Tear Gas Used on Protesters at UC Berkeley
A dozen students were tear-gassed and 48 arrested at UC Berkeley on Wednesday during a demonstration calling for an autonomous ethnic studies division to be established.
Fifty students occupied an administration building, blockading the chancellor’s office and preventing access for seven hours while 60 chanting students locked arms outside the building.
A dozen students were tear-gassed when university police forced their way into the building after it closed at 5 p.m., and 48 arrests were made for trespassing.
The protesters said the ethnic studies department, which includes Chicano, American Indian and Asian-American studies, is too vulnerable to budget cuts. They want the department to be made into an independent division or a “Third World College” so that it could receive more funding and enjoy more autonomy in hiring decisions.
Russ Ellis, vice chancellor for undergraduate affairs, said that budget problems afflicting the UC system make it unlikely that a new division could be established.
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