“Afrikan Black Student Alliance verbally attacked Jewish students…on three separate instances, subjected to protesters yelling, (expletives and anti-Semitic insults) and one of our Israeli flags was torn down.”

By Ryan Masters; Santa Cruz Sentinel:

SANTA CRUZ >> UC Santa Cruz has agreed to the demands of the Afrikan Black Student Alliance after a three-day occupation of Kerr Hall, the primary administration building on campus.

To loud cheers of victory, UCSC director of News and Media Relations Scott Hernandez-Jason stood before hundreds of students at Kerr Hall about 5:30 p.m. Thursday and announced that the university was committed to better serving its African, black and Caribbean-identified students.

To illustrate this, UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal agreed to the Alliance’s demands and made the following commitments:

• UCSC committed to extending up to a four-year housing guarantee to all students from underrepresented communities who applied to and live in the Rosa Parks African American Theme House.

• UCSC committed to converting the first floor lounge area of the Rosa Parks African American Theme House from housing back to a community lounge space.

• USCS committed to painting the exterior of the Rosa Parks African American Theme House in the Pan-Afrikan colors red, gold and green.

• USCS committed to delivering a mandatory “educational diversity” orientation to all incoming freshmen and transfer students.

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Cops and Courts May 3, 2017: Students occupy UC Santa Cruz building

By Santa Cruz Sentinel Staff:

About 150 students occupied Kerr Hall for a demonstration Tuesday afternoon to demand changes at UC Santa Cruz, a university spokesman said.

Activist group Afrikan/Black Student Alliance led the “reclamation” of Kerr Hall to call for four-year housing guarantee to all African, black and Caribbean students at the Rosa Parks African American Themed House, according to a memo by the group. The house is designed to offer students “themed living” with focus on historical, present and future experiences of predominately black and African-American people, according to information from the university.

The house is part of Stevenson College.

Spokesman Scott Hernandez-Jason said the students remained at Kerr Hall on Tuesday afternoon. University staff left the building shortly after the protest started, he said.

UC Santa Cruz Police Chief Nader Oweis said the demonstration started about 2 p.m. He declined to comment further.

No citations or arrests resulted from the demonstration by Tuesday afternoon, Hernandez-Jason said.

“The protest is peaceful, and our focus is on ensuring the safety of staff who work in the building and of students occupying the building,” Hernandez-Jason said. Chancellor George Blumenthal “has been working with multiple students groups, including the Afrikan/Black Student Alliance and the Black Experience Team, over the past year to explore ways to effectively address some of their concerns,” Hernandez-Jason said. “We’ve taken some steps forward, including hiring a recruitment specialist and a retention specialist, and continue to discuss how we can make sure that all students feel supported and have a sense of belonging.”

UC Santa Cruz’s Kerr Hall occupied by student group for potentially long-term ‘reclamation’

By Ryan Masters; Santa Cruz Sentinel

SANTA CRUZ >> A UC Santa Cruz student organization’s occupation of Kerr Hall continued for a second day Wednesday with no end in sight, forcing administrative staff to work in alternative buildings.

The Afrikan/Black Student Alliance described the action as a “reclamation” of the structure, which houses mostly administrative offices — including the office of Chancellor George Blumenthal — in addition to various student support services, the Information Technology Services Support Center and the Title IX offices.

Citing their distrust of the media, specifically the Sentinel, and fear of racist retaliation if their identities were revealed, members of the alliance declined to directly explain their actions and aims. The alliance also threatened to press unspecified charges against the Santa Cruz Sentinel for approaching the building to request an interview and for taking photographs of the students.

However, the alliance provided administrators a list of demands complete with reasons and justifications for those demands.

THEIR DEMANDS

Most notably, the alliance demands the university purchase an alliance-run and operated property to serve as a low-income housing cooperative for historically disadvantaged students.

The alliance cites the fact that limited and unaffordable housing options have negatively impacted African, black and Caribbean-identified students, forcing many “to take leaves of absences, withdrawals or have not been able to attend UCSC at all.”

The demands also call for four-year housing guarantees to all African, black and Caribbean-identified students at the Rosa Parks African American Theme House.

U.S. military veterans, regents scholars, international students and Smith Renaissance Society students all have four-year guarantee housing as new freshmen, according to a UCSC housing guarantee document.

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