rainbow Theatre, the only multicultural theatre arts troupe in the UC system, will be kicking off their 16th season on November 5th and continuing through November 15th. In the tradition of Teatro Campesino, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and Theatre of the Opressed, Rainbow strives to bring the untold stories of people of color to light.
Raj Jayadev writes: "On Oct. 24, the San Jose Mercury News released the video of a San Jose State math major getting beaten and tased by the San Jose Police Department in his home on Sept. 3, 2009. Police were called to the scene after 20-year-old Phuong Ho allegedly wielded a knife during an altercation with his roommate. All the viewer can hear, in between groaning cries of pain and calls for mercy, are the cracking sounds of the batons as they meet 20-year-old Phuong Ho’s head and body, and the torturous zapping of a Taser gun. It is, in a word, disturbing."
"Ho, who through his attorney has filed a civil rights complaint with the FBI, is also facing misdemeanor charges of exhibiting a weapon and resisting arrest. He was not armed when police arrived, and became the recipient of the beat down when he bent down to get the glasses that fell off of his head.
"As a member of a local community group that has been calling on police accountability in San Jose for years now, I have been receiving multiple emails with the subject line, “San Jose’s Rodney King.” They don’t mean the person. They mean the moment. The comparison is natural since both incidents contain the same basic patterns: unarmed men of color excessively beaten without cause by numerous police officers -- and it is all caught on video.
Read More
Silicon Valley Debug: Vietnamese Community Association Responds to Police Beating of San Jose State Student |
Raj Jayadev: "What Would Have Happened If Dr. Gates Was Arrested in San Jose?" |
SiLiCoN vAlLeY dE-bUg
On October 30th, Doug Zuidema, Director of Judiciary Affairs at UCSC, notified a collection of students that they were potentially subject to disciplinary proceedings. Occupy California writes that, "The University increasingly functions like a police apparatus: taking surveillance photos at protests, compiling dossiers on individuals, modifying response protocols and manufacturing phony charges against students and workers for kangaroo courts." Read more
See also: A Three Day Student, Worker and Faculty Strike Starting on 11/18
On October 26th, Free Radio Santa Cruz hosts The Maestr@s spoke with James Loewen, a researcher, author, teacher, and history-doer. His latest book is a how-to guide for teachers, with the aim of reclaiming history from boring dates and names, and replacing a vibrant sense of connection to the past. Teachers for Class War airs every Monday at 6pm on FRSC 101.1 FM.
Jim Loewen is best known as the author of Lies my Teacher Told Me, a hugely influential look at 12 leading high school history texts comparing what they prioritize, what they leave out, and what they just plain make up. He's also the author of Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. Lowen's latest book is called Teaching What Really Happened: How To Avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks and Get Students Excited About Doing History. Read more and listen to the interview
On Free Radio Santa Cruz, The Maestr@s spoke with a fellow media activist, Oaxaca City resident, and parent of a school aged daughter about the state of education in Oaxaca, Mexico, where teachers mounted and led a massive uprising in 2006. They discuss the effects on schools and school children, three years later.
Read more and listen to the interview
UC Financial Crisis: Big Picture and Practical Actions is a public forum occuring at UCSC's Classroom Unit 2 on Thursday, October 29th from 7-10pm.
Two of the featured speakers have been particularly devoted to investigating the University of California's finances. Stanton Glantz of UCSF, is the author of The Cigarette Papers, which has played a key role in the ongoing litigation surrounding the tobacco industry. He is now working with the Keep California's Promise, an organization to restore the Master Plan for higher education, and has turned his investigative skills to the administration and financing of the UC.
Robert Meister is the President of the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) and director of the Bruce Center for Rethinking Capitalism at UCSC. For a decade he has been an active critic of the privatization trend at UC and an advocate of the shared governance tradition. His open letter to UC students "They Pledged Your Tuition" and subsequent writings have been widely circulated. Read more
See also: Monday, Nov. 2: Worker & Student March Against Budget Cuts
On October 21st, Fresno State saw one of its largest mobilizations since the 1960s. The student walkout was in protest against the recent fee increase of 32% (fees go up almost every year typically by around 10%), class furloughs (pay more get less), over-crowded classrooms, faculty layoffs, staff layoffs, a corrupt administration, a corrupt Associated Students, Inc., which refuses to represent the students, and the entire California State University (CSU) system. The CSU master plan from the 60s promised free education to all, but the university is now run like a for-profit corporation.
A rally was attended by 300 students and faculty who spoke and expressed their shared rage. This was followed by a march of well over 600 students chanting things like "no cuts! no fees! education should be free!" and "hey! hey! ho! ho! [university president] Welty's gotta go!". This march went down Shaw from Maple to Cedar and around the Shaw/Cedar intersection several times before rallying in front of the school.
After the march, a group of students took a list of demands to President Welty's office on the 4th floor of the library -- during the rally there were many references to Welty's tower where he could look down on his subjects and maintain inaccessibility. The students were initially met by campus police who blocked the elevator saying they had to make sure it was okay to come up, so the delegation instead took the stairs. Once the small group made it up, it was met in the hallway by campus police who said President Welty was not there. As this dialogue was going on, students just kept coming out of the elevators, and by the end the students had moved forward nearly 30 feet and 80 students were clogging the hallway leading to the administrators' offices. Welty's assistant explained that the president was at a meeting. The students responded "fine, we'll wait" and all sat down.
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On Thursday, September 24th, actions against the budget cuts, fee hikes, layoffs and furloughs at University of California campuses took place throughout the UC system. Workers, graduate student employees, students and faculty held a strike, walked out, and demonstrated in defense of public education and fair labor practices. Pickets, rallies and general assemblies took place from 6am onwards on the UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz campuses.
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