UCI Students Renew Demands : Policies: Protesters denounce the chancellor’s negative response to previous demands that gays be given access to family housing.

Two dozen UC Irvine students marched into the university’s administration building lobby Monday and demanded that Chancellor Jack W. Peltason allow gay and lesbian couples access to campus family housing.

As startled college employees and students watched, the activists chanted “Justice” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho discrimination’s got to go.” After a series of impassioned speeches comparing their cause to the Civil Rights movement, the activists went outside and built a new cardboard shantytown near one of the chief entrances to the administration building. They posted a sign saying “Shantytown, We’re Back.”

Last week, Peltason gave a written response to a list of demands made by students who built a shantytown in February that stood for 10 days.

In it, Peltason says the university will explore hiring an advocate to represent the homosexual community, but he rejects claims that gays, lesbians and those who form other non-traditional couples deserve the same status as married couples in university family housing.

The chancellor wrote that although he is personally committed to equal treatment regardless of sexual orientation, student housing policy is determined by state law and by the UC Board of Regents.

During the rally, the activists called on Peltason to look beyond the letter of the law.

“You claim to respect diversity, but as long as heterosexual students are allowed to live with their families on campus and homosexual students are not, that access is not equal,” protest organizer Judy Olson said, her voice echoing through the enclosed lobby. “Mr. Chancellor, words are not enough. Your actions place you firmly on the side of irrational and hate-filled prejudice.”

Peltason will not budge, however, UC Irvine spokeswoman Linda Granell said. “The chancellor feels he had made his response to the students,” she said.

The students say they will live at the new shantytown for a week. They also have issued Peltason an ultimatum: come back with “a written and concrete commitment to the adoption of a domestic partnership policy” within 48 hours or face an act of civil disobedience.

Meanwhile, a student who took a public stance in favor of Peltason’s actions has filed a complaint with the administration, saying she has received a dozen harassing phone calls.