What Happened?

Exactly what happened in the incident described below is unclear. The Inside Higher Ed story refers to a joint meeting by College Republicans and Democrats. Most accounts online of the incident appear in conservative sources that make no mention of Democrats. (One account makes mention of a Democrat in attendance as an individual.) The local Santa Cruz Sentinel appears not to have any account of the incident.

Arrests Over Shutting Down of Event at Santa Cruz

By Nick Roll, October 20, 2017, Inside Higher Ed

The University of California, Santa Cruz, Police Department arrested three students for disrupting a meeting organized by College Republicans and College Democrats Sunday night. A Santa Cruz spokesman, Scott Hernandez-Jason, said the students who were arrested refused repeated requests from other students, staff and police officers to leave a conference room booked by the College Republicans in the library.

The students were arrested for disturbing the peace, failure to disperse, unlawful assembly and trespassing. Police intervened “so that we could protect the students’ right to meet.”

“These are the kinds of meetings we want to see taking place -- two groups with differing views having meaningful discussions,” Hernandez-Jason said in an email. “It’s unfortunate and disappointing that a few students disrupted their meeting and refused repeated requests to leave.”
In a video posted online, the protesters said that the College Republicans' act of hosting private meetings was a disturbance that ought to be shut down.

Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/10/20/arrests-over-shutting-down-event-santa-cruz