Posted on 05/12/2010 9:26:51 PM PDT by SmithL
BERKELEY — UC Berkeley protesters ended a 10-day hunger strike Wednesday with a ceremonial meal of corn on the cob.
The mostly Latino group of 18 students and workers went on strike in front of the administration building May 3 demanding school Chancellor Robert Birgeneau denounce Arizona's new law that allows police to question the immigration status of anyone they stop for other crimes. They also had a host of other demands.
Birgeneau denounced the new law, but stopped short of the other demands until the strikers met with him Wednesday.
During the strike four students had to be hospitalized after days without food.
Strikers also wanted administrators to drop charges against students disciplined in last fall's campus-wide demonstrations, declare the Berkeley campus a sanctuary for undocumented people, stop cuts to low wage workers on campus, suspend the student code of conduct and commit to nonviolence during student protests.
During a two-hour meeting with students Wednesday that the chancellor agreed to only if the hunger strike ended, Birgeneau committed to forming a task force to explore concerns of undocumented students and workers, said University spokeswoman Claire Holmes.
He also agreed to "look at the student code of conduct and the disciplinary process and would consider community service as an option to suspension," Holmes said.
Holmes did not know how many students are facing suspension following last fall's protests over tuition increases that included occupations and vandalism of two campus buildings.
Earlier in the week Birgeneau talked to the strikers by telephone, but said any more meetings would have to take place after the students started eating.
"Next semester we have to take this to a UC-wide level," Horacio Corona told a crowd of about 200 outside the meeting Wednesday. "This guy kept us out here 10 days."
The strike, however, was not as peaceful as Wednesday's ending.
On Monday police tried to remove protesters, but they resisted and stayed. Police instead took away their belongings including sleeping bags, tarps and tables. Later that day, the crowd swelled and protesters surrounded the administration building blocking entrances. A smaller group of 50 to 70 protesters marched to the chancellor's home on campus, with police from several surrounding jurisdictions standing by in riot gear.
No arrests were made.
Corn on the Cob huh? Isn’t that some kind of freaky, macho, phallic symbol thing?
If UC Berkeley becomes a “sanctuary for undocumented people” I say we should all pack and move into student housing immediately. Thousands of us.
...Ate the corn...and *then* made a bee line for the nearest dollar menu drive-thru windows.
The lunatics are truly running the asylum now. A nation of self-indulgent and indulged puerile spoiled brats who don’t know their ass from their elbows about the real world.
Why the heck are the California protesters at Berkley being rewarded by California taxpayers by hospitalization afterward (unless they’re rich, trust-fund babies) or to continue to foot their tuition (I’m guessing they’re on scholarship on top of it all).
I guess Arizona wins
Really? I'm shocked, I tell you! Shocked! /Claude Raines
"Strikers also wanted administrators to drop charges against students disciplined in last fall's campus-wide demonstrations"
i.e. make it okay to act like a thug on campus.
"stop cuts to low wage workers on campus"
Wave your magic wand and make the university budget deficit go away!
"suspend the student code of conduct and commit to nonviolence during student protests."
Don't you dare touch a hair on our pretty little heads when we vandalize, trespass, and harangue others!
During a two-hour meeting with students Wednesday that the chancellor agreed to only if the hunger strike ended, Birgeneau committed to forming a task force to explore concerns of undocumented students and workers, said University spokeswoman Claire Holmes.
A true hide-bound bureaurcrat's decision. Pfeh.
By the way, what's symbolic about eating corn on the cob? I musta been awfully symbolic growing up in the midwest. I had corn on the cob with nearly every meal during the summer (we grew our own, along with tomatoes, strawberries and string beans).
I can’t believe the Chancellor met with these losers. Is there no dignity left in the world?
I personally would have let them starve; though I seriously doubt they really observed a fast for that long.
California’s liberal platform has killed the state. Those with money haven’t the will to give it back. They will leave. Liberals do not have the capacity to understand their politics. The Brady Bunch has left home.
I still remember in the early 70s when the sainted Ceasar Chavez was shown on the news emerging from a hospital during one of his alleged hunger strikes. He was as fat fat fat as fat could be, my guess being that he actually gained wt during the strike.
I can’t wait until nation wide tax strikes hit this country, and we all can stop paying for places like Berkley to support these idiots before they get government jobs.
That will be the next step. Let’s solve all of these liberal state tax policies by instituting a nation vat? All of those conservative states can go to hell!
They should for the cause. /s
“...a ceremonial meal of corn on the cob.”
They call it maize.
Personally, I would have had some prime rib right in front of them on day four just for fun.
I guess they got hungry.
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