The UC Activist Defense Committee, along with a large network of supporters, rallied at Kerr Hall on May 24th to defend Alette Kendrick, protect free speech and fight the institutionalized racism that is the University of California. The speak out featured the impassioned voices of History Professor Dana Frank, History of Consciousness graduate student Greg Caldwell and Angela Davis, the most famous professor at UC Santa Cruz.
A highlight of the rally was getting “King George” Blumenthal, the “Acting Chancellor at UCSC” to descend from his castle and state over the bullhorn that, “fair or unfair,” UCSC has a judicial system. Students called Blumenthal out about one hypocrisy after the next, such as his statements that he can not comment on Alette’s case. On October 20th, 2006, he and David S. Kliger, the Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, sent an email to the entire campus community which condemned students using unsubstantiated claims and supported the actions of the police on October 18th, 2006.
The May 24th, 2007 rally to defend Alette was an impressive demonstration supported by students of color, UCSC’s Queer Network, anti-war and labor solidarity activists, AFSCME workers, graduate students, alumni and social justice activists from UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara. The UC Activist Defense Committee plans to kick Alette’s defense campaign into high gear with ongoing actions to defend Alette, fire Blumenthal and fight for social justice within the University of California. Read More and View Photos
On May 17th, graduate students, who are also teaching assistants at UC Santa Cruz, held a rally and sick-in, along with other employees, to let the University of California know that we are sick of attacks on our health care. Hours after the demonstration at Kerr Hall, Lisa Sloan, Dean of Graduate Studies, announced that next year’s Graduate Student Health Insurance Plan (GSHIP) will maintain the current level of coverage. This victory was achieved in combination with an email campaign to UCSC’s Executive Vice Chancellor (EVC) David Kliger and other efforts backed by UAW Members for Quality Education and Democracy (UAW-QUAD) at UCSC. 
On May 16th, students at UC Santa Cruz were in the Baytree Plaza to spread information about the University of California’s Board of Regents and their ties to the management of the Los Alamos and Livermore nuclear laboratories. Ashley and Tosh are two undergraduate students at UCSC that are part of the 44 University of California students on a hunger strike to demand that the UC Board of Regents sever their ties to the the laboratories which are producing new nuclear weapons. 
The Student/Farmworker Alliance announced that May 11th and 12th would be 
Palestine Awareness Week is taking place at UC Santa Cruz from May 7th through May 10th and began with a Check Point established in the Baytree Plaza. Five Palestinians were being detained for no apparent reason while two Israeli soldiers mentally and physically abused the detainees and prevented them from leaving the prison cell. One Palestinian women plead over and over to be released because she was pregnant and worried should would lose her baby. Unsympathetically, the solider told her to keep quite and replied that he was also pregnant. The two Israeli soldiers communicated to each other in Hebrew while speaking English with Hebrew accents to the blindfolded, handcuffed and detained Palestinians. 
