This page serves to catalog protest and picketing events that have occurred (or will occur) in Davis.
Both plainclothes law enforcement and uniformed officers were typically present at protests in the past. In April of 2011, UC Davis officials agreed to discontinue undercover monitoring of student protests. Filming any event with LEO presence now occurs as a matter of course.
2017
January 14, 2017 UCD students blocked the entrance to the Science Lecture Hall in protest of an event, set up by the Davis College Republicans, hosting the far right editor of Breitbart News Milo Yiannopoulos and Martin Shkreli, a former former pharmaceutical executive charged with securities fraud. The protests began at approximately 6:00pm, with counter-protesters arriving around the same time, and lasted around four hours until the protesters succeeded in shutting down the event. Despite some, including Yiannopoulo's, claims, the UCD PD has confirmed that there was no property damage, hammers, or broken windows. The protest was mostly peaceful, the only exceptions being the tearing down of the police barricades, a drink thrown by either the protesters or the counter protesters, a coffee spilled on a reporter's shirt, and a protester spitting in the face of a Breitbart cameraman. One arrest was made early on for trespassing. The protests polarized the Davis community and sparked debate about the aspects of free speech versus hate speech.
Protesters gather at the entrance of SCILEC in protest of Milo Yiannopoulos
2014
November 19, 2014 UCD students marched, occupied Mrak Hall, and pitched tents on the quad in protest of the proposed 25% tuition increase. The protests loosely marked the anniversary of the pepper spraying during the 2011 protests.
2011
November 16-18, 2011 OCCUPY UC DAVIS UCD students camped out on the quad overnight to protest tuition increases and exercise their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble, despite the campus' no-camping policy. Police told the protesters to pack up their tents and leave the quad at 3pm on Friday, but many students refused to leave. They formed a human chain around the tents and practiced civil disobedience. The video at the bottom of this article shows police pepper-spraying the protesters in the face. According to the article, at least 10 protesters were arrested.
See also: November 18, 2011 UC Davis Police Response to Occupy UC Davis
November 15, 2011 Hundreds of UCD students and faculty members went on strike to protest the never-ending tuition hikes, as well as the police brutality on the UC Berkeley campus. Initially meeting on the Quad, many of the protesters continued their statement by occupying Mrak Hall.
October 2011 A proposal to Occupy Davis
September 2011 One to four people have been on the Dave Pelz Bike Overpass of I-80 many mornings throughout the month, beginning September 12, holding a banner with the vague wording, "Mori Seiki hurts our community. Shame on them!" On September 27, one of them was wearing a grim reaper costume and holding a scythe.
May 25, 2011 Protesters marched to Mrak Hall in support of The Domes.
April UC Davis students and the ACLU says that campus administrators have been spying on student protesters. This Vanguard piece has further details.
March UC Davis students and employees to gather to protest against union busting
February Students protest elimination of adult health services
2010
December 5 The Railroad Fence Event was a peaceful protest against the Olive Drive Railroad Fence.
October 7 October 7, 2010 Day of Action to Defend Public Education 
August 2010 A group comprised of police officials and administrators was established to monitor protests. The group is called "Activist Response Team". There are reports of their use of undercover cops and undercover surveillance.
May UC Davis student athletes protest sports cuts with coffin procession UC Davis women's rowing team, along with the men's wrestling, swimming and diving teams will be eliminated at the end of this year.
Protest against cuts to Ethnic Studies UCD news website
May 18, 2010 Students camp out on quad in solidarity against budget cuts, privatization of public education, Arizona's immigration enforcement law and House Bill 2281 which makes teaching of ethnic studies classes illegal in Arizona's public schools and in support of campus unions and Black Family Week. UCD news website Aggie article
April 2, 2010 UC Davis students protest cuts to sports programs [Sac Bee photos UC Davis students protest cuts to sports programs]
March 4, 2010 Public Education protest. Student protesters clashed with law enforcement during the public education protest, as students marching were forcibly barred from marching onto I-80, with less-than-lethal weapons deployed and one student arrested. This was done in solidarity with communities from all over the world. 10 News photo slide
2009
November 18-20, 2009 Students converged on Mrak Hall on November 19 to protest the UC Regents approval of a 32% student fee hike that will happen over the next year. Students' reaction to the UC Regent's vote was covered by ABC News 10. As these budget cuts affect all UC students, protests have also taken place at other UC campuses. Several students were arrested at Mrak. 
Found morning of 23 November 2009 on the east side of Wellman Hall. An apparent congratulatory statement towards those that were arrested after protesting after hours inside Mrak Hall.
Additional news coverage at bottom
About 100 students protested in Dutton Hall on the afternoon of November 20. The protesters were in Dutton instead of Mrak because Mrak was on lockdown following the protests the previous night.
September 24, 2009 There were walkouts/strikes/protests on the first day of classes at UCD (September 24, 2009). 10 News coverage
February 9th, 2009 Brother Jed Smock returned and once again protested homosexuality, rock and roll and feminists among other modern evils on campus.
2008
July 14-18, 2008 UCD service workers go on strike along with service workers from the other 9 UC campuses and 5 medical centers.
February 10, 2008 Protest of Scientology. There are no branches of the Church of Scientology in Davis, but many Davisites are expected to attend protests in Sacramento and San Francisco. See the Scientology page for details.
January 28th, 2008 Brother Jed Smock protested homosexuality, rock and roll and feminists among other modern evils on campus.
2007
UCD May 1, 2007: Day of Action. International Worker's Day. 
Fight for UCD contracted-out food service workers, fight to end the U.S. war in Iraq, and to end the targeting of undocumented immigrants.
March 17, 2007
Several anti-war demonstrators were seen at "G" and 3rd Street, quietly protesting the continued American presence in Iraq. Their appearance was complete with signs, long hair, and colorful shirts. A contributor to the Wiki remembers one sign, that said, "No More War Funding". Perhaps the timing, on St. Patrick's Day, was deliberately planned for maximum audience.
January 23 2007, two person anti torture protest at the intersection of Loyola Drive and Pole Line Road
February 2007
The Church of the Divide has picketed the First Baptist Church over Freddie Oakley having decided to issue Certificates of Inequality.
2006
November 7 Preachers with Signs protested outside the MU.
October 2006 Preachers with Signs showed up on the Quad.
January 17 Preachers with Signs, doing their thing.
2005
October 2 Topic: Abortion
The Davis Life Chain was held along Russell Boulevard on Oct 2nd, 2005 with a couple scores of people holding a number of signs including ones that said "Abortion Kills Babies". They (the people including members of different Churches as well as from Students for Life at UCD) were called on to reflect on the issue of abortion and how it has affected society. They were also asked to reflect on how they can promote change and end abortion. They looked very serious. This may have been because they were praying and reflecting. On the other side of the street, a bunch of vibrant college and high school teens (mostly women) held signs that said, "Pro Women / Pro Choice" and other similar spinoffs of the message. The Davis Life Chain expressed a message of life often lacking from popular culture and the media and allowed for people to express their belief in the rights of the unborn.
May 16 More Preachers with Signs!
April 26-28 Preachers with Signs protested outside the Memorial Union.
1970
UCD students protest the Vietnam War by planting 500 white crosses on the Quad.
1946
1946
People from West Hall during the middle of the night sneak copies of a special edition of the California Aggie onto the desks of legislators at the Capitol in Sacramento. The edition details the poor conditions of buildings at the school that is now UC Davis.
Also related to Protests:
- Boycott Davis
- Davis Baby for Peace
- Davis Radical Cheerleaders
- PARK(ing) Day
- Student Organizations
- Students Organizing for Change
Additional Coverage Video from inside of Mrak Hall during protests
UC students occupy buildings to protest fee hike
UC Davis Fee Hike Protests Continue
More than 50 protesters arrested at UC Davis
Amid protests, UC OKs 32% fee hike
UC students occupy buildings to protest fee hike
Dozens of protesters arrested at UC Davis
UC regents face outcry, prepare to hike fees 32%
UC Davis protesters and administrators meet over fee hikes
Speaking in Tongues interviewed 2 students during the second half of the show
2007-11-26 19:50:43 Does anyone know which group was protesting abortion today 11/26/07 in front of Davis High School ?? —HeatherFlood
- If the group had teenagers, it might have been "Teens for Life". But then again, it could have been one of a bunch of other groups as well... - Paul Amnuaypayoat
2007-11-27 08:22:03 not sure ...there were a few that looked like either older teens or college age. Then a few senior age people. —HeatherFlood
- O, ok. I remember my last encounter with Teens for Life (around 2002 - 2003), and it was mostly teenage girls of about age 13 working with age 60ish looking older men... Was kind of an odd combination of demographics that they had in my opinion. But ya, what you described might be some other group then. Hopefully you can find what you are looking for. - Paul Amnuaypayoat
2007-11-27 20:51:03 Thee were at the UCD campus too, a few old men and alot of girls in their teens. Big signs with pictures of fetuses and comparisons to Hitler. Not the classiest group, but they were polite when I declined their lit. —AndrewPeake
2007-11-27 23:13:30 Could've been the Genocide Awareness Project. They've been known to come to Davis in the past. However, normally their protests are highly organized and planned in advance. Perhaps abortion-oriented Preachers with Signs? I seem to remember one incarnation with "Redefeat Fascism" + "I Have a Dream" of MLK's fame = Anti Abortion Activists, around and on the Day of the November 2006 Election. —MaxMikalonis
2007-11-28 10:57:19 well I guess it sounds like the Teens for life group with old men and young girls. They had signs like the Genocide group. Thanks for the info. —HeatherFlood
2009-11-22 23:05:13 anyone interested in the recent protests and occupations should take a look at this manifesto from a group out at uc santa cruz. http://wewanteverything.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/communique-from-an-absent-future/ —ashiggins
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I just read this. Sounds like a very sincere outrage, but the scope of it is really broad (let's get rid of capitalism?) without expressing any concrete ideas for what might replace the status quo. What are these guys proposing? An end to private property and markets? State ownership of the means of production? State-backed redistribution of existing assets? I couldn't see what I was being asked to do or to support except to feel a resentment that the market system doesn't provide everyone everywhere with a livelihood, and to physically block the functioning of the UC system in the hope that this would build up in a movement that would destroy the existing market system and replace it with... what? —KenjiYamada
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the purpose of this manifesto, i think, is to inspire those who already know (or have a deep nagging suspicion) that the current system is morally bankrupt and a dead end, rather than to offer concrete advice as to what should come after capitalism. in that respect, and in style, it is reminiscent of recent calls such as the coming insurrection. attempting in such a short space to address the many questions regarding a post-capitalist world would be impossible. the natural place to turn for such ideas would be the vast anarchist literature that already exists. classic texts by bakunin and kropotkin, michael albert's work on participatory economics, murray bookchin, noam chomsky, curtis white, david graeber (check out his fragments of an anarchist anthropology pdf), even naoimi klein's documentary 'the take'. much work has already been done outlining what a non-hierarchical, non-authoritarian communist society might look like, you just need to be proactive enough to explore what's out there. —ashiggins
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Blocking the function of a public system to destroy capitalism? And people wonder why things like this are never taken seriously. Who writes this stuff? This just looks like angry ranting coming from some liberal arts major who sees "the man" and capitalism in everything he or she hates. The problem we have with the UC system is something that commonly arises with a public system. Instead of trying to run the UC system more efficiently, the regents decided to ask for more money from both the state and students even though current student fees cover all the costs of an undergraduate education. They do this while increasing the salaries of administrators at the top. This is like last spring when the Post Office asked for more money from the Federal Government while asking to work less. Whenever a public system has tax dollars as an out and the people in charge of the system are left unchecked, this is what is going to happen. They don't have the same motivation as businesses do to change the way they do things for the better (although businesses too big to fail no longer need the motivation). —hankim
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You've got your history completely backwards. Fees have never covered the cost of education — not even close — and in the beginning, were only supposed to be for things like gym membership. The state has been decreasing the amount of money given the the public universities, and this has been going on for decades. Some of the money has been made up with fundraising, but again, that only goes so far. I'm not happy about admin salaries either, but that is a tiny, tiny piece of the problem. A drop in the bucket. The problem is that the state is not living up to the Master Plan for Higher Education. —CovertProfessor
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My source about fees: http://universityprobe.org/2009/04/budget-lies-a-letter-to-the-president-of-uc/ —hankim
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That's a very interesting article — thank you for sharing it. If it is correct, then there is more money going into high-ranking administration and much more flexibility in spending than ucop has said. Those points definitely need to be brought out into the open and discussed — perhaps they have and I have just missed it? But I want to comment on the part of the article that says, What you call the “funding for per-student education at UC” is a piece of accounting fraud that I have repeatedly criticized. The numbers you use to calculate that actually cover all of the costs for faculty research work throughout the academic year as well as undergraduate plus graduate educational programs. When I disaggregate that bundle of expenses, it turns out that undergraduate student fees now cover the full per-student cost for UC to provide undergraduate education. So the reduction in state funding is really a cutback in the faculty’s research program. That is a lamentable loss, but it is totally unjustified to dump that cost onto undergraduate students (and their families). None of that makes sense to me, for two reasons: 1) I am paid a salary, and that salary is for me to research, teach, and do service. My salary isn't broken down into a research component, a teaching component, and a service component. So, I don't know how one could estimate costs of research versus the other costs (perhaps he means lab costs, etc.?) 2) More importantly, what makes the UC the UC — different from the CSU — is the emphasis on research. It's what makes it an institution with a better reputation (which, among other things, improves one's chances of getting a job), and it's what makes it a good school for students who want to go onto grad school or who want to be taught by professors who are active in their fields and doing cutting edge work. So, it doesn't make sense to say that undergrads should only pay for their education. By choosing to go to a UC, they are choosing to go to a school where the professors do substantial amounts of research, and that costs money. If they want to go to a school and not pay for research, then they should not be going to the UC. (Profs in the CSU do research, too, but there is less emphasis on it). —CovertProfessor
- One thing that could make the website better is if the author posted PDFs of the sources, but I still find the site pretty reliable because the author puts his name and position on the line. Also, you probably did not hear about it because protesters prefer to be loud than informed most of the time. My guess about the salary issue is that the author divided accordingly by counting how many hours he devotes to each part of his job. Or maybe the author counted the entire salary and it was still covered by fees. I always wondered, if research is so important to the UC system, why does the university take fifty percent of all private research grants given to professors (was told this by one of my ECS professors)? —hankim
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That's a very interesting article — thank you for sharing it. If it is correct, then there is more money going into high-ranking administration and much more flexibility in spending than ucop has said. Those points definitely need to be brought out into the open and discussed — perhaps they have and I have just missed it? But I want to comment on the part of the article that says, What you call the “funding for per-student education at UC” is a piece of accounting fraud that I have repeatedly criticized. The numbers you use to calculate that actually cover all of the costs for faculty research work throughout the academic year as well as undergraduate plus graduate educational programs. When I disaggregate that bundle of expenses, it turns out that undergraduate student fees now cover the full per-student cost for UC to provide undergraduate education. So the reduction in state funding is really a cutback in the faculty’s research program. That is a lamentable loss, but it is totally unjustified to dump that cost onto undergraduate students (and their families). None of that makes sense to me, for two reasons: 1) I am paid a salary, and that salary is for me to research, teach, and do service. My salary isn't broken down into a research component, a teaching component, and a service component. So, I don't know how one could estimate costs of research versus the other costs (perhaps he means lab costs, etc.?) 2) More importantly, what makes the UC the UC — different from the CSU — is the emphasis on research. It's what makes it an institution with a better reputation (which, among other things, improves one's chances of getting a job), and it's what makes it a good school for students who want to go onto grad school or who want to be taught by professors who are active in their fields and doing cutting edge work. So, it doesn't make sense to say that undergrads should only pay for their education. By choosing to go to a UC, they are choosing to go to a school where the professors do substantial amounts of research, and that costs money. If they want to go to a school and not pay for research, then they should not be going to the UC. (Profs in the CSU do research, too, but there is less emphasis on it). —CovertProfessor
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My source about fees: http://universityprobe.org/2009/04/budget-lies-a-letter-to-the-president-of-uc/ —hankim
-
You've got your history completely backwards. Fees have never covered the cost of education — not even close — and in the beginning, were only supposed to be for things like gym membership. The state has been decreasing the amount of money given the the public universities, and this has been going on for decades. Some of the money has been made up with fundraising, but again, that only goes so far. I'm not happy about admin salaries either, but that is a tiny, tiny piece of the problem. A drop in the bucket. The problem is that the state is not living up to the Master Plan for Higher Education. —CovertProfessor
-
Blocking the function of a public system to destroy capitalism? And people wonder why things like this are never taken seriously. Who writes this stuff? This just looks like angry ranting coming from some liberal arts major who sees "the man" and capitalism in everything he or she hates. The problem we have with the UC system is something that commonly arises with a public system. Instead of trying to run the UC system more efficiently, the regents decided to ask for more money from both the state and students even though current student fees cover all the costs of an undergraduate education. They do this while increasing the salaries of administrators at the top. This is like last spring when the Post Office asked for more money from the Federal Government while asking to work less. Whenever a public system has tax dollars as an out and the people in charge of the system are left unchecked, this is what is going to happen. They don't have the same motivation as businesses do to change the way they do things for the better (although businesses too big to fail no longer need the motivation). —hankim
-
the purpose of this manifesto, i think, is to inspire those who already know (or have a deep nagging suspicion) that the current system is morally bankrupt and a dead end, rather than to offer concrete advice as to what should come after capitalism. in that respect, and in style, it is reminiscent of recent calls such as the coming insurrection. attempting in such a short space to address the many questions regarding a post-capitalist world would be impossible. the natural place to turn for such ideas would be the vast anarchist literature that already exists. classic texts by bakunin and kropotkin, michael albert's work on participatory economics, murray bookchin, noam chomsky, curtis white, david graeber (check out his fragments of an anarchist anthropology pdf), even naoimi klein's documentary 'the take'. much work has already been done outlining what a non-hierarchical, non-authoritarian communist society might look like, you just need to be proactive enough to explore what's out there. —ashiggins
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