35 Marchers Briefly Occupy UC Irvine Office

IRVINE —  About 35 UC Irvine and UC Berkeley students marched through the UC Irvine administration building Monday and briefly occupied the school’s admissions office, leaving after a university official accepted a list of the protesters’ demands about affirmative action.

The peaceful rally, led by the nine Berkeley students, began at noon and ended a little more than an hour later, when UC Irvine Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez met with the students in the admissions office and accepted a flyer announcing the students’ intention to “build a mass movement to defend affirmative action.” An additional 100 UC Irvine students gathered outside to show their support.

The protesters said they were supporting five hunger strikers who were arrested by campus police Sunday for disobeying an order to dismantle a tent encampment in front of the UC Irvine administration building. The hunger strikers--four Irvine students and one from the Claremont Colleges--were cited Sunday on misdemeanor charges of failing to obey a police order and were released from Orange County Jail.

The hunger strikers said Monday that they are continuing their fast to protest the UC Board of Regents’ decision in July to abolish affirmative action policies for the 162,000-student system. The strikers are heading to Sacramento today in an attempt to meet with Gov. Pete Wilson and members of the Board of Regents.

“A hunger strike of five people on its own is insufficient to force these bureaucrats into doing anything,” said Lee Felarca, 24, who came down from Berkeley with eight other students to help organize Monday’s rally. “A lot is required to get more people involved, and today’s protest is just the first step to show the [hunger] strikers that they are not alone.”