UC Berkeley students begin hunger strike
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UC Berkeley students begin hunger strike
Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, May 3, 2010
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(05-03) 20:04 PDT BERKELEY -- A group of UC Berkeley students started a hunger strike Monday to demand that the university oppose the new Arizona immigration law, drop disciplinary charges against protesters from the occupation of Wheeler Hall earlier this year, rehire laid off janitors and make the campus a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.
Latino groups on the Cal campus called the hunger strike at noon Monday. The strikers have set up camp in front of California Hall.
Mayra Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the Cal Latino community but not a hunger striker herself, said 20 protesters would not to eat until their demands are met. The hunger strikers were joined Monday afternoon and evening by as many as 75 supporters. Protesters and hunger strikers will camp outside the hall day and night, she said.
A dispatcher at the UC Police Department said Monday night that the rally had been peaceful and uneventful.
The group has a long list of demands, beginning with its insistence that Cal Chancellor Robert Birgeneau publicly denounce the recently enacted Arizona law that requires police to question anyone they suspect is in the country illegally. They also want Birgeneau to call on University of California President Mark Yudof, and chancellors of the other nine campuses to join in the condemnation.
"We want to make it a serious matter," Gonzalez said of the Arizona law. "This is life-threatening to our community, so (the hunger strikers) are putting their lives on the line."
Other demands include: rehiring 27 janitors laid off earlier this year because of budget cuts; dropping the disciplinary charges; rewriting the student conduct code with the participation of students; creating a task force to ensure that undocumented students are ensured the same services as other students; declaring the Berkeley campus a sanctuary that will not cooperate with immigration raids.
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