UC WIDE PROTEST: Regents increase fees by 32%: Berkeley uproar; 14 ARRESTED in UCLA; 1 TAZER

http://www.dailybruin.com/articles/2009/11/18/committee-finance-approves-32-perc...

"The Committee on Finance of the UC Board of Regents approved two undergraduate student fee increases that would raise current fees by a total of 32 percent for fall 2010.

If passed by the full board tomorrow, a mid-year increase will go into effect for winter quarter, and the remaining hike will be instituted fall 2010.
Fourteen protesters have been arrested so far.

Twice this morning, groups of protesters were taken away in handcuffs after singing "we shall overcome" and linking arms during the public comment and Committee on Finance periods of the meeting.

Just before noon, the general public section of the meeting room was closed after nearly every person in it stood up to protest.

One woman interrupted the meeting to make a personal appeal to the regents, but she was denied the chance to comment.

The woman, in tears, began screaming, and nearly everyone in the public section raised their fists into the air and joined in."

http://ucstrike.com/

"Once again the UC Regents will meet to vote on another proposed student fee increase: now a particularly unbearable 32% over two semesters, last summer 9%. If this increase is approved, the cost of a UC education will have tripled since 2000.

This, finally, we refuse. As students, as teachers, as workers — we will not support it.

We have been told that such increases are inevitable. We have been told that like the furloughs, layoffs and cuts to services and departments, this new source of suffering has its cause in the fiscal crisis of the State of California. But one month after declaring an "extreme financial emergency," and "saving" $170 million by furloughing employees, UC chose to take on $1.35 billion in new debt for 70 construction projects. Our fees have been pledged as collateral for these construction bonds. A recent report suggests that some UC administrators are willing to sacrifice affordability to avoid accountability, that they would rather raise fees than receive additional state funding with its requirements of budgetary transparency. The UC administration has made its priorities clear: construction over instruction, buildings over people.

This, finally, we refuse. As students, as teachers, as workers — we will not support it.

All the while we have been paying more for less. We are paying more for fewer classes, and for classes with larger enrollments. We are paying more for fewer instructors, for closed libraries, for closed department offices, for cancelled programs. We are paying more for fewer staff and for staff working longer hours for less pay. We are paying more for a degree it will take us an extra semester to complete. We are paying more for an institution barricaded against the next generation of high school students, more for an institution which crowds out students of color, which makes those already struggling to get by shoulder the burden of the crisis. What have we received in exchange for these additional fees, if not more faculty or more resources? The answer: more management. In ten years, administrative positions have increased five times faster than the number of faculty. The estimated cost of this excessive bureaucracy is approximately $800 million, enough to pay the fees of over 100,000 students.

This, finally, we refuse. As students, as teachers, as workers — we will not support it."