Day 1: UC Riverside hosts two days of the Board of Regents

For two days the UC Board of Regents met at UC Riverside. There are ten UC campuses statewide, and the regents make of point of rotating regular meetings across California. Within the past year the group has been the focus of protests because of increases in tuition. Protests have been so intense that at least one earlier meeting was interrupted.

The group started two days of meetings on Tuesday. There were small protests on campus, but they were organized, peaceful, and did not challenge the orders of UC police, who are charged with protecting the campuses, students and staff.

On Thursday the mood at UC Riverside had changed. Students from other campuses had launched vocal and aggressive protests. During the lunch hour they challenged police by slowly marching up the main entry to the Highlander Union Building, where the board was meeting inside.

UC police declared an unlawful assembly, and threatened arrests, however the group did not move until the meeting appeared to be ending. That’s when their goal appeared to be to disrupt the departure of the regents from their UC Riverside-based meeting.

Many of the most active protesters appeared to be from UC Davis, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. Many UC Riverside students admitted they were surprised by the commotion, and unaware that the UC Board of Regents was meeting on their campus.

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