By Khalida Sarwari
A student services building at the University of California at Santa Cruz reopened today following the end of an overnight occupation by protesters earlier this week.
The protest at the Hahn Student Services Building ended at about noon on Tuesday, UCSC spokesman Jim Burns said.
Nearly three-dozen protesters entered the building on Monday and stayed overnight. There were no arrests, Burns said.
Bryan Mathewson, a freshman at the university, said campus police officers were monitoring the building, but “they were really cooperative.”
Prior to the occupation, students surrounded and shut down all of the building’s entrances on Monday morning as part of a demonstration against rising tuition costs and in solidarity with student protesters at UC Berkeley and UC Davis, Mathewson said.
On Nov. 9, “Occupy Cal” protesters at UC Berkeley were met with an aggressive response from UC Berkeley police, and on Nov. 18, UC Davis police pepper-sprayed demonstrators who were sitting on the ground.
Mathewson said the UCSC students were demanding the resignation of UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, the removal or disarmament of the police departments at all UC campuses, and the rollback of tuition increases.
The Hahn building, which contains offices that provide services including financial aid help and student housing assistance, was closed on Monday and Tuesday and was reopened this morning.
