UCI, Protesters Ignore Deadline : Activism: As hunger strike enters its 13th day, one student is seriously ailing. Officials won’t discuss options.

IRVINE — Five hunger strikers demanding that the University of California restore and expand affirmative action programs remained camped out at UC Irvine on Saturday as officials there did nothing to enforce the previous night’s deadline for them to leave.

The five hunger strikers, who today enter the 13th day of a fast in which they are consuming only liquids, had signed an agreement with UCI officials allowing them to camp in front of the main administration building until midnight Friday. UCI officials rejected the strikers’ plea to stay at the site indefinitely.

“They have given their ultimatum and we are still here,” said Angel Cervantes, 23, a Claremont Colleges student who joined the four UCI hunger strikers as a gesture of solidarity. “Are they playing games with the public and with us?”

One of the hunger strikers, whose nonviolent protest had attracted crowds of more than 300 people Friday but only 30 supporters by Saturday night, apparently may require hospitalization within 48 hours for damage to his internal organs due to the fast, according to university officials, who are monitoring the strikers’ health. Neither side will identify the most seriously ailing striker, who has an unspecified medical condition that compounds the ill effects of the fast, university officials said.

Although the strikers exhibit symptoms of starvation--headaches, stomach pains, declining blood pressure and fatigue--the students were listed as “medically stable,” according to daily reports from university physicians.

UCI Vice Chancellor Manuel N. Gomez said he was “deeply disappointed the strikers did not honor their agreement,” but would not explain why the university did not disperse the students after the deadline passed.

Gomez would not say whether the strikers, who are violating a campus ordinance prohibiting overnight camping, will be arrested.

“We are looking at a variety of options,” Gomez said. “It’s premature to say what we will do.”

The strikers, all Latinos, initiated their fast to protest the UC regents’ vote in July to end race and gender as factors in admissions, hiring and contracting. They regard the regents’ decision as a racist attack on minorities, especially Latinos.

The Board of Regents has not responded to the strikers.

If arrested, the five hunger strikers say they will go peaceably and continue their fast in jail. Once released, the hunger strikers say, they would abandon their UCI tent encampment and bring their demands to Gov. Pete Wilson, the Board of Regents and legislators in Sacramento.

Two of the hunger strikers, Cervantes and UCI student Cesar Cruz, were part of a small group that disrupted a UC regents meeting in San Francisco earlier this month.

On Saturday, scores of supporters who arrived this weekend from a number of Southern California universities and Latino organizations offered encouragement to the hunger strikers. Native American and Mexican folk dancers performed periodically throughout the day for supporters.

“I think the strikers should be allowed to stay here and protest,” said Ana Vasquez, a 20-year-old junior from USC. “They are defending something that benefits all of us.”

But the unusual encampment also drew the curious and even unsympathetic Saturday. Fred Mack, a car parts salesman from Costa Mesa, brought his video camera to the scene.

“The chancellor really made a mistake,” said Mack, 63. “If you make an ultimatum, you stick to it.”