Just a day after protesters held a mock funeral at the California State University chancellor’s office, thousands of people in the University of California system are making their voices heard through walkouts, picket lines and demonstrations.
Some of the largest protests are occurring at UC Berkeley. The Daily Californian, Berkeley’s student newspaper, reports that a crowd of 5,000 gathered on campus to protest. Students walking to and from class were discouraged by picket lines, according to the newspaper’s Live Blog of the walkouts.
Photos and video coming out of Berkeley suggest that campus had one of the largest walkouts in the system. Here’s a video by Adam Serrano from berkeleysportsblog.com:
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that 700 people showed up for a noontime rally at UCLA’s Bruin Plaza, while the Daily Bruin found ralliers on their way to the chancellor’s office.
At UC Davis,100 professors were expected to participate in walkouts.
Though the demonstrations have been contentious, they appear to be peaceful so far.
Update 7:56 p.m.: The walkouts have literally made news across the globe, with media outlets from The New York Times to Xinhua, China’s state-run newspaper, covering the story.
Turnout at the events remain unclear. The San Diego Union Tribune placed the number of students and faculty at one walkout event at UC San Diego at 200. Meanwhile KFMB, the local CBS station in San Diego, categorized the walkouts as “massive”.
The figure of 5,000 protesters at UC Berkley reported by the Daily Californian early has also been reported by the San Jose Mercury News. Here’s another video from that campus by the Bay Area News Group:
Update: 9/25/09 6:51 p.m.: It’s clear now that demonstrations at UC Berkley were by far the largest. According to an article published on TIME.com, UCLA saw about 700 protesters while 500 people participated at UC Irvine. Some more figures from the Daily Californian:
“The walkout attracted approximately 20 students at UC Merced, 75 at UC San Francisco, 200 at UC Riverside, 100 at UC Santa Barbara and 350 at UC San Diego.”
The LA Times has an interesting account from a writing professor at UC Riverside. The professor let her class vote on whether or not to take part in the walkouts. The initial vote was to stay in class, but once the professor explained that the first day would be limited to discussions about what to expect from the quarter, the students voted again. In the second vote, 22 of the 32 students voted to walkout.
There are rumblings of additional protests, including a march on the capitol, though nothing has been organized as of yet.
Last updated 9/25/09 at 6:51 p.m.