The truth about Kerr Hall
Campuses up and down the state of California saw protests, occupations and strikes during three days of action in mid-November that took place as the University of California (UC) Board of Regents met in Los Angeles to approve an incredible 32 percent increase in student fees for next fall.
At UC Santa Cruz, a growing movement of students that successfully carried out a "study-in" at a campus library the weekend before first took over Kresge Town Hall as a meeting and organizing center, and then Kerr Hall, the campus' central administration building. After stonewalling negotiations, administrators relied on ranks of riot police to clear out Kerr Hall in an early-morning assault.
Since the occupation ended with no arrests, UC Santa Cruz officials have waged a campaign of disinformation about the students and their action. Here, graduate students , and tell the protesters' side of the story.
ON NOVEMBER 18, hundreds of UCSC students gathered at the base of campus to protest the UC Regents' decision to raise student fees 32 percent over the next year. A large number of these students subsequently engaged in a peaceful sit-in at Kerr Hall, a sit-in that lasted until riot police removed students from the building. We want to express our support for this peaceful protest and challenge the administration's blatantly dishonest communications to the community.
This protest was supported by a broad spectrum of students, faculty and campus workers. Executive Vice Chancellor David Kliger's attempt to divide campus between "the responsible, concerned many" and "the irresponsible, disruptive few" is disingenuous. A great many people on campus saw the Regents' 32 percent fee hikes as a real disruption of the community, instigated by the privileged few, and thought that in light of this, an interruption of business as usual was warranted.
The students in Kerr Hall presented a list of local demands to the UCSC administration. These demands gave the UCSC administration an opportunity to protect members of the UCSC community from the skewed budget priorities of the UC Office of the President.
These demands included a freeze on layoffs for all UCSC employees, a repeal of the 15 percent cut in labor time for campus custodians, protection for undocumented students and workers, and a halt to the budget-related restructuring of campus Resource Centers, such as the Women's Center, Ethnic Resource Centers, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Center. Sadly, after hours of negotiations, the administration decided they were unwilling to agree to any specific demands.
We maintain that this bad-faith bargaining is primarily responsible for the police raid of Kerr Hall and the supposed "damage" to the building. When the UCSC administration made clear that they were unwilling to negotiate with the protesters, they threatened police action--a threat that led frightened students inside the building to barricade the doors.
As for the "damages," we are concerned about potential exaggeration by the UCSC administration. The administration's own posted photographs seem to show that the "damages" amount mostly to leftover food and a bunch of paper in need of recycling.
Of course, without the administration's use of police force, the mess would have been cleaned up by the protesters themselves before they left the building. In fact, a large group of sympathetic students volunteered to perform the cleanup of Kerr Hall, so as not to inconvenience UCSC janitors, who are already hit hard by the administration's brutal imposition of worker layoffs and furloughs.
The administration has threatened criminal and administrative charges against all students involved. Given the administration's record of mendacity and bad faith, combined with the chilling effects such charges would have on student free speech, we demand that no charges of any kind be pursued.
Peaceful civil disobedience is an essential part of all movements for social justice. While it should not be the only tactic, it is particularly necessary when we are faced with an administration that refuses to engage in any meaningful dialogue with students, faculty and workers.
Rachel Fabian, graduate student, Ocean Sciences
Jesse Saba Kirchner, graduate student, Linguistics
Brian Malone, graduate student, Literature
