A small group of protesters occupied a segment of the South Oval and hung a sign from the top of Gaylord Hall on Thursday as a means to show support for a nationwide movement to stop funding cuts to public higher education.

The group — “Occupy The South Oval!” — spread out a rug, played music and passed out fliers to raise awareness for cuts in state funding. Oklahoma legislators have agreed to a 3.5 percent cut in higher education. California, the most populous state, is expected to raise tuition by 32 percent in public universities.

“We think it’s been a pretty good day,” said Daniel Helm, OU campus event co-founder and linguistics and French senior. “We’ve had people come by and talk to us about what we were doing, and the reaction has been mostly positive.”

“We can be here well into the night if we feel like it,” said Tate James, fine arts senior and co-founder of the event.

The demonstration began at 9 a.m. Thursday and lasted into the evening.

The group also hung a sign at the highest point of Gaylord Hall that read “Occupy Everything!” — but it was later removed by OU authorities as of 2:30 p.m.

The small occupation was part of a national Day of Action in which students and professors in 32 states did not go to class or walked out of class to protest their anger with administrators and lawmakers.

Some of the incidents across the country became violent and led to the arrests of some protestors.

At least 15 protesters were detained by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee police after as many as 150 students gathered at the student union then moved to an administrative building to deliver petitions to the school chancellor.

University spokesman Tom Luljak said campus police allowed one person inside, but when she emerged, she encouraged everyone to rush the building, he said.

The violence began when police tried to turn them away. No serious injuries were reported.

In northern California, rowdy protesters blocked major gates at two universities and smashed the windows of a car.

Protesters at the University of California, Santa Cruz, surrounded the car while its uninjured driver was inside. Earlier, demonstrators blocked campus gates.

University provost David Kliger said there were reports of protesters carrying clubs and knives, but Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve Clark could not confirm those reports. No arrests had been made.

An advisory posted on the school Web site urged people to avoid the campus because of safety concerns.

At the University of California, Berkeley, a small group of protesters formed a human chain blocking a main gate to the campus. Later in the day, hundreds gathered for a peaceful rally.

“We’re one of the largest economies in the world and we can’t fund the basics,” said Mike Scullin, UC-Berkeley graduate student in education who plans to become a high school teacher. “We’re throwing away a generation of students by defunding education.”

Organizers said hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and parents were expected to participate in the nationwide demonstrations.

At the University of Illinois, about 200 professors, instructors and graduate faculty marched through campus carrying signs that read “Defend Public Education” and “Furlough Legislators” — a reference to recent furloughs and 4 percent pay cuts imposed on thousands of university employees.

The state is $487 million behind on payments to the University of Illinois, while its state government has a budget deficit of $13 billion.

At the University of Texas at Austin, about 100 students and staff rallied on campus to protest a 5.4 percent hike in tuition and fees approved by regents a day earlier. Protesters complained the quality of education was taking a backseat to the university’s bottom line.

Officials said the tuition hikes, which include another 3.89 percent jump for fall 2011, are necessary to avoid cuts in the face of declining endowment payouts and an anticipated cut in state aid.

While on-campus activity remained calm in Norman, word had come back to the group about incidents taking place around the country.

“From what we’ve heard, there is a double standard between the protesters and the police,” Helm said. “We’ve heard police rammed a car through a crowd to try to get them to move and all they ended up doing was breaking a girl’s leg.”

-The Associated Press contributed to the national portions of this report.