IRVINE : New Student Center Targeted in Boycott

Student activists at UC Irvine staged a boycott of the partially completed student center Thursday in an effort to show university officials that students want more power over their own affairs.

The activists say they know more about the needs of students than the administration. For example, the students say the $24.5-million building includes such unnecessary features as lavish conference rooms, boutiques and other amenities they say students don’t need.

The activists want the center and several other campus buildings to be run by an elected student board.

“The point is not to make it seem like we have power, but to give us real decision-making authority,” protest organizer Jeff Rouder said. “We’re the best judge of student life.”

The activists tried to keep fellow students from entering the building Thursday by handing out free peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and lemonade. University spokeswoman Linda Granell said the school has not received a written request concerning the issue the activists call “student empowerment.”

But Horace Mitchell, the vice chancellor of student affairs, is expected to sponsor an independent study course in which undergraduates will examine what student empowerment has meant at other universities.