Eight people were in custody today after a crowd of angry protesters broke windows and threw burning torches at UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's campus residence in protest of fee hikes and budget cuts, authorities said.
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As many as 75 people - some of them carrying torches - surrounded the mansion, known as University House, on the north side of campus off Hearst Avenue at about 11:15 p.m. Friday, police said.

The crowd, including a man taken into custody in a university protest a day earlier, chanted, "No justice, no peace," and began smashing planters, windows and lights. Several hurled their torches at the building, said campus spokesman Dan Mogulof.

Birgeneau was sleeping at the time and was awakened by his wife, Mary Catherine, Mogulof said. They were frightened, but unharmed, he said.

"These are criminals, not activists," Birgeneau said in a statement issued this morning. "The attack at our home was extraordinarily frightening and violent. My wife and I genuinely feared for our lives."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger condemned the attack this afternoon, characterizing it as a form of terrorism.

"California will not tolerate any type of terrorism against any leaders, including educators," Schwarzenegger said. "The attack on Chancellor Birgeneau's home is a criminal act and those who participated will be prosecuted under the fullest extent of the law."

The demonstrators had marched earlier Friday night from Wheeler Hall to the chancellor's home. Most of the protesters ran away when police arrived, but some of them threw torches and other objects at officers and patrol cars, Mogulof said.

UC Berkeley police arrested Cal students Zachary Bowin, 21, and Angela Miller, 20, on suspicion of rioting, threatening an education official, attempted burglary, attempted arson of an occupied building, vandalism and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, Mogulof said.

Six nonstudents, Julia Litmancleper, 20, of San Francisco; John Friesen, 25, of Fullerton (Orange County); Donnell Allen, 41, of San Francisco; David Morse, 41, of Oakland; Laura Thatcher, 21, of Rolling Hills Estates (Los Angeles County); and Carwil James, 34, of Brooklyn, N.Y., were arrested on the same charges.

Most of the eight remain in custody tonight in lieu of $132,500 bail and are scheduled to appear in court Monday or Tuesday.

Student leaders said they were surprised and upset that demonstrators resorted to vandalism.

"The protesters have definitely crossed the line when violence occurred after we have preached nonviolent protest for so long, and it is not something the majority of the students support," Sam Lee, who is an officer with the Associated Students of the University of California, wrote in an e-mail. "It is also important to note that many of those arrested from the attack last night were not Cal students."

The incident came a day after university police arrested 66 people - including Friesen - in connection with a four-day protest last week at Wheeler Hall. The building was also the site of a Nov. 20 occupation and clash between protesters and officers from several law-enforcement agencies.

Workers spent much of the day cleaning up the broken glass and debris outside the home, and Birgeneau and his wife were back at the residence under police guard, Mogulof said.

"This is what it looks like when student groups get hijacked by extremist and violent elements in their ranks," Mogulof said. "There is no place in our community for such extremism. They now have to decide which path they take going forward. If they elect to continue on this path of violence and extremism, we will spare no effort to identify and remove them from our community."

It wasn't the first time the chancellor's home has been targeted by demonstrators, but it was the most violent confrontation in almost two decades.

In August 1992, People's Park activist Rosebud Denovo broke into the home, occupied by then-Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien and his wife, and was shot and killed by an Oakland police K-9 officer as she wielded a machete in a bathroom.

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