SANTA CRUZ â€" A student-led strike at UC Santa Cruz Thursday shut down the school, with picketing from dawn until dusk, rallies at the foot of campus and downtown Santa Cruz and talk of continuing the strike today.

Angry about fee increases of 41 percent in the past year and a half, concerned about the loss of classes in popular programs such as languages and community studies and empathetic toward wages and rights of the hourly workers that feed them and maintain the school, students blocked UCSC entrances at 5 a.m. and refused to let cars onto campus.

The protests were part of a statewide Day of Action born last fall that spread to other states. Protestors gathered in Sacramento as well as in their communities to challenge a budget deficit that leaves both K-12 and higher education billions short in California.

Police barricaded parts of Bay Street and High street, shutting off access to all but those who lived in the area or Bonny Doon.

After 9 a.m. and noon rallies, with hundreds of students gathered at the main entrance on Bay Drive and High street, a small group marched down Bay and Mission Streets at 3:30 p.m. to join a K-12 rally at the Town Clock in downtown Santa Cruz. At 6 p.m. hundreds of students continued their protest in a circle at the main High Street and Bay Drive entrance.

Daytime signs bearing pro-education, anti-administration slogans gave way to nighttime graffiti of "Destroy the University" and

"Destroy Capitalism" on a nearby wall.

About 200 students marched back to the Town Clock but were unsuccessful in draping it with a banner before erupting into an improptu dance party at the intersection of Water and Front streets and Pacific Avenue. All the while, Santa Cruz police officers stood nearby keeping a watchful eye on the crowd.

"Public education should be for everyone. Right now, they are changing the structure to be based off of profit rather than education. The UC youth are angry about access to education being changed. We are mobilizing and we are going to keep mobilizing until we see the results we want. But right now, I'm going to dance," said UCSC senior Lucas Paul.

Just before 9 p.m., the group headed to a Front Street parking structure and the crowd mostly dispersed.

All in all, said Santa Cruz Police Capt. Steve Clark, actions within the city were peaceful.

"There's been no other acts of violence, no vandalism," he said Thursday night. "We're just putting together resources and preparing for what they are going to do tomorrow."

Even though they were warned by University officials that driving onto campus would be difficult, many still tried.

A woman who said she worked at the Student Health Center teared up in frustration as students with covered faces wouldn't let her pass at Western and High streets. She said students on campus would need medical care that day, but she was denied.

Not every student agreed with the decision. Mollie Kraemer, a sociology major from Davis, watched later as a health-care worker sailed through the human barricade.

"It's a tricky decision and we're doing the best we can. That's one of the benefits and faults. A majority decides," she said.

A contract worker for the Arboretum lashed out at the group before turning around, parking and entering through a padlocked fence in front of them.

Several minutes later, the driver of a Volvo trying to turn from High Street to Western Avenue who wouldn't roll down his window to talk to the students, ended up with a student on his front hood and a fist-sized hole in his back windshield.

After pulling over and speaking with university police, Jeff Duncan said he had given up on getting to work in the Baskin Engineering building and was heading to town for breakfast.

"It's kind of ridiculous. I'm totally sympathetic with their cause, but I wasn't trying to get onto campus," he said.

A statement released by one of the organizing groups said health-care workers waiting to cross the line took another student involved in the incident to the Student Health Center, where he was treated for a run-over foot.

Capt. Clark said a UCSC police officer witnessed the incident, but did not intervene.

"Whatever the intent of the message, it gets lost in the violence," Clark said. "What does smashing this poor person's window have to do with whatever the cause is or whatever their intended message is?" University officials said there were knives and clubs at different sites during the strike.

As the sun grew in intensity, so did rallies, at 9 a.m. and noon at the base of campus. Burlap bags with dollar symbols were draped on stoplight crossbars at the main entrance.

A raft of protesters marched from a student barricade at Hagar and Coolidge streets to the main entrance carrying a giant paper banana slug, bullhorns and picket signs. Cars honked in support. Students circulated, gathering signatures for a petition to change the way the state budget is approved.

Speakers from university unions, faculty and grass-roots organizations congratulated the roughly 200 students, staff and faculty for their role in successfully shutting down campus.

"Today is easy," said one speaker, a student named Leo Warshaw-Cardozo, 19, a community studies major. "We have" attention. But what are we going to do tomorrow? They're taking our teachers, our hours and we're paying more." The university is bracing for further cuts and are planning for losses of both 5.5 percent and 11 percent while the state budget is amended and ratified.

During the noon rally, Santa Cruz Mayor Mike Rotkin, a UC Santa Cruz teacher, said he received a July 1 layoff notice. He spoke against changes in the UC system, saying it has "started to follow corporate values." He said state-funded cuts have trickled down disproportionately to students and the matter is "not a budget crisis, but a priority crisis." A representative of Assemblyman Bill Monning said students should focus on changing the budget process from a two-thirds to a majority vote. Campus workers spoke in Spanish of reduced hours and more work.

At a 5 p.m. general assembly, students made the decision to head downtown.

Pookie Bell, 22, from West Oakland, and Rahsheka Keith, 21, from the Bayview-Hunter's Point area of San Francisco, are graduating this year, and said the fee hikes will deter others in their communities from UC schools.

"We're hearing from second and third years saying, 'I don't think I can afford this'," said Keith.

Bell said even though the two are leaving soon, it was important to be part of the movement.

"Once you leave here, you always think of the footprints you leave behind," she said.