Font ResizeSANTA CRUZ — The 70 UC Santa Cruz students who locked themselves inside Kerr Hall for three days left a "huge mess" and will face possible criminal or campus sanctions, a campus spokesman said Sunday night.
The barricaded students were removed from the administration building early Sunday by 70 law enforcement officers, including UC Santa Cruz police and officers from the Santa Cruz Police Department and the county Sheriff's Office.
The students' voluntary departure followed a demand by police that they immediately vacate or be arrested for unlawful assembly and trespass.
Damage to the building, particularly the second floor, involved trash and food left behind as well as electronic conference equipment ripped from tables, campus spokesman Jim Burns said Sunday. He estimated repairs and cleanup will cost "thousands of dollars."
"It's completely understandable that students, their parents and others are deeply concerned about fee hikes," Burns said. "But, it's difficult for us to understand why people protest in a manner that requires us to spend money on nonessential activities. This money will come from budgets already strained by budget cuts."
All areas of Kerr Hall, except the second floor, are expected to reopen Tuesday, Burns said.
Burns said campus officials know some of the protesters and will be working to identify others, many of whom tried to disguise themselves, wearing bandannas to cover their
"We're treating this as an investigation into who's responsible," Burns said.
The student takeover of Kerr Hall began Thursday in opposition to a 32 percent fee increase, employee furloughs and other budget cuts approved by the UB Board of Regents.
Campus officials on Friday warned the protesting students of possible arrests but continued to negotiate with the activists and faculty advocates until Saturday night, when both sides say talks broke down.
The students locked themselves inside Kerr Hall, using cables and office equipment to bar the doors.
Kerr Hall faculty were forced to work from home or other offices when the students arrived.
Police in riot gear arrived at 7 a.m. Sunday to remove the students.
After the protesters refused to heed an order from police to evacuate the building, officers moved in with batons to force protesters out, according to several people at the scene. No one was struck, according to Burns.
Anthropology professor Mark Anderson received minor injuries when he fell from a second-floor railing. Anderson, who was among several faculty members on site to observe the showdown, was caught in the crush on the deck and fell several feet to the ground, graduate student Don Kingsbury said.
Kingsbury said officers shoved other students who had amassed on a second-floor deck outside an entrance stairwell.
Burns said Sunday night he could not verify the level of force used to remove students or the details surrounding Anderson's fall. But he said the decision to remove students came after days of repeated warnings to the students that they were unlawfully occupying the building.
