Category Archives: Protests

11 students arrested after disrupting Israeli ambassador’s speech at UC Irvine

Los Angeles Times: 11 students arrested after disrupting Israeli ambassador’s speech at UC Irvine

Soon after Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren began his speech Monday night at UC Irvine, the first student rose.

“Michael Oren, propagating murder is not an expression of free speech,” the student in a gray hoodie yelled.

The remainder of his words were drowned out by an uproar of cheering and clapping from students sitting around him before he was led away by university police. It was the first of 10 interruptions throughout the speech, and by the end of the night, 11 UC Irvine and Riverside students were arrested and cited for disturbing a public event.

THE NETHERLANDS: Students protest against grant cuts

World University News: THE NETHERLANDS: Students protest against grant cuts

Dutch Education Minister Ronald Plasterk has proposed substituting the monthly student grant of EUR266 (US$367) with a loan system. More than 1,000 students protested at the move, occupying lecture halls and university buildings in Amsterdam, Nijmegen, Utrecht and Rotterdam.

U. of Sussex students start occupation to protest budget cuts

U. of Sussex students start occupation to protest budget cuts

Occupation Statement 1
We have occupied the top floor of Bramber House, University of Sussex, Brighton. There are 106 of us.

The decision to occupy has been taken after weeks of concerted campaigning during which the university management have repeatedly failed to take away the threat of compulsory redundancies and course cuts.

We recognise that an attack on education workers is an attack on us.

The room we have occupied is not a lecture theatre but a conference centre. As such, we are not disrupting the education of our fellow students; rather, we are disrupting a key part of management’s strategy to run the university as a profitable business.

They’re occupying everywhere in waves across California, New York, Greece, Croatia, Germany and Austria and elsewhere – and not only in the universities. We send greetings of solidarity and cheerful grins to all those occupation movements and everyone else fighting the pay cuts, cuts in services and jobs which will multiply everywhere as bosses and states try and pull out of the crisis.

But we are the crisis.

Profitability means nothing against the livelihoods destroyed, lost homes, austerity measures, green or otherwise. We just heard we’ve increased ‘operational costs’ – they’d set out the building for a meeting and now they’ll have to do it again

We’ll show them “operational costs.”

Occupy again and again and again.

NO CUTS ANYWHERE.

THE UNIVERSITY IS A FACTORY. STRIKE. OCCUPY.

-All the occupiers of the 8th of February.

Protest at History Meeting

Inside Higher Ed: Protest at History Meeting

SAN DIEGO — “Boycott the Hyatt. Check Out Now.” With that chant, about 200 protesters shouted their anger Saturday afternoon at the decision of the American Historical Association to have its headquarters and many sessions in the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel here.

In an unusual scene for a scholarly meeting, protesters rallied for an hour outside the hotel, and marched around it twice. While most of the rhetoric was against the hotel’s owner, the organizers carried a sign that said “What will history say about the American Historical Association.”

Gay and labor organizations in San Diego have organized a boycott of the hotel, noting that Doug Manchester, the owner of the hotel, was a major financial donor to the campaign to end gay marriage in California and that union leaders consider him hostile to organized labor. The history association, like most disciplinary associations that have large annual meetings, signs contracts with venues years in advance, in this case well before California’s gay marriage vote.

Violence and the University: An Open Letter regarding the Friday Night Events at UC Berkeley by Daniel Perlstein

From Reclamations:

Violence and the University: An Open Letter regarding the Friday Night Events at UC Berkeley

By: Daniel Perlstein

Beyond any wider implications, acts of violence necessarily diminish the university, discouraging the free exchange of ideas, which ought to be our defining characteristic. Nevertheless questions of proportion and degree matter. While all acts of violence diminish the university, differences in how and how much they do so ought to influence our responses.

With many people having little more than news reports of events at the Chancellor’s residence on which to base their impressions, I realize that my comments might seem to indicate a lack of common decency or at least an incredibly bad sense of timing, but as I will try to explain, I believe that the university administration not only set the stage for a violent turn in protests by acts which have repeatedly raised tensions and undermined belief in its good will, but actually engaged in most of the violence that has occurred.

8 Arrested After Protesters Attack Berkeley Chancellor’s House

The Chronicle: 8 Arrested After Protesters Attack Berkeley Chancellor’s House

Protesters at the University of California at Berkeley smashed windows and threw torches at the home of the chancellor, Robert J. Birgeneau, late on Friday night, marking a violent turn for student protests that have roiled campuses around the state.

A group of 40 to 75 protesters stormed the grounds of Mr. Birgeneau’s house on the campus at about 11 p.m., yelling “No justice, no peace,” police officials said

Hundreds of Venezuelan Students Protest Fatal Shooting

Fox News: Hundreds of Venezuelan Students Protest Fatal Shooting

CARACAS, Venezuela — Hundreds of university students held protests in Venezuela on Wednesday to condemn the fatal shooting of an undergraduate during a demonstration earlier this week.

Iran steps up its crackdown on student protester

Washington Post: Iran steps up its crackdown on student protesters
MILITIAMEN STORM COLLEGE
‘From now on, we will show no mercy’

TEHRAN — Iran intensified its crackdown on demonstrators Tuesday as thousands of pro-government militiamen stormed the grounds of the country’s most prominent university and assaulted students who had gathered in protest.

Protesters damage Calif. university leader’s home

AP: Protesters damage Calif. university leader’s home

BERKELEY, Calif. — Eight people were under arrest Saturday after protesters broke windows, lights and planters outside the home of the chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley.

University spokesman Dan Mogulof said 40 to 70 protesters also threw incendiary devices at police cars and the home of Chancellor Robert Birgeneau about 11 p.m. Friday. There were no fires or injuries.

The protest at the chancellor’s home came late the same day that police arrested 66 protesters at a campus classroom building that was partially taken over for four days.

Arrests End Building Takeover at San Francisco State

San Francisco Chronicle: Police break up building takeover at S.F. State

(12-10) 13:28 PST SAN FRANCISCO — Police arrested 25 protesters early Thursday at San Francisco State University, a day after students barricaded themselves inside the business school to protest fee hikes and budget cuts at California’s public universities.

Campus police in riot gear, joined by officers from throughout the California State University police system and San Francisco police, entered the business administration building at 3:15 a.m., said university spokeswoman Ellen Griffin.

Some of the officers broke windows to get inside because protesters had blocked doors, authorities said.

Police arrested 12 protesters inside the building on suspicion of trespassing, a misdemeanor, Griffin said. There may have been more people who slipped away, she said.

Vassar students sing, start hunger strike, for laid-off workers

Poughkeepsie Journal: Students sing, start hunger strike, for laid-off workers
Vassar College groups call for reinstatement

Two student groups launched protest actions today at Vassar College, aimed at getting the school to reverse planned job cuts that have or will hit 13 support workers.

One group, headlining itself as “Hungry for Justice at Vassar College,” began a hunger strike. Three students stopped eating at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, said a spokeswoman for the group, Sarah Cohen, a junior from Long Island, who said she would join them tomorrow.

Debate Rages in Greece About Right of Police to Enter University Campuses

The New York Times: Debate Rages in Greece About Right of Police to Enter University Campuses

A new wave of violent attacks against academics is sweeping campuses in Athens and Thessaloniki, leading Greek professors to question a law that bans police officers from entering university grounds.

The law exists nowhere else in Europe, but it has been sacrosanct in Greece since the fall of a military dictatorship that bloodily suppressed a student rebellion at the Athens Polytechnic in 1973 in which at least 23 people were killed.

Facing Protesting Workers, College Backs Off Layoffs

San Jose Mercury News: Evergreen College Board backs off plans to lay off workers in wake of chancellor Perez investigation

Facing about 200 angry college employees, the board of trustees of the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District backed off plans to lay off 85 workers and 21 managers, saying it would explore other strategies to fill a $3.5 million dollar budget shortfall.

Employees said their jobs should not be sacrificed in light of allegations that outgoing Chancellor Rosa Perez charged the district and its foundation for lavish perks that included overnight stays at San Jose’s luxury Fairmont Hotel, a tour of El Salvador and airfare to Scotland.

Iran opposition protesters clash with security forces

BBC: Iran opposition protesters clash with security forces

Dozens of people are reported to have been arrested across Iran after violent confrontations between security forces and anti-government demonstrators.
In the capital Tehran, police and militiamen used batons and teargas, and witnesses said there had been gunfire.
The protests, led by Iranian students, were over the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and suppression of academic freedom.

DPS teachers decry $10,000 deferment

Detroit Free Press: DPS teachers decry $10,000 deferment

Thousands of Detroit Federation of Teachers members railed Sunday against a tentative contract with the district that calls for radical changes, including deferring $10,000 from each of their pay over the next two years.

Iranian Student Protesters Clash With Police

The New York Times: Iranian Student Protesters Clash With Police

Thousands of student protesters gathered at universities in Tehran and other cities across Iran on Monday, chanting antigovernment slogans and fighting with security forces in what appeared to be the most violent street protests since the summer.

As UC Berkeley Investigates Police Brutality Against Students Protesting Fee Hikes, a Report From Inside the Takeover of Wheeler Hall

After Media Success, U. of California Protesters Look Ahead

The Chronicle: After Media Success, U. of California Protesters Look Ahead

Even in this deficit-riddled state, the sheer size of the University of California’s tuition increase last week was enough to spark a collective wave of anger and disbelief among many students, escalating protests that have been simmering throughout the system for months.

Protesters occupied buildings on four campuses to protest the higher tuition, drawing large crowds and causing hundreds of classes to be canceled. At Berkeley, a group of 40 students and their supporters barricaded themselves inside a major academic building for 11 hours, and top university officials were sent into the building as crack negotiators to end the standoff.

Berkeley to Review Police Response to Protests

The Chronicle: Berkeley to Review Police Response to Protests

The University of California at Berkeley announced on Monday that it would review police actions during a large protest on Friday, responding to accusations that the police used unnecessary force in trying to control a crowd that had gathered outside a main academic building, Wheeler Hall, to assail a 32-percent tuition increase approved last week by the Board of Regents amid widespread protests that culminated in arrests. “Any tactics to exercise crowd control on campus must provide a safe platform for expression of free speech and freedom of assembly, and we expect that, as a result of this review, modifications will be made,” the university said in a written statement.

UC Berkeley students end occupation

San Francisco Chronicle: UC Berkeley students end occupation

BERKELEY, CALIF. — Forty protesters who barricaded themselves inside Wheeler Hall for 11 hours Friday didn’t win back the 38 custodial jobs they demanded, nor did they persuade the UC regents to rescind their decision to increase tuition by 32 percent next fall.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/21/MN611ANSAB.DTL#ixzz0Xhe1j3Rm