The University of California Santa Cruz has surrendered and agreed to the demands of the Afrikan Black Student Alliance (ABSA) after a three-day occupation of the publicly-funded school’s administration building.
UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) Chancellor George Blumenthal agreed to the students’ demands and made the following commitments, as quoted from the Santa Cruz Sentinel:
- 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.
On Tuesday, the Afrikan Black Student Alliance also verbally attacked Jewish students on campus yelling anti-Semitic insults and expletives at them and defacing Israeli flags.
According to the Sentinel, Santa Cruz Hillel Director Sarah Cohen Domont said, “Our students were, on three separate instances, subjected to protesters yelling, (expletives and anti-Semitic insults) and one of our Israeli flags was torn down. The ABSA called for protesters to stand in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters.”
The Sentinel reported on other controversial aspects of the students’ occupation. One example was the fact that the occupiers refused to speak to local media, and reportedly verbally harassed and threatened press for “trespassing” on property they had “reclaimed.”
The occupiers at UC Santa Cruz did grant an interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News Thursday. “We don’t speak for the white students, the Samoan students or the Korean students,” Imari Reynolds of the African Black Student Alliance told Carlson.
“Right now we speak for the African or black-Caribbean students who are struggling on this campus and need housing while they’re in the house that is meant to protect them and live as a safe space that is currently only being occupied by five black bodies.”
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