Belated Report from March 1st

Across the state, students at all levels of higher education participated in a large and sustained series of actions to demand better quality of education, lower fees, and less administrative and police supervision on their respective campuses.

Here are some excerpts of what happened:

UCSD:

A somewhat successful Virtual Sit-In was implemented at three different websites including bankofamerica.com, universityofcalifornia.edu, and jerrybrown.org before it was shut down by one of the hosts at godaddy.com. The Virtual Sit-In was re-implemented again on that day through other hosts.

Also at UCSD, the Chancellor's Complex of the UCSD Administration was reclaimed by a large group of students, workers, and faculty. They still remain there after having exercised a list of demands and a statement of intentions in which they indicate to the administration that they are invited to participate in an open and democratic assembly inside the complex with the reclaiming students.

UCSD Reclamation of the Chancellor's Complex (03/01/2012)

CSULA:

A large group of students at the Cal State University of Los Angeles dedicated the National day of action to protest the unfair practices of their university bookstore and the administrators. After gathering for a rally outside, the group entered the bookstore building to continue their protest inside. A Teach-In followed.

Rally at Cal State University Los Angeles (03/01/2012)

Teach-In at Cal State University Los Angeles (03/01/2012)

UCI:

Over in the heart of darkness Orange County, a group of students, workers, and faculty gathered on the campus of the University of California, Irvine to have a rally in which a series of student speakers and from local worker unions discussed the latest threats to public education and the history of activism at the local campus.

This rally was then followed by a series of workshops and roundtable discussions in which some faculty representing the "Needs Attention" group discussed with the public some of the concerns afflicting the campus.

(Curiously enough, one of items in the discussion addressed the need for faculty and student action groups to have accesses to university-wide student e-mail lists to make invitations to student town hall meetings. This access they claimed, had been petitioned for in the past and subsequently denied by the UCI administration. The irony is that over at UCSD, an ex-president of ASUCSD and ex-student of UCSD was able to e-mail the entire undergraduate population in order to rally it to vote for a referendum to RAISE FEES in favor of the Athletics department of that institution).

Roundtable discussion with faculty regarding the "Needs Attention" memo at UC Irvine. (03/01/2012)

UCB:

At UC Berkeley, students defied the weather and held a rally in the rain. This initiated what has become known as the 99 Mile March to the Capitol which aims to gather at Sacramento on March 5th, 2012 for a large rally and day of actions.

Protesters gather in the rain at UC Berkeley previous to the 99 Mile March to Sacramento. (03/01/2012)

Banner @ UCB. (03/01/2012)

UCSC:

At Banana-Slug-land, Santa Cruz, the protesters gathered from very early in the morning to enforce a blockade of the streets leading to the university. With chants of "Whose Streets, Our Streets", the protesters managed to shutdown the university. There were reports of minor injuries from an attempt by a motorist to make his way through the line of student protesters.

Later in the day these protesters were met by some from Berkeley to continue the 99 Mile March to the capitol.

Students block traffic at UCSC. (03/01/2012).