Struggle at SFSU Continues!

On Wednesday, April 7th, dozens of protestors at SF State held a rally in defense of the 11 occupiers who have been charged with over $8000 in fees related to the occupation of the Business building in December of last year. The administration is using political intimidation and repression to strike fear into the campus community, effectively making it so that anyone who stands up and fights back against the budget cuts and the privatization of the university.

After meeting up with each of the occupiers earlier this year to dish out the disciplinary action against them, the SF State Assistant Dean of Students Will Flowers made it clear to them that they would not face any punishment other than deferred suspension for a year. Besides that, he said, the administration was figuring out whether or not the occupiers themselves had committed damage to the building or property during the occupation; if so, they'd levy the fines on them. The only visible and apparent damage to the building during the 24 hour+ occupation was a large broken window that the police broke through to come into the building with guns drawn to remove the students. The SF State administration had not attempted to dialogue with the occupiers at any time, and those inside were never given a clear order to exit the building. The only damage committed by the protestors was a broken desk and a few scratches on the floor and walls from pushing desks around. All but one of the occupiers signed the agreement under threat of expulsion if they didn't.

Late in March, however, those 11 students received a letter in the mail from the SF State administration, which included a bill for $744.25 each student, totaling $8186.71. The letter states that the charges cover "custodial costs, SF State lodging for outside agencies, and window replacement." In other words, the administration wants to charge the occupiers for bringing in cops from all over the state (when they could have negotiated with the protestors and avoided a police extraction), for the window that they broke, and for cleaning up the mess. The contract that the occupiers had signed states that the sanction was "Restitution of all damages occurred of University property, if applicable." The charges are a breach of contract of that statement, because neither the custodial costs nor the lodging for outside agencies are damages occurred of university property. The window, on the other hand, wasn't broken by them, but by the police.

On Tuesday, April 6th, several of the occupiers, along with students, faculty, and community members in support of them presented letters to Assistant Dean Will Flowers, where they demanded a drop of the charges because it was an act of political intimidation on the students and would further dissuade any students or faculty from their right to resist. Their rights to free speech and peaceful protest were being attacked. Flowers decided not to respond to any questions and used "confidentiality" to stay quiet on the issue. One of the students present rightly proclaimed that the fees weren't confidential and that he must answer to those present, who then handed in their letters and left, promising to be back the next day.

On Wednesday, a rally in defense of the occupiers had been planned, which started with a march through campus, leading up to the administration building, where the protesters marched inside up to the 5th floor, demanding to present letters to SF State President Robert Corrigan. Corrigan denied to be met with, as usual, and soon called the cops. The march went back down, where they would have an open sit-in of the lobby of the building. A police officer and an unidentified man in a suit stood in front of the doorway, claiming that the students weren't allowed in the building. Asked for any legal reason why, they had no answer, so students pushed through and after police attempts to keep them out, were successful in getting inside the building, but not after police tackled two students to the ground for no other reason than trying to get inside a public building that they had a right to be in. The cops then backed down and the tense moment subsided, as students sat down and the sit-in began. After setting up a movie to play, the cops then closed and stood against the front doors and soon after locked all the other entrances of the building, letting the students inside remain but prohibiting any others from entering. They kept a door open to let in staff and people who had business in the building, but denied entrance to any student or journalist, a violation of the rights to free speech and lawful assembly.

After increased attempts to get an answer as to why students weren't allowed in, some students started pushing and, and some successfully got through, while others were put into choke holds to prevent them from coming in. Not once during the whole day did anyone from the administration or police give a reason as to why students weren't allowed to go inside the public building. An administrator, spotted on campus a couple days later, was asked why, and he said it was for "safety concerns," but if that was true, why were staff and deliveries allowed in? The real reason was to shut down dissent and dialogue with police violence and repression. After a couple of hours of sitting-in, those inside then gathered more letters and again marched to the office of Will Flowers to present more letters that demanded dropping the fines for the occupiers.