UCI Students Take the Streets! (WB V. IV)

The Weekly Beast Volume IV (was meant to appear in the Lariat edition 3/10/10, however due to space limitations it did not)


To many students and faculty at the University of California Irvine the events of March 4 were a complete surprise. A group of over 600 people made up of students, workers, union members, professors, political activists, and the occasional passerby marched through the UCI campus. They were armed with voices, with drums, with picket signs, with posters, and discontent. The marches we're not strictly limited to college campuses some made their way from uptown to downtown, and some such as the Los Angeles Unified School District were teacher-led strikes. March 4 was a day chosen months ago in October as a "day of action" by multiple campus student groups, and adjacent political activist groups in a large general assembly held at UC Berkeley. Over 29 other states alongside California planned to make March 4 memorable.

The aim of this action, as acknowledged by all the groups that formed the student coalition in Irvine was to draw attention to and voice anger about the UC Regent's decision to raise tuition a devastating 32%. Raul Perez a UCI Sociology graduate student stated some the reasons why students were marching, “this is a crisis and it’s not going away, there are real structural problems with the UC system and capitalism, these conditions force people into action.” On top of the increase there have been state-wide furlough days which essentially amounts to professors taking pay cuts in their salaries. Eric a current grad student at UCI majoring in Visual Studies summarized the days events positively saying, “this is a real testimony to the fact that students are interested in change-groups are coming together in recognizing the need for public education as a public good.”

The first hundred or so student activists gathered at the flagpoles in front of the administration building at UC Irvine. Many students were weary that this would be the only people to protest in Irvine that day. 40 minutes later however the plaza was teaming with over 300 students. They marched throughout the entire looping campus. Aldrich Hall, the science department, the Langston Library, dormitories, study and lecture halls across campus all heard numerous chants throughout the day. "They say 'cut back' we say 'fight back!'" was a phrase that filled the air that day. Students and workers took to the streets around 2 PM.

They poured into both Campus Drive and the connecting bridge overhead. Traffic on both sides were forced to a halt due to all the people in the street. The crowd urged bystanders to join them in the street in support of their education. The protest moved up the street seemingly ignoring both sidewalks and principally marching down the six lanes of traffic on both sides of the street. Traffic was at a standstill on Campus Dr. for over 15 minutes. Three policemen zoomed ahead of the crowd on motorcycles in an effort to control the crowd. Sylvia Pham a senior at UCI studying Biology was concerned with people’s initial perception of the marches and protests, “people confuse law and order with justice, the law protects the rich, intimidates us and legitimizes oppressors. The general public needs to recognize we’re not disrupting peace our lives are being disrupted.”

The duration of the street march lasted for 40 minutes before it came back onto campus grounds. An unidentified student managed to quiet down the entire crowd with hand signals. He declared, “let’s take a building.” The crowd cheered and yelled as they marched back onto the campus. As they were making their way back to the front of the administration building roughly half the the crowd collectivley decided to storm a lecture hall and urge their fellow students to join the walk-out and fight their education. The instructor ceased her lecture, and even seemed welcoming to the actions. Some demonstrators broke away from the main shouting line, grabbed chalk, and wrote “walk out” on the board. An attempt to occupy one of UCI’s study halls was next on the agenda, and again the crowd split into two one shouting and making declarations in the study hall the other half pouring outside it’s doors and urging student to join the cause as they walk to and from class.

The march reached it’s final resting place at approximately 4:00PM. The administration building had it’s doors pounded on with dozens of fists. Multiple students yelled into the bullhorn, “you’re cowards!” and “why are you hiding?” The answer was indicated much earlier. The administration in an unprecedented move had closed their doors to general public in the early morning declaring themselves “closed for the day.” After a failed attempt to get a reaction from the administration the crowd gathered at the grassy area facing the locked-down building. They held an impromptu assembly where people could grab the bullhorn and make statements about the day’s actions and future plans for the student movement. Speeches and polemics were made, and calls for further actions pierced the quiet breeze.