Priceless? Well No, Actually: Campus Occupations Could Cost UC Hundreds of Thousands

It's a clever advertisement. Communications students at UCSD are pulling the heartstrings with this mock-Master Card ad featuring a young student eating Cup O Noodles for dinner. But it's been the campus occupations that've generated the most media attention, and the childish protesters may end up costing the university system hundreds of thousand of dollars in damages. See, "UCSC Demonstrators Say They're Not done; Damage From Kerr Hall Occupation Tops $50K":

As campus officials continue to clean up the mess left behind by the three-day occupation of Kerr Hall at UC Santa Cruz, student organizers are rallying support and planning their next move.

Protesters have said university officials have been too quick to criminalize their actions and that the focus on the damage, not the students' message, is disappointing.

Early damage estimates top $50,000, but no one has been arrested or otherwise sanctioned for the demonstration, UCSC spokesman Barry Shiller said Tuesday.

The university has posted pictures as well, "Re: Kerr Hall Protest ends; Cleanup May take Days."

Students destroyed tables and telephone conferencing systems, and refrigerators were used to barricade the doors. It looks like a disaster area. Obviously, students demonstrated absolutely no concern for school property during the "occupation," an action of course designed to extort even more resources from a public the students clearly disdain. It's shameful.

And we're not just talking about UC Santa Cruz, ultimately. No doubt cleanup and replacement costs will be even higher at Berkeley and UCLA, and remember law enforcement units came from the Highway Patrol in Los Angeles, and the Oakland P.D. in Berkeley. It all costs money. The student shakedown artists conveniently left those details out of their unlimited list of demands.

And the response of some advocates of direct action is for students to clean up after themselves? Too bad we don't have someone like Ronald Reagan in office.

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