FULLERTON – Cal State University Fullerton told students camping there – protesting a 9-percent tuition hike – that they has to leave by 5 p.m. Friday.

And they did.

By the deadline, the students and their gear had cleared out.

If the students didn’t comply, they faced the possibility of being arrested and facing academic discipline from the university, spokesman Christopher Bugbee said.

Students set up the Occupy CSUF campsite on Tuesday, a day before the CSU Board of Trustees voted in favor of the tuition boost. The protestors, on Friday afternoon 50 strong with 20 tents, set up on grassy patch near the library.

The students were given a 24-hour notice.

University officials can set policy regarding demonstrations. With the campus closed next week for Thanksgiving, continuing to allow the campsite wouldn’t have been practical.

“There has been every effort made to accommodate them,” Bugbee said.

“The purpose of the Occupy movement was to educate and raise awareness to the student body,” said graduate student David Inga, 22, of Santa Ana, one of the student organizers of the encampment “And to focus our energy on getting that 9-percent-tuition increase back on the table.”

Because students won’t be on campus next week, there is no point in staying, he said.

Another goal of Occupy CSUF is to “democratize” the board of trustees, which would allow voters to elect CSU trustees, Inga said. Trustees are mostly appointed by the governor and approved by the state Senate.

Across the state, other CSU and University of California campus have staged protests. The CSU and UC systems operate under different budgets. Students in both have absorbed steep boosts in tuition.