‘80s Etiquette Prevails as 200 Demonstrate at UCSB

About 200 well-behaved protesters spent Wednesday in the lobby of UC Santa Barbara’s administration building, a demonstration in marked contrast to the anti-Vietnam war protests 15 years ago that culminated in the burning of a Bank of America branch.

There now is a disco on the site of the burned bank. And student demonstrators in Santa Barbara now protest by singing songs and listening to anti-apartheid lectures.

When the demonstrators were warned in the afternoon by school administrators to clear a pathway in the lobby or risk arrest, they cleared the pathway.

When administrators objected to the stapling of banners on the walls, the protesters also acceded. And, in an odd protest tableau, university employees handed demonstrators masking tape, so they could affix their banners without damaging the walls.

After the building closed, university police warned the students that those who refused to leave would be cited for trespassing. The students listened, without interruption, to what Police Chief Randy Lingle had to say, and even gave him a brief ovation. About 75 students who decided to remain were cited and released. More than 100 others protested outside and prepared for an all-night vigil.

Students were well-versed on how to avoid jail. On Monday morning, student protest leaders, Lingle and the dean of students met at the university center, sipped coffee, exchanged information and chatted amiably about the upcoming protest.

The police told the students that if they had proper identification and followed police orders when arrested, they would simply be cited and not taken to jail, said Jennifer Vassos, an organizer of the protest. She called the concept “negotiated arrest” and said it was a “trend of the ‘80s”.

“We don’t want a lot of confrontation,” Vassos said. “A lot of people are saying to us: ‘Oh God, you’re trying to be just like the students of the ‘60s.’ We’re not. We’re trying to show that we’ve learned something from the ‘60s. We can be effective without being confrontational. . . . And we really don’t want to end up in jail.”