[Educationforall] Berkeley Students Start Hunger Strike against SB1070

[Justin Akers Chacón]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/04/BAPA1D8VI9.DTL

SFGate

UC Berkeley students begin hunger strike

Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

(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 will 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 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 and 
declaring the Berkeley campus a sanctuary that will not cooperate 
with immigration raids.

E-mail Michael Cabanatuan at mcabanatuan at sfchronicle.com.

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