68 Arrested at UC Berkeley Sit-In to Protest Higher Fees, State Budget Cuts

Sixty-eight protesters who took over a UC Berkeley library to decry student fee increases and state budget cuts were arrested late Friday and early Saturday in the largest mass arrest on campus since anti-apartheid protests in 1986.

The arrests capped a 12-hour vigil that began about 12:30 p.m. Friday when 200 students marched on Moffitt Undergraduate Library. They were barred from entering by campus police, but about 120 students and residents gained access at 4:30 p.m. and staged a sit-in on the library’s main floor. There, they discussed recently approved $550 fee hikes, future protest strategies and demands for a rollback in state cuts.

Police began removing protesters at 10:30 p.m. Sixty-four students and four non-students were cited for trespassing and released.

The group chose the library as a symbol because non-students have been prohibited from using the building since last spring because of campus budget cuts, said second-year graduate student Nathan Newman, one of those arrested.

“This is the beginning of our solidarity with communities across the state,” Newman said, stressing the group’s unity with students who took over a library at the Santa Cruz campus last week.

Campus officials praised the group’s nonviolent tactics. “I think the students handled themselves very well. It’s a nonviolent protest, but I’d prefer that we didn’t have to spend our resources on protests,” said campus spokesman Jesus Mena.

The group said protests will continue.