To recap events in Davis, the Chancellor of the University of California at Davis held a news conference this evening at the Surge II building. Students found out about it and surged to the building, filling its cramped hallways and surrounding the building. They chanted and demanded the Chancellor resign. They linked arms all around the building, leaving a pathway open for her to leave the building if she chose.
A mediator from the among the students was sent into the building to discuss how -- or whether -- the chancellor would be leaving the building. The premise was that she would not be harmed in any way, but that she would be called on to partake of pizza with the students, be allowed to go home, and would be expected to resign.
The mediator came out after an hour or so, said that the Chancellor agreed to leave, but she wanted to be able to reach her car in peace. (The car was deemed "The People's Lexus"). There was a request that the students make way and that they sit in silence with linked arms as the Chancellor left the building.
There was consensus to do this.
A few minutes later, some of those inside the building came out. Then, after the car was moved so that it could drive away promptly, the Chancellor came out accompanied by two or three other people. When I saw her, her head was down. She looked defeated.
The students sat in absolute silence as she was driven away.
Then they chanted, "Whose University? OUR University!" for a while, then "The People United...", then there was a general agreement to hold a dance party on the campus to celebrate.
There were, at the time the video stream went down an estimate of "thousands" of students in attendance with more and more on the way.
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This is an excellent and more detailed report from someone (Lee Fang of Think Progress) on scene (I only saw the Ustream...) It includes a powerful video of the Chancellor's Walk of Shame.
http://thesecondalarm.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/ucdavis-chancellor-video/
Wow. That video of Katehi plodding the walk of shame was amazing. It was hard to tell how many students lined the way, but it looked like hordes, all completely silent in the dark. All you could hear were the plodders hard-heeled footsteps, surrounded by silence. That was electrifying. And her head downcast. And her voice beaten. Breathtaking. Thanks for linking.
ReplyDeleteThe video is going viral now.
ReplyDeleteIt is... stunning.