Students angry over the UC Regents’ recent vote to raise tuition to more than $10,000 have been running throughout the Berkeley campus today, occupying Wheeler Hall, blocking the entrance to other buildings, and setting off numerous fire alarms.
Four students were arrested early this morning as they rushed into Wheeler Hall, one of the campus’ main buildings. More than 200 then took over the building.
Other students blocked the entrances to Doe and Moffitt libraries, prompting police to erect barricades and stand guard inside the buildings. The libraries closed around 12:30 pm for the day.
“The fire department is overwhelmed with alarms being set off in buildings across campus and we have no idea when they will be able to reauthorize entrance to these libraries,” a library administrator wrote to her colleagues in an e-mail.
So many people were trying to get information from the website of the Daily Californian that it shut down.
Students and protestors have been posting constant updates on Twitter, using the hashtags #ucbprotest, #ucstrike, #ucregents
Update: Both the Daily Californian and The New York Times’ Bay Area Blog are live blogging the events on campus, although the former is apt to crash. Follow @dailycal on Twitter for minute by minute updates.
