On November 6, 1967, James Vasko, Gater editor, was assaulted by black students who were offended by the content and tone of one of his articles.
[1] In June 1968, Dr. Robert Smith was hired to replace Summerskill as the President of San Francisco State College.
President Smith also announced the creation of a Black Studies Department and named Professor of Sociology, Dr. Nathan Hare, Acting Chair.
Additionally, a faculty grievance committee reported back that George Murray was suspended without due process.
Later in December, on the 11th, more than 50 American Federation of Teachers members set up an informational picket line around the campus, to pressure the Trustees to negotiate with the students.
In a 16 January interview with KQED, Ronald Reagan called the protesters, "a dissident faction of outright lawbreakers and anarchists.
[1] The Afro-American Student Union submitted a proposal for a Black Studies Department at UC Berkeley in April 1968.
Chancellor Heyns declared that "Sather Gate will be kept open by any means necessary" and a "state of emergency" was called on February 4, 1969, which resulted in the presence of the national guard on campus for the first time.
After ten weeks of struggle, the academic senate voted 550 to 4 to establish an interim Department of Ethnic Studies pending further negotiations for a Third World College.
[10] Even though UC Berkeley's TWLF called a moratorium on strike activities, they were adamant about their goal of winning a Third World College.
The TWLF organized a ten-hour-long occupation of Barrows Hall and presented eight demands to the university administration seeking to expand ethnic studies.
On the fourth night of the hunger strike, the University of California Police Department raided the camp and arrested eighty-three protesters.