Students occupying Sacramento Hall were asked to leave the building or face arrest by Sacramento State police and San Francisco State police in riot gear during a sleep-in early Saturday morning.

Students were protesting the priorities of the California State University administration, budget cuts and fee hikes.

They were asked to leave at 3:24 a.m.

There was a total of 40 students from Sac State, San Jose State, Humboldt State, University of San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis and UC Berkeley. Twenty students participated in the sleep-in on Friday night.

Mildred Garcia Gomez, junior social work major, said she went to Wednesday’s rally “Day of Action Walkout” for a government class to get political community service hours and found herself sleeping-in on Friday.

Thirty minutes past midnight, there were about 20 students sleeping when five police officers came in. They walked around the building and told students to have a good night. Unlike the first day of the sleep-in, the police began restricting entry into the building Thursday. No one could re-enter the building, and food and supplies were not allowed in, said student organizer Amanda Mooers, senior sociology major.

The doors were unlocked by 15 police officers in riot gear with zip ties in their pockets, Gomez said.

Yeimi Lopez, intercultural and international communications major and police liaison, asked the police why they were unlocking the doors and they told her she would be receiving a call.

Next, the police told the students if they did not leave in five minutes they would be arrested. Students got to work putting their stuff together, cleaned their space, picked up trash and took down their posters, Gomez said.

Students at the sleep-in said the police videotaped the incident in case students acted violently. Students responded by taking photographs and recording the police as they came down the stairs from the upper floor in the building.

“I felt like this was a victory because all we wanted was the leadership of President (Alexander) Gonzalez,” Gomez said. “Instead of being a leader, he sent out a SWAT team.”

Students strategically planned and decided they would leave if threatened with force, Lopez said.

“It’s a victory because it’s only the beginning. Their concern was student safety, but then they turn around with force,” Lopez said.

Kim Nava, Sac State spokeswoman, said the police’s riot gear was standard for their own safety.

The university’s concern was for the students’ health and safety since there was no heating or ventilation and the building would be locked all weekend.

“Three days was not a healthy environment,” Nava said. 

Students formed solidarity during the sleep-in and sit-in, which followed the Wednesday’s “Day of Class Action Walkout.” The momentum of the student movement was felt by students, faculty and staff who have been working closely to make their discontent heard.

Faculty members brought in their classes for teach-ins. An art professor donated art supplies and poster paper for students, faculty and staff to make a banner to hang on the stairs. Children from the Children’s Center decorated a poster for the students occupying the administration building that read, “We want to be able to go to college.”

The police have assured protesters these signs will be returned to organizers, Lopez said.

On Friday, Gonzalez issued his response to student demands in a press release. 

Gonzalez said as a campus president, his public support is limited to those of the Board of Trustees. He also stated he and the CSU must maintain that private donor information because donors would be less likely to give money for student scholarships.

The longest response from Gonzalez was to the demand to have a moratorium on managerial raises and salaries.

“At this point for our campus and given the ongoing budget situation, I will not be providing any general salary increases at the managerial level unless specifically authorized by the Board of Trustees,” Gonzalez said in the release. “However, the demand imposes unrealistic restrictions on only one group of employees – managers. It would deprive them of the same opportunities for promotion or reclassification or salary adjustments that remain available for faculty and staff.”

Students began organizing the following day with their next action, “The Death of Education; the Rebirth of Our Movement,” a vigil for higher education will take place at noon Tuesday.

The vigil is to mourn the death of funding for higher education for the CSU system and to honor the rebirth of the student movement to protest the educational funding situation, according to the Sacramento State Coalition. 

Mooers said she believes they are making effective change by the resolution unanimously passed by the Student Aid Commission urging the State Legislature after Gonzalez met with the commission on Thursday.  

The resolution was for the governor to place a budget measure on the ballot before Californians. The budget measure would provide tax extensions for social services, including higher education.