Protests Target Board of Regents

SAN FRANCISCO-Ten people were arrested yesterday morning in connection with demonstrations outside the UC Board of Regents meeting at UC San Francisco after they attempted to obstruct the entrance to the meeting.

Several of the 70 to 90 demonstrators, including some UC students, protested outside the UC San Francisco Mission Bay Community Center and used bike locks to chain their necks to the exterior doors of the building beginning as early as 6:45 a.m., according to UC spokesperson Chris Harrington.

The individuals were arrested, cited and released yesterday morning on misdemeanor charges, such as trespassing, resisting arrest and malicious mischief, Harrington said.

The individuals are also being served with seven-day temporary restraining orders that will be enforced by the campus, he said.

The demonstrators included members of the Coalition to Free the UC, a collective of student groups across five campuses including UC Berkeley who said they were pushing for the democratization of the Board of Regents and for greater accountability of the board to the general university population.

Members of the coalition, as well as other demonstrators, addressed the regents at the meeting, then proceeded to hold an alternative regents meeting outside the building to demonstrate how they said a democratized regents meeting should be run.

Among the 10 individuals arrested was UC Berkeley senior Matthew Taylor, who said he locked himself to the entrance of the meeting in order to protest the university's involvement in building nuclear weapons.

"My intention is as much as possible to obstruct the regents' ability to build nuclear weapons," Taylor said, adding that he also called for the cancellation of the campus' contract with energy giant BP, the return to their tribes of Native American remains housed at an on-campus museum and the democratization of the Board of Regents, among other things.

After multiple attempts by firefighters to remove the lock using increasingly larger tools, Taylor said he unlocked himself from the door, and was then arrested and brought into the building by UCPD.

In other cases, entire doorways were taken apart in order to remove demonstrators.

The regents will end their meeting this afternoon with discussions on security needs at the different campuses.

Tags: UC BOARD OF REGENTS, UC OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT