NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two people were arrested and the University of New Orleans campus police chief was injured Wednesday in a scuffle with members of a crowd that refused to leave the administration building after a student protest against deep budget cuts.
UNO spokesman Adam Norris said a graduate student who is not currently enrolled and a currently enrolled undergraduate were detained. He did not have their names or the charges on which they were arrested.
Police Chief Tim Harrington left in an ambulance, grimacing in pain, ice packs around his right ankle.
Earlier Wednesday, about eight students at UNO — which, like other state colleges and universities is facing possible budget cuts of up to 35 percent — barricaded themselves in a classroom building for about two hours.
They then led a class walkout and outdoor rally which eventually attracted about 150 of the school’s 8,600 undergraduates. But rather than going directly to an amphitheater where campus police had set up a sound system for them, they went to the administration building, carrying banners that read “OCCUPY” ”STRIKE” and “RESIST” and clogging the hallways.
Once there, most remained peaceful — even walking quietly by the office of Chancellor Timothy Ryan at the request of campus police.
Nobody was arrested for the original occupation of Milneburg Hall, a liberal arts and sciences building.
“I really am hesitant to arrest kids and give them a criminal record if I can help it,” Harrington said during the rally.
It was unclear what set off the later altercation.
But police apparently used a chemical spray on at least one student who was put into a squad car, his hands cuffed behind his back. They poured water on him, apparently to wash the chemical off, as he sat outside the administration building.
Campus police forced their way into the occupied building around 8:30 a.m., about two hours after a cleaning crew found the entrances blocked, said university spokesman Mike Rivault.
Rivault said the protesters apparently slept in the building overnight and blocked entrances with tables.
“There was no danger or threats. They didn’t do any damage to the building,” he said.
“When they left they helped clean everything up,” Harrington said.
Norris said the university does not plan disciplinary action for the Milneburg Hall protest.
UNO, a campus of the Louisiana State University system, has lost about $12 million in state funding over the past two years, sharing in $280 million in budget cuts levied on higher education statewide. At least $17 million in additional cuts for the New Orleans school are expected within the next year. The university has laid off workers, cut student programs and stripped money for intercollegiate athletics. Tuition was increased to offset some of the reductions, but that hasn’t filled all the gaps.
UNO was founded in 1958 as LSU-New Orleans and grew on a site that originally was a naval air station. The name was changed to University of New Orleans in 1974.
Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans and Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, and photographers Gerald Herbert and Pat Semansky contributed to this story.
 
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