Students and faculty at UC Berkeley held another round of demonstrations against budget cuts by holding a teach-in and a study-in focused on the damage funding reductions would do to the library system. Students have already seen a reaction to the study-in from the University administration, which restored reduced library hours after students refused to leave the Anthropology Library for 24-hours.

Almost 60 people attended the teach-in at the Education Psychology Library October 16th, calling for an end to the “growing privatization” of the university.

Teach-in participant Marika Iver said, “We have learned one major lesson from this last week and that is that this administration responds to action."

The teach-in continued even after the restoration of library hours was announced. Andi Walden, a Middle Eastern studies and political science double major said, “This is bigger than just libraries. Our intent all along has been to open up public spaces, this is one expression of that."

Next week, a statewide mobilizing conference will take place at UC Berkeley. Teach-in participant Matt Marks said its purpose will be to determine the course of future actions within public education.

"The main objective is to facilitate space to come together, discuss our unique experiences and figure out intersections and come together at those intersections in order to form a cohesive powerful movement that really has a chance at achieving something," Marks said.


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