8 Arrested After Protesters Attack Berkeley Chancellor’s House

Protesters at the University of California at Berkeley smashed windows and threw torches at the home of the chancellor, Robert J. Birgeneau, late on Friday night, marking a violent turn for student protests that have roiled campuses around the state.

A group of 40 to 75 protesters stormed the grounds of Mr. Birgeneau’s house on the campus at about 11 p.m., yelling “No justice, no peace,” police officials said.

Some scattered garbage, broke lights and windows, and threw torches at the house and at the police, campus officials said. Eight people—including two Berkeley students and two students from the University of California at Davis—were arrested and charged with a series of felonies.

“These are criminals, not activists,” Mr. Birgeneau, who was awakened by the attack, said in a statement. “The attack at our home was extraordinarily frightening and violent. My wife and I genuinely feared for our lives.”

Mr. Birgeneau called on other protesters to condemn the actions of a violent few.

The president of the University of California system, Mark G. Yudof, said in a statement on Saturday that the attack was “appalling,” that “the behavior as described went far beyond the boundaries of public dissent,” and that “such lawlessness cannot be tolerated.”

Students and others have staged a series of protests at the University of California system in recent months to protest a 32-percent tuition increase, but the incident appears to be the first time a campus official has been directly targeted. Earlier on Friday, the police arrested more than 60 people who had occupied an academic building at Berkeley for most of the week.