Seventeen UC Irvine activists were arrested after carrying out an impassioned sit-in outside the school chancellor's office this morning.
According to a report in the Orange County Register, the activists were demonstrating in protest of the dissolution of contract talks between the school and the UC system's janitorial union. The school wants to perform citizenship checks on its workers, potentially endangering their standing at the university and in the country.
The protesters were demonstrating against myriad issues plaguing the UC system, including proposed massive tuition hikes and the system's lukewarm response to a racist television segment produced by UC San Diego student media last week.
The Daily Pilot has more on the scene outside the chancellor's office:
With University of California, Irvine, and Newport Beach police stationed at either end of Aldrich Hall's narrow corridors on the fifth floor, 14 students and three custodial workers sat outside Chancellor Michael Drake's office. They raucously chanted and pounded their fists on the walls until they were taken away in handcuffs.
Among protester chants of "No racist police! no sexist police! UC Regents, UC racists," and "Whose university? Our university!" police decided to put the demonstration to an end.
As of this afternoon, the arrested were being released. A full list of the protesters' demands can be found here.