Seventy UC Santa Cruz students occupied an administrative building last Thursday after the university approved a 32 per cent increase in student fees. In June, UC’s board of regents had raised fees by 9.3 per cent effective immediately, after an earlier 10 per cent hike in the same fiscal year.
The University of California is the fourth largest public university system in the U.S. Its 10 campuses have suffered massive budget cuts, resulting in tuition hikes and reduced student services.
Protestors issued a list of seven demands, including amnesty from protest, protection of undocumented students and workers, a freeze on all layoffs, and guaranteed funding through employment of fee remissions for students who have lost TA or work-study positions.
Students spoke with administration throughout the day Saturday. Executive vice-chancellor David Klieger later decided that the university would make no concessions until students vacated the building.
Students and faculty could come and go from the five-storey Kerr Hall until Saturday night. When protestors learned police had been called, they used a refrigerator to barricade the building.
“Ironically, the administration building was much more accessible to students when it was occupied by students than it normally is,” said Don Kingsbury, a media contact for the protestors.
Kingsbury added that much of the negotiations occurred through faculty members who supported the student campaign.
“The way that administration treats students and thinks of students, it is much more effective to have faculty approach them. The administration has been very clear that they don’t really care to interact with students.”
Faculty and staff have also been severely affected by cutbacks at UC, said Bettina Aptheker, a feminist studies professor who observed the occupation in and outside the building on Sunday morning. All faculties received a seven per cent pay cut earlier this year.
“Our local administration has closed child care for faculty and staff effective Jan. 1,” said Aptheker. “We are the only campus to do this.”
Campus and local police in riot gear announced 6:30 a.m. Sunday morning that protestors who didn’t leave would be arrested. Students surrendered and moved to Kresge Town Hall, a campus student space, to have a debriefing meeting.
None of occupiers were arrested or have since been arrested. One bystander, an assistant professor, was injured after he lost footing on a railing while trying to make room for protestors exiting the building.
On Monday night, the group held a town hall meeting that drew 300 attendees including students, faculty members, Santa Cruz residents, members of the Brown Berets, and Pajaro Valley educators, according to Kingsbury. The group plans to launch a defensive measure over American Thanksgiving, asking friends and family to call the university and demand charges not be pressed.
“Future direct actions also aren’t off the table, but it’s important to emphasize we don’t want this to turn into committing offensive acts throughout the school year,” said Kingsbury.
On Wednesday the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that the university has estimated damages conservatively between $50,000 and $52,000, not including wages of cleanup crews or police. “That’s hard dollars that have either already been spent or we know we are going to spend,” said Barry Shiller, a spokesperson from the university.
Kingsbury suggested that the estimates may be inflated.
“The graffiti that students put up was done with blue painters tape,” said Kingsbury, “students have been very focused on the struggle for public education and we aren’t going to get anywhere by trashing the infrastructure of our universities.”
While neither academic nor criminal charges have been pressed, many students are apprehensive. Kingsbury has expressed a concern he may face academic or criminal prosecution for his role in the incident. Students who left personal belongings in the building as they fled are lobbying them to be turned over to a third party. They are concerned that the university will compile a list of protestors as they retrieve belongings from the police. Administration has so far refused to grant this request.
