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University police expect 1,000 protesters at UCLA during UC Board of Regents meeting

By Neil Paik

Nov. 12, 2009 5:23 a.m.

Police and protesters may be a common sight on the Hill next week.

The UC Board of Regents will hold its regular meeting Nov. 17-19 at UCLA. The three-day meeting, which is expected to attract crowds of protesters, will take place in Covel Commons.

University police are preparing for a larger turnout than in past years.

Lt. Maureen O’Connell said she expects at least 1,000 people to protest.

“It certainly exceeds what we see at the average regents’ meeting,” she said.

The large crowds could halt traffic on the Hill during the three days of the meeting, and O’Connell said she predicts the impact on Sunset Village residents to be substantial.

“I think it might be quite congested,” she said.

The Board of Regents regularly meets six times a year at the various UC campuses, including UCLA. This particular meeting is expected to draw a greater crowd than usual because of the regents’ vote on mid-year fee increases.

Aside from on-campus congestion, police are worried that demonstrations may trickle onto the streets of Westwood.

Currently, university police are working with several agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department, to ensure that UCLA and Westwood are adequately prepared to deal with the forthcoming protests.

Undergraduate student leaders have also planned to set up their own student monitors during the three-day period to enforce pedestrian patrol and ensure that students are able to get to their classes.

Protests are expected to be most prevalent on Nov. 18-19. On these days, the Committee on Finance and the Committee on Educational Policy will meet to discuss fee increases.

As a result, travelers from UC campuses across the state will stay in an improvised “tent city” on the night of the 18th, said Alejandra Cruz, a UCLA law student and protest organizer,

“We are interested in peaceful demonstrations that show our strength and unity,” she said. “We don’t want any arrests.”

The way protesters choose to carry out their demonstrations will determine the police activity during the three-day meeting, according to Nancy Greenstein, a university police spokeswoman.

“Our job is to ensure the safety of the regents and also to protect the campus community,” she said.

Police are urging demonstrators to avoid taking their marches into the streets, especially in the area surrounding the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where patients are constantly admitted for treatment.

These protests will not be the first for university police ““ their most recent include the Proposition 8 demonstrations that took to the streets of Westwood.

“Civil disobedience happens, and we have to deal with it,” O’Connell said. “Our concerns would be more anything that endangered human safety or damaged the property.”

However, the coalition of students organizing the protests does not plan on violating any laws. According to Cruz, the main concern is getting their message across without being silenced.

“We want to work with police as much as possible to ensure that our demonstrations don’t lead to any problems,” she said.

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Neil Paik
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