Protests sparked by Thursday’s UC Board of Regents meeting at UC Riverside stalled proceedings for almost an hour and also later resulted in the detainment of at least three protesters.
The initial protest marked the second consecutive time that demonstrations have held up a board meeting. During the public comment portion of the Thursday meeting, which started at about 8:45 a.m., an audience of students and others expressed frustration with the regents and a perceived privatization of the University of California.
Just as the next segment of the meeting was set to begin at about 9:40 a.m., demonstrators in the room held an impromptu human mic check — a form of protest characteristic of the Occupy movement — and established a public forum.
The regents deliberated momentarily and then warned protesters that the meeting might not continue.
“If this meeting continues to be interrupted, we will not be able to continue the meeting,” said board chair Sherry Lansing.
The regents retreated to a private room shortly thereafter. Lansing officially called the meeting to order again at about 10:45 a.m. and said the student protesters had “left peacefully.”
The interruption was significant enough that the board was not able to complete all of its scheduled business, according to UC spokesperson Steve Montiel.
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience that it caused everybody,” Lansing said.
In a similar incident at November’s board meeting — held across four UC campuses via teleconference — interruptions from protests halted the meeting at three of the campuses for over a half hour.
Aside from the initial morning protest, around 350 people engaged in demonstrations in the area surrounding the Highlander Union Building, where the regents met, according to UC Riverside spokesperson Kris Lovekin.
As of about 6:30 p.m., Lovekin said three people were detained in connection with the protests. According to Lovekin, one of those protesters will be released without charges, while the other two have charges recommended against them, though she could not provide any further details.
Damian Ortellado of The Daily Californian contributed to this report.
J.D. Morris is the university news editor.
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The protesters must realize that despite their desire for the regents to meet and discuss/make changes, that they (the protesters) are in fact hindering their (the regents’) ability to do so, right?
[The irony of this is that you are thinking that Occupy is some
self-centered movement to help non-tech majors make money. Occupy is not
a profit-motivated thing bro, it's about what is fair, and about what
are stable social structures.]
And there’s your problem right there. You think it’s more important to peddle your fruitcake idealism and spin your wheels on some grand crusade the remake the world along what YOU think is “nice” or “fair” than prepare yourself to be a net contributor to the economy as a whole. If you don’t think earning money is important, fine, but don’t piss and moan because people who are smarter and more motivated than you realized the importance of having marketable skills and education while you and your silly friends wasted time on your idiotic little protests.
Good Riddance Angry Bird!!!
Despite what their overpaid and under worked Professors and their helpers are teaching their taxpayer subsidized wards, most of the cost of their education is paid by overburdened California taxpayers. If the little fellows believe the cost of their token tuition is outrageous, how do they think the taxpayers feel?
Ronald
skip the rubber bullets and just use live rounds
Once again, the Occupy idiots seek to be the center of attention.
Not sure if you get this, but that IS the point of a protest (aka “demonstration”). No one ever got heard by shutting up…
Nobody ever got taken seriously by acting like an immature spoiled child either. If you want any respect or consideration out of grownups, act like a grownup yourself.
Honestly, what makes the “occupy” protests any different from the ones anywhere else in the world in history? In most of those the non-protestors thought that the activists were “disturbing order” and acting petulantly…
Most other protests actually have had a targeted aim.
What exactly do these Occupy protesters want? They want free education, top professors, and access to any and all who want to attend the University? Remember, the demands have to actually be realistic.
I suppose it depends on how realistically you think you could close the wealth disparity in the country…there’s plenty of money in the county, it’s just not being spent on services for the people. For instance, the entire UC system’s total assets sit somewhere around $50 billion (without liabilities). The government spends ~28x this much per year on the military alone, which mostly goes to invasions of other countries, not defense (notice how most of our CG is deployed, lol). And this is with current tax rates, where a billionaire pays less percentage than pretty much anyone else!
[I suppose it depends on how realistically you think you could close the wealth disparity in the country...there's plenty of money in the county, it's just not being spent on services for the people.]
Maybe you should worry less about what other people are making, and put a bit more effort into making sure you have some combination of useful skills/education/experience so that you can command a decent wage/salary in the marketplace. There’s a reason why most of the science/engineering students don’t waste their time on this Occupy crap. They are quite aware that they will benefit far more by applying themselves to their studies than wasting time pursuing some la-la utopian dream. You really, really need to get a clue.
The irony of this is that you are thinking that Occupy is some self-centered movement to help non-tech majors make money. Occupy is not a profit-motivated thing bro, it’s about what is fair, and about what are stable social structures. It would be great if everyone could make plenty of money doing something that they love and is useful, but that’s not the way our society works: there are winners and losers. So even if you have the money in the first place to get an education, there’s not like some guarantee that you will make the $150k that you were hoping for. And obviously, you need that money in the first place. It’s like No Child Left Behind…it makes no sense rewarding more with more and less with less unless your goal is to widen the difference between the more and the less. The “motivation” philosophy has been tried for almost 130 years now and it DOESN’T WORK. There’s a continual cycle of boom and bust, and a constantly widening income gap. It’s statically and dynamically unstable.