SANTA CRUZ >> Six UC Santa Cruz students arrested Tuesday after shutting Highway 1 have been suspended from classes for 14 days.

The students, linked by steel pipes, chains and concrete, blocked three traffic lanes for more than four hours to protest UC proposed tuition hikes, racism and nationwide police violence. The demonstration was part of a four-day protest, which culminates Thursday morning, when students plan to shut entrances to campus.

Four of the six students remained in Santa Cruz County Jail on Wednesday in lieu of $5,000 bail, according to jail records.

They included Ethan Jacob Pezzolo, 19, of Santa Cruz; Janine Victoria Caceres, 21, of Los Angeles; Alexander Bryant Pearce, 19, of San Francisco; and Sophia Jeanne DiMatteo, 19, of Sherman Oaks.

Lori Leigh Nixon, a 28-year-old from Santa Cruz, and Sasha Lee Petterson, a 19-year-old from Oakland, posted $5,000 bail, according to arrest records.

The protesters were given a 14-day interim suspension, said Nixon, who said she is working with a lawyer to deal with the charges and did not want to talk further.

Interim suspensions are given before final disciplinary decisions are made, when the campus believes that the student’s presence or participation will lead to abuse, a safety threat or disruption, according to UCSC’s student handbook.

The community has pressured the university to take strong action, including a 3,000 signature online petition calling for Chancellor George Blumenthal to “show its support of the Santa Cruz community by expelling any and all students who participate/plan in unlawful protests.” Letters to the editor decrying the protestors have poured into the Sentinel. The only letter supporting the students came from Soquel resident Kelly Luker who said civil disobedience can bring positive change.

Students were arrested on suspicion of creating a public nuisance, failure to obey an officer, attempting to prevent an officer from performing a duty and conspiring to execute a plan of conspiracy. The first three charges are misdemeanors and the last, a felony.

The students will be arraigned Thursday in Santa Cruz County Superior Court before Judge Denine Guy.

Scott Hernandez-Jason, campus spokesman, would not confirm what action the university had taken. He said: “The campus takes student conduct seriously and is taking a hard look at what happened yesterday. As the chancellor and provost said yesterday, we strongly condemn this form of public protest and will exert our full responsibility to discourage its use in the future.”

UCSC employees are expected to work normal schedules Thursday, despite planned closure of campus entrances by protestors, according to a campus bulletin Wednesday. Commuters can check traffic updates at ucsc.edu.

Graduate student Robert Cavooris said he plans to join the picket line Thursday, despite risk of arrest.

“Ideally for me, the police wouldn’t be involved,” Cavooris said. “Yet we’ve seen in the past that this is not how the university chooses to respond to free speech so it’s hard to know what will happen tomorrow.”

In April, 20 UCSC students were arrested at a teaching assistant protest that shut campus entrances. Cavooris said he did not plan Tuesday’s highway shutdown, but in preparation for other events this week, students discussed protestors’ rights when interacting with police.

“I think we live in a society where opportunities are being restricted at every level, for people to live the kinds of lives they want to live, and I think that tuition hikes and excessive police violence in certain communities are a big part of that.”

In November, UCSC students staged a six-day takeover of a campus building after UC Regents approved a plan to increase tuition up to 5 percent a year for five years.

After the November protest, Nixon, a senior and sociology major, told the Sentinel she slept five nights in the building because she wanted to help fix what she called a broken system. She attended community college and worked full time for nine years to afford transferring to UCSC, she said. She said she received a past-due notice in November on her university bill for a summer class not covered by financial aid.

“I had to collect my life savings, and it wasn’t enough,” said Nixon, who said a UCSC administrator helped her attain an emergency grant so she could enroll for the winter quarter. Fee hikes are a Band-Aid on a broken system, she said.

Campus entrance shutdown

What: Planned shutdown of UCSC entrances by student protestors

When: Starting 4:30 a.m. Thursday

Details: Visit ucsc.edu, call 831-459-4636 or listen to 88.1 FM.