Protesters Deploy Two Banners at UC Davis Shields Library to Reclaim Educational Space

In the context of a rally and march in protest of the 32% fee increase implemented by the UC Regents and the UC’s unfair labor practices, protesters hung two large banners from the rooftop of UCD’s main library, Peter J. Shields, at noon today.

The banners announced, “We are the crisis” and “Our education, our workplace, our university,” to highlight the connections between the struggles of UC’s students, faculty, and staff members. The message of the banner hang is to show that, at the beginning of the new quarter in which students are being required to pay 15% more in fees for their education (with an additional 17% fee increase set to occur in Fall 2010), the resistance to the UC administration’s decision-making is alive and mounting.

The action today is also a precursor to mobilize protestors for the statewide day of action against the privatization of public education on March 4th.

Shields Library was chosen as a target for these banners because of the chronic underfunding of UCD library collections, staff, and resources. For example, 17 fewer librarians were employed at Shields in 2006-2007 than in 1991-1992.* The library is one site of the larger struggle to reclaim rapidly diminishing student spaces on campus.

(*source: UC Davis Library Task Force)