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UCSC Students shut down Hahn administration building

by rosie
UCSC Students shut down Hahn administration in solidarity with students facing violent police repression at UC Davis and UC Berkeley. where free speech was shut down by weapons-grade pepper spray and beatings over the past few weeks. Students are calling attention to the militarization of campus and the focus on quieting political dissent rather than funding instruction and student services. Students will be heard. Demands: 1) Resignation of Chancellor Katehi 2) UCPD off of campuses 3) No more fee hikes
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UC ACADEMIC STUDENTS, IN SOLIDARITY WITH UC DAVIS STUDENTS, DEMAND THE RESIGNATION OF CHANCELLOR KATEHI, THE REPLACEMENT OF UC POLICE DEPARTMENT WITH UNARMED COMMUNITY-BASED SAFETY COMMITTEES, AND A FEE ROLLBACK!

Students at the University of California, Santa Cruz have surrounded Hahn Student Services building and are planning for a day of actions in solidarity with students who faced police brutality and repression of student free speech at UC Davis.
A little over a week ago at UC Davis, students’ freedom of speech was attacked with weapons-grade pepper spray. This attack threatens the freedom of students not only at UC Davis, but also of nonviolent protesters everywhere. Police brutality is being used to enforce fee hikes and growing student debt. The Regents have justified their hikes with the budget crisis, but they have enough money to fund their violence: last year, UC spent a total of $35.4 million on police, with an average pay of $92,700—that is, over six times as much as teaching assistants make.

Police brutality is nothing new for the UC system. Demonstrators against budget cuts and tuition hikes have experienced a history of state repression:

• 2005: “Tent University” at UC-Santa Cruz was violently dismantled by police
• 2007-8: Tree sitters saw multiple attempts at repression, including arrests
• 2009-10: Participants in the UC-wide occupation movement, including faculty, staff, and students, were subjected to arrests, pepper spray, and beatings
• 2010: UCPD pointed loaded weapons at demonstrators at the UC Regents meeting in San Francisco
• 2011: A nationwide occupy movement emerges and is subjected to violent evictions and repression
• 2011: UC-Davis students pepper sprayed. ACLU declares the use of pepper spray for crowd control to be an “unconstitutional use of force” (NYT, 11/22/11)

Why is this happening? Police violence is to prevent resistance to an unjust economic system. In California 11% of the budget goes towards prisons, but only 7.5% goes to higher education.

The Regents were planning to meet in San Francisco last week, to raise tuition by 81% over the next four years. Student activists planned a protest, and the Regents were afraid to confront peaceful student protest and cancelled their meeting. They will videoconference today in several locations, and UC activists are at those universities making it clear that they will disrupt their meetings.
Administrations claim that they put police on campus to protect student safety. But the greatest threat to student safety is privatization, exploitation, and repression. Students are graduating with impossible debt and few opportunities to get a job. Meanwhile, Regents and administrators like Mark Yudof make over $500,000 a year and pledge our tuition to borrow money for lucrative building projects, while our class sizes increase. When we resist this exploitation, we are subjected to brutal violence by police.

The general assembly of the Davis occupation voted nearly unanimously for a general strike today to protect their right to protest. In solidarity, and in defense of our own rights, we are striking today. We have three demands:

1. Immediate resignation of Chancellor Katehi
2. All cops off the UC campus
3. No fee hikes

As of 5:30am, students have surrounded the Hahn Student Services building with the intention of shutting the building down. This action is to call attention to the lack of funding for student services and instruction, while financially supporting the repression of free speech.

The first rally will take place today (Monday) at noon at Bay Tree Plaza, followed by a 2pm Action Assembly to decide next steps.
Students require a new kind of society that allows for the free speech and the expression of political dissent, values people over profits, and prioritizes education rather than repression.
§
by rosie
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§Occupy!
by okupa
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photo by Edgar
§No Work Today
by okupa
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photo by Edgar
§Solidarity with UC Davis
by okupa
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photo by Edgar
§Decolonize Education
by okupa
640_decolonize-education.jpg
photo by Edgar
§UCSC Hahn student services is occupied
by okupa
2:45pm – UCSC Hahn student services is occupied by 100-150 students. Specifically the financial aid office and surrounding halls. Support will be needed.
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau campus cops apply violent baton jabs on students protesting increases in tuition. Campus UCPD report to chancellors and take direction from their chancellor. University of California campus chancellors vet their campus police protocols. Chancellors are knowledgeable that pepper spray and use of batons are included in their campus police protocols.

Chancellor Birgeneau’s campus police use baton jabs on his students. UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau and UC Davis Chancellor are in dereliction of their duties.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau and UC Davis Chancellor need to quit or be
fired for permitting the brutal outrages on students protesting tuition increases
and student debt

Opinions? Email the UC Board of Regents marsha.kelman [at] ucop.edu
by about
the dumbest thing I have seen so far. Way to go asshats!! Screw with your fellow students and really show them who's in charge! Another "building occupation" Ooohh, ahhhh, wow, how well that worked last time. Really getting some press out this and helping everyone in the process. Kiss any of your demands goodbye and as a matter of fact, kiss your support goodbye. 16,000 + students up there and all you can get is 100?? What committment, what dedication! FYI If only a few of you think this is the right course and 1000's more think it's not, who must be right??? Leave now!!! It's our building too!!!
by An Occupier
This is a direct response to the comment about depriving students of resources: "Less than an hour into their protest, students had seemingly succeeded in preventing anyone from entering the building. Associate Vice Chancellor Jean Marie Scott spoke with some protesters, telling them the university was redirecting the roughly 100 staff based there to other campus locations."

The Student Services are not being held up. They will resume tomorrow, at a different location.
by tasty
You know, I thought similarly to you when the last occupation happened, but my thoughts have changed a lot since then. First of all, I'd like you to tell me what, specifically, are the student services you have been so sorely deprived of because of this? The professors can still teach, you can still go talk to your TAs, and I'm sure you can still go to both college and major advising, so what are you missing? Maybe it will take longer, by a couple days, for the university to figure out some more fees they can throw at you; maybe it will take longer for them crush your financial balls in a vice. I think the occupiers only have about 100 people out there because they are the only ones out of the THOUSANDS of others who are actually brave enough to face the very real threat of serious injury at the hands of the police in the name of standing up for our constitutional rights, for our right to a good education, and for our right to not be bled dry broken, greedy state institutions. And if you can think of a better way to do this than an occupation, then by all means, speak the fuck up.

These are my views alone, not the views of anyone else, so please, nobody start trying to put these words in the mouth of the entire movement.
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