Charges Dropped in Vigil at Campus Fence

The San Diego city attorney’s office said Wednesday that charges won’t be filed against eight San Diego State University students who were arrested May 22 while guarding a construction fence adorned with protest artwork and graffiti.

City police had arrested the students on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing the operation of a public university during the first night of a round-the-clock vigil to protect the wall from being painted over on orders from the university administration.

“The way we read the case is that there has to be some active disruption, violence or disturbance, not just their presence, for that section (of the Penal Code) to apply,” said Chief Deputy City Atty. Susan Heath.

“We didn’t think that it rose to the level of a criminal activity,” Heath said.

Students began guarding the wall in May after university president Thomas Day threatened to have it painted over. The wall, a plywood fence surrounding a construction site on campus, had been covered with artwork and graffiti during student rallies that began last April in protest of proposed budget cuts at the university.

Day found the artwork on the 450-foot wall offensive and wanted it removed before commencement ceremonies. Day and the students eventually reached a compromise under which most of the wall was whitewashed and students were allowed to paint the fence again, with Day reserving the right to censor the art.

Students felt that their actions were protected by the free speech provisions of the First Amendment.

Betty Wheeler, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s local chapter, which took up the case, said Wednesday that “the students were not engaging in any kind of violent conduct or disrupting a school function, and their presence and their conduct did not support a prosecution.”

“Obviously it was a symbolic speech effort to save the wall and protest budget cuts, but they were doing it in a lawful manner,” Wheeler said.

Students said the protest is part of a growing activism among students sprouting from dissatisfaction with Day.

“We were basically trying to stop the censorship and keep what we considered to be political statements, keep them up and make them available for everyone to see,” said Celeste Drake, a graduate student who had been arrested.

But Day views last spring’s protests as reactions to budget cuts, and not a part of a rising tide of student activism.

“I think it’s a particular incident which was tied to the fact that the students were told that they were facing a 20% fee increase while facing a 10% cut in services,” said Day, who had not yet been informed of the city attorney’s decision not to press charges.

Day said students at other Cal State and University of California campuses are also protesting budget cuts.

Some SDSU students, however, say the protests are more specific to the San Diego campus and its administration.

“The students feel that there is a lot of mismanagement on the campus, and there are questions about how the budget cuts were done,” said Markes Rodgers, another student who was arrested.

Rodgers said future protests will call for the removal of Day.

“If the administration thinks that this is just going to blow over, they are sadly mistaken,” Rodgers said.

The eight students arrested in the May incident still face university discipline in connection with the incident. Four of the students have accepted one-year probation for disrupting educational services and misuse of campus property, while the other four have opted to face an administrative hearing on the same issues. They could be expelled, Drake said.