Students organized on Thursday against the UC Regents’ decision to increase fees 32 percent. After marching through campus, the demonstrators attempted a sit-in at Mrak Hall.
Roughly 200 supporters stood outside chanting and holding signs behind a wall of police officers in riot gear. Fifty-two protestors were arrested on suspicion of trespassing and taken to the Monroe Detention Center in Woodland.
Many of the same students and faculty marched though the rain on Friday to attend a conference with UC Davis administrators. A group of about 100 gathered at Dutton Hall on Friday evening but made a collective decision to leave peacefully after police arrived.
After leaving Dutton, a small group of student protestors sought Chancellor Linda Katehi at the Mondavi Center and asked her to take a stance against the fee increases.
“I understand the anxiety that higher fees are causing and the uncertainty our students are feeling about their own and their families’ futures,” she said in response to the encounter. “I hope students will … learn more about our budget circumstance and about how we can most effectively work together to help restore essential state funding.”
Student activists are meeting today to plan their next steps. The Student Assistants to the Chancellor will host a dialogue with Katehi at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 30 in the ARC Ballroom.
Photos by Liam O’Donnell, Deeba Yavrom and Evan Davis. All rights reserved.
