Berkeley Students Protest Tuition Hikes
Students at the University of California Berkeley protested tuition hikes by occupying various campus administration buildings. The students and facility were protesting a thirty two percent hike in tuition; the tuition increase would raise semester prices by over 500 dollars.
Several students were arrested after at least 50 students occupied a classroom building on the Berkeley campus early Friday. The standoff continued through the afternoon, as supporters on the campus banged drums and cheered. Students later vacated the building and moved their protest to a public student building after they were threatened with additional police enforcement.
The tuition hike will be applied in two steps over the next two years. The average cost of tuition will be increased to more than 10 thousand dollars. This is far less than a student would pay to go to an equivalent private school but nearly three times the price of the California system just a decade ago.
Many fear that the increase in tuition will turn away lower income students who are already struggling to get by. An additional 32% in tuition might prove too much for students to handle, many just can’t do it. However, officials argue that the tuition hikes will help them reinstate canceled classes, and they claim they will ask the state for an additional 900 million dollars next year.
Students are not the only ones affected by the tuition hikes, faculty members are now required to take a number of unpaid furlough days, which amounts to a salary cut, and they say the larger issue is the quality of education and the ability of UC campuses to attract top researchers and professors.
The state’s other public university system – the 23-campus California State University – has addressed its budget shortfall through similar cost-cutting measures and tuition hikes. The two systems are subject to across-the-board cuts in public education, which are expected to worsen as California’s fiscal problems deepen.
While the United States struggles to emerge from recession, California’s budget analyst said this week that the state’s budget deficit will grow to 21 billion dollars over 18 months because earlier revenue projections were too optimistic.
Students are aiming their anger at the wrong people. Blame instead the residents and politicians of California who refuse to raise taxes to balance the budget and instead sit by while the greatest higher education system ever (UC, CSU and community colleges) are destroyed. Students should be marching on Sacramento, not on Yudof and the Board of Regents. Read more at blog.jimgogek.com