Pinoy student at UC Berkeley released after campus standoff

A Filipino doctorate student at the Rhetoric Department of the University of California in Berkeley heaved a sigh of relief when he and 40 other students were recently released by County police after their involvement on a recent standoff at the campus.

Paul Nadal on Friday joined fellow students protesting UC's privatization and the approval of a 32-percent tuition increase across the university system starting next year. Nadal said their group and some UC staffers started to occupy the Wheeler Hall building at 4:30 a.m., Friday. “We were in the building by 11 p.m., but waiting until later in the morning to lock it. There were 60 of us, graduate and undergraduate students, against the privatization of the U.C. and yesterday’s (Thursday) vote of increasing student fees by 32 percent," Nadal told this reporter on Saturday. The protesters demanded that they be given full amnesty, according to Nadal. They also called for the rehiring of 38 custodians who had been recently laid off due to the privatization. The protesters' demands also included “fair contracts for the Bears Lair" employees and the renewal of the Rochdale Building lease that houses minority and low-income students on campus. Nadal said the protesters had to keep the doors closed as they fund no other effective means for the university administrator and other authorities to be forced to negotiate with the students. “We have secured the second floors, with all doors blocked inside. They have attempted to break in, but have not been able to," said Nadal. During the 16-hour standoff, hundreds of students and campus staffers lined up outside the Wheeler Hall to show their support for the protesters. “Police have been violent, and have threatened to ‘beat us down,’ but the student crowd and supporters have surrounded the building and gathered together to ensure that violence is not inflicted on us and that peaceful protest remains," said Nadal. Tensions rose and continued to build up in the afternoon as three people were arrested during the protest. Witnesses saw students struck by police with batons during a confrontation. At 8:20 p.m., the standoff ended peacefully. The students were released including Nadal after authorities charged them with trespassing. But the fight is not over yet, according to Nadal. He said the students, faculty members, and campus staff would continue to gather and voice out their demands for a freer education system in California. - ARCS, GMANews.TV