occupy wheeler

Now, nearly four months after celebrations in honor of the Free Speech Movement began, the campus finds itself at the end of a semester that has been most recently marked by protests against tuition increases and nonindictments in the Eric Garner and Michael Brown cases. In both instances, students have vocally exercised their collective right to free speech.

The Open UC, the group that has occupied Wheeler Hall for seven consecutive days to protest tuition hikes, held a general assembly meeting in Wheeler Auditorium on Tuesday evening to discuss plans over Thanksgiving break and the movement’s next steps.

Technology, they say, is both a blessing and a curse. If you’ve kept up with my blog at all — which is indeed a loose tribute to Gambino — you know that I tend to advocate distancing oneself from the pomegranate seeds of technology.

In the fifth day of an occupation that began Wednesday evening to protest tuition increases, occupiers started to bump up against shrinking numbers and the looming presence of Thanksgiving break, posing new problems and new opportunities for a largely leaderless movement.

On Friday, activists camped out in Wheeler Hall for the third day of an occupation in protest of tuition increases, deliberating the short-term future of the movement and its public image.

Fighting against tuition increases and, at times, their own exhaustion, students and community activists continued to occupy Wheeler Hall and protest throughout campus Thursday.