Free Republic

Pro-Palestinian encampment protesters at dozens of universities have called for their administrations to divest from Israel. But on two campuses, activists are asking their schools to split from organizations closer to home that they say are complicit in Israeli crimes. At Drexel University in Philadelphia and the University of California, Santa Cruz, pro-Palestinian protesters have demanded their universities cut ties with, or “terminate” the presence of, the schools’ Hillel chapters. The Drexel protesters also demand that the university “Immediately terminate Drexel Chabad,” an outpost of the Hasidic outreach movement. The protesters, including some Jewish students, argue that Hillel’s Zionist stance...

I’ve argued lately that the campus free-speech crisis is escalating. The failure to punish shout-downs of visiting conservative speakers is now licensing disruptive attacks on administrators, professors in the classroom, and fellow students. Now Campus Reform reports on a shout-down, not of a visiting speaker but of a peaceful meeting of College Republicans at the University of California at Santa Cruz. The organizer of the shout-down called on Facebook for students to “reject the ‘right of assembly’ or ‘right of free speech’ for white supremacists and fascists” (i.e. College Republicans). Demonstrators then shut down a Republican meeting in progress by...

University of California Santa Cruz administrators recently agreed to meet to all four demands lodged by a black student group who commandeered a campus building and would not leave until their conditions were met. But in addition to the four initial stipulations, the group made three other demands to the university, and it has warned UC Santa Cruz that it has four months to comply with these demands or “more Reclamations” will result. After three days of occupation by students of Kerr Hall, Chancellor George Blumenthal agreed to give all black and Caribbean-identified students a 4-year housing guarantee to live...

The University of California-Santa Cruz caved to the demands of liberal student protesters who staged a sit-in at the administration building, Abby Huntsman reported. the four demands were four years of student housing for "all students from underrepresented communities" who applied to live in the Rosa Parks House, creating a lounge space in the Parks House, painting the Parks House the colors of Pan-African liberation and teaching a "mandatory educational diversity orientation" to freshmen students.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. —Six young protesters are blocking Highway 1 in Santa Cruz where the fishhook merges with Highway 17. A California Highway Patrol officer told KSBW that the protesters are University of California Santa Cruz students. They are using their bodies, trash cans filled with cement, and pipes to block southbound lanes. Students are linked together and laying down across the usually-busy highway. While holding a banner reading "Fight The Hikes," demonstrators said they are standing up against tuition hikes by the University of California system, as well as police brutality.

Students occupy UCSC academic building overnight, plan next stepsUpdated: Nov 29, 2011 2:29 PM EST By Matt de Nesnera SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- About 50 students spent the night sleeping in cubicles or on the floor of an academic building at the University of California Santa Cruz as part of a protest against rising tuition costs and university police, but they could be preparing to leave. Monday, students responded to a call from the Occupy University of California Davis movement for a strike across the 10-campus University of California system. Demonstrators prevented the roughly 100 staff members from entering the...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Education is investigating a faculty member's complaint that a series of pro-Palestinian events at a California university crossed the line into anti-Semitism and created a hostile environment for Jewish students. The department's Office for Civil Rights notified the University of California, Santa Cruz last week that it planned to look into allegations made by Hebrew lecturer Tammi Rossman-Benjamin dating back to 2001.

County retirement payouts are one more toll on budget By Kurtis Alexander 06/21/2009 SANTA CRUZ - As county leaders cut health and human services, furlough employees and reduce office hours to close a record budget shortfall, one more expense is weighing on the bottom line: hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to retirees for unused vacation and sick time. A Sentinel review of county payroll records shows during the past six months retiring employees cashed out nearly $900,000 in unused vacation, sick time and other leave. More than a third of that money went to four retirees, top managers who...

SANTA CRUZ -- More than 100 students and staff from UC Santa Cruz gathered at the foot of campus Tuesday to launch a hunger strike aimed at urging administrators to reverse course on budget cuts that opponents say disproportionately affect students of color.

SANTA CRUZ -- More than 100 students and staff from UC Santa Cruz gathered at the foot of campus Tuesday to launch a hunger strike aimed at urging administrators to reverse course on budget cuts that opponents say disproportionately affect students of color. About two dozen people, some attending the noon rally organized by the nascent Students of Color Collective, pledged not to take nourishment until a long list of demands is met. The demands include blocking cuts to the Community Studies and Latin American and Latino Studies departments, as well as hiring full-time directors for the American Indian Resource...

SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA: The FBI is investigating two bombings that targeted university scientists, the latest in a rash of attacks against biomedical researchers who experiment on animals, authorities say. Both scientists work at the University of California, Santa Cruz. One of them and his family were forced to escape from a second-story window early on Saturday when a firebomb was lit on the home's porch, Santa Cruz police said. An adult was treated at a hospital and released. Police Capt. Steve Clark called the bombing "an attempted homicide." Also that morning, a firebomb destroyed a car belonging to another researcher....

Investigators sifting the evidence of two firebombings targeting UC Santa Cruz biologists believe the potentially lethal devices are similar to ones used in the past by animal rights activists, authorities said today. The bombs were so powerful they were like "Molotov cocktails on steroids," said Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve Clark. One struck the home of assistant biology Professor David Feldheim on Saturday morning, forcing him to flee with his family. The other exploded just a few minutes earlier, gutting a car parked outside the campus home of a second researcher. Later, Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputies went to the...

SANTA CRUZ — Firebombs were intentionally set on a porch and in a car belonging to two UC Santa Cruz researchers in separate incidents early Saturday in what police have classified as acts of domestic terrorism. Police are calling one of the bombings an attempted homicide. In one incident, a faculty member's home on Village Circle off High Street was intentionally firebombed about 5:43 a.m., according to police. The residence belonged to UCSC researcher David Feldheim, a neuroscientist who works with mice. He was one of 13 researchers listed in threatening animal rights pamphlets found Tuesday in a downtown coffee...

just sent my first political contribution to the Congressional campaign of former Army Lt. Colonel Allan West, who is running on the "R" ticket in Florida House District 22 --- that's in Broward County. Colonel West is a man who has proved himself, not just in the rigors of combat, not just in leadership, not just in the technical craft of military tactics and strategy, but in the most difficult life-and-death dilemma a human being can face. He made an agonizing moral decision to save his men from a likely ambush. To do so, he shot off a pistol next...

SANTA CRUZ - A UC Santa Cruz faculty member whose biomedical research using animals sheds light on the causes of breast cancer and neurological diseases was the target of an attack Sunday afternoon, reportedly by animal rights activists. UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal confirmed late Monday that an off-campus home invasion by six masked intruders occurred at a faculty member's home. In a statement, Blumenthal called the incident "very disturbing." Santa Cruz police reported that six people wearing bandanas tried to break into a Westside home just before 1 p.m., and that one of the family members, not the faculty member,...

Santa Cruz, Calif. (AP) -- The partner of a former University of California chancellor who plunged 33 stories to her death last year has filed a lawsuit demanding part of her estate. Gretchen Kalonji, Denice Dee Denton's partner of more than 10 years, sued Denton's estate for $2.25 million in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, claiming she was mistakenly left out of Denton's will. The lawsuit, which was filed in June, asserts Kalonji and the one-time UC Santa Cruz chancellor had verbally agreed to provide for each other if one partner should die. "It's just a bunch of lies, that's...

SANTA CRUZ — Vandals struck at least six sport utility vehicles Saturday night on the Westside, slashing tires and spray-painting politically charged messages such as "Oil equals blood" and "Guzzle" on the side of the vehicles, authorities said. One of the victims, Andrea Muzzi, who lives in a house at King Street and Berkshire Avenue, said she saw a group of 30 to 40 young men on bicycles ride away after using a knife to slash the four tires on her brand-new GMC Yukon, which was parked in front of her house. The incident happened about 10:30 p.m., she said....

SAN FRANCISCO – The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California on Wednesday filed a request for information about alleged government spying during student-led protests at two universities. The Freedom of Information Act request was filed with the government on behalf of UC Santa Cruz Students Against the War and Berkeley Stop the War Coalition at the University of California, Berkeley, according to Dorothy Ehrlich, executive director of the ACLU-Northern California.

Feinstein demands Rumsfeld explain UCSC spying U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, wants an explanation about reports of Pentagon spying at UC Santa Cruz as well as other surveillance of U.S. citizens. Feinstein wrote Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in a letter dated Tuesday asking him to explain the practices and authority of the Counter Intelligence Field Activity in collecting information in the course of its domestic investigations. In December, NBS news aired a string of reports based on Pentagon documents that listed 1,500 "suspicious" activities during a 10-month period. NBC interviewed experts who said the Pentagon had overstepped its bounds...

January 18, 2004 UCSC scientist jarred by Hubble’s demise By SHANNA MCCORD Sentinel Staff Writer SANTA CRUZ — UC Santa Cruz astronomy professor Sandra Faber spent the sunny Saturday afternoon in her university office making a mad dash against time. After hearing Friday that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration would no longer be servicing the Hubble Space Telescope, Faber felt the need to make her latest proposal for using the telescope as compelling as possible. This will most likely be her last chance to apply to do research through the revolutionary spacecraft. Without additional repairs to the Hubble, scientists...