Following a noontime rally Tuesday, University of California, Davis, students spilled into an unused campus building, saying they intend to occupy it around the clock.
The students entered the building that formerly housed the Cross Cultural Center shortly before 1 p.m. The building will take the place of a tent encampment as the center of operations for the campus Occupy movement, said student Artem Rafkin.
"We are going to be permanently occupying it," Rafkin said.
Campus officials are taking a wait-and-see approach.
"We'll be monitoring it and making decision based on the overall best interest of the university," said Claudia Morain, a spokeswoman for the university.
Although the building is not set up for overnight inhabitants, the lights and heat remain on.
Even before UC Davis came under criticism when campus police pepper- sprayed Occupy protesters they were trying to remove from a tent encampment on the quad, the university took a cautious approach with protesters, allowing them to occupy the administration building overnight.
Since the pepper-spraying incident, the administration has been even more cautious in reacting to protests.
Rafkin said the students are still fighting to oust Chancellor Linda Katehi and reorganize the police force, but they recently voted to support an initiative to raise taxes to make college free for most California students.
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