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Clamor Continues at UC
The student protests at the University of California that began last Wednesday over the 32 percent fee hikes and employee layoffs continued throughout the weekend and into this week, with several accounts of police brutality involving batons and rubber bullets.
41 students occupied a classroom building at UC-Berkeley for 12 hours on Friday, three of whom were arrested and charged with felony burglary. The rest were ultimately removed from the building by police, charged with trespassing, and released.
Hundreds of others gathered outside the building, chanting “Whose University? Our University!.”
Police officers from the Berkeley Police Department and around 65 officers from the Alameda Country Sheriff’s Office were sent to help contain the protest.
Protestors used Twitter hashtag “#ucbprotest” to report police brutality; others talked to reporters on the scene.
"He looked at me and said 'Get back' and I'm like 'This is our university, you can't tell us to get back,' and then he takes the baton and stabs my stomach and then he takes a gun and shoots me with a rubber bullet," said protester Adam Astan to KGO-TV San Francisco reporters.
Protester Gina Dang also talked to KGO. "I saw one girl get bashed on the head, and had a huge gash in her face and another girl who got trampled on by the police officers trying to push the barricades out on us, while we were just standing there chanting peacefully," she said.
UC Provost Larry Pitts and Intern Executive Vice Chancellor Nathan Brostrom said that UC would investigate students’ claims of police violence.
Other students still fretted over how to get the administration to listen to their concerns.
"[Administrators] are not listening and I feel like this was honestly just a really desperate attempt to make them listen to us, and even then that didn't work," said senior Hatty Lee, an ethnic studies major. "They just wanted to shut us up and go on with business as usual."
According to UCB Chancellor Robert Birgeneau about 3,800 students were unable to attend their classes in Wheeler Hall Friday because of the protest.
At UC-Santa Cruz, more than 100 students occupied two buildings from beginning Friday and into Saturday, calling for a restoration of a slashed work schedule for UCSC custodians, a freeze on layoffs, and protection for undocumented students.
As of Saturday, none of the UCSC students were arrested.
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