Hundreds of outraged students across California rallied Friday after security guards found a noose hanging on the seventh floor of the library at the University of California-San Diego Thursday night.

Campus officials said that a female student had come forward to  take responsibility for the noose. The student said that she did not think it would be a big deal.

About 300 students protested throughout Friday at UCSD. Hundreds more staged a sit-in in a classroom building at UCLA to express solidarity, where they were addressed by their Chancellor and the Chair of the Afrikan Student Union.

Security guards discovered the noose days after the Black Student Union declared the campus in a racial state of emergency following an off-campus fraternity party on Feb. 15 that flaunted racial stereotypes and mocked Black History Month. Soon after the party, a student television show used racial epithets to demean those who were upset by the party and was shut down by the student government over the broadcast.

Beginning at 8 a.m. PST on Friday, students gathered near the Price Center on the UCSD campus, chanting “Real Pain, Real Action,” reading poetry, and making speeches.

“This is something that matters. This is something that affects all of us," said sophomore Sharon Seegers.

UCSD Chancellor Marye Fox publicly addressed students twice on Friday, assuring protesters that the administration is taking the incident very seriously.

But students were still dissatisfied with the pace of action and moved to occupy the Chancellors office around 1 p.m. A short video of the occupation shows students buzzing with conversation, but behaving calmly.

On Twitter, students posted that classes had been cancelled, and some demanded that the campus be shut down.

The party, billed as the “Compton Cookout,” in an email promised attendants “Dat purple drank,” and told women to come in “ghetto” fashion—“have gold teeth, start fights and drama, and wear cheap clothes.”

The student-produced Koala TV show mocked students angered by the party, and a search in the TV station for footage of the program yielded a piece of cardboard referring to the party as the “Compton lynching.” The president of the Associated Students has since suspended all student media outlets from production, print, or broadcasting—a move that the ACLU, the Center for Campus Free Speech, and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education argue is in violation of the First Amendment. 
This past Wednesday, the Black Student Union and other minority students met with the Chancellor on Wednesday and demanded a host of things to improve the racial climate on campus, including a safe space for African American students. Chancellor Fox granted several of the requests on the spot.

Thursday, 1200 students attended a faculty teach-in, with hundreds marching out halfway through to rally across the street.

During one of today’s speeches, Fox grieved through a megaphone.

"This is truly a dark day in the history of this university," she said. "It's abhorrent and untenable."

Authorities are calling the noose a crime “with intent to terrorize.”


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Video from the Chancellor’s office
Video from the protest
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