 Westwood News
WESTWOOD—Angry demonstrators rallied at UCLA’s Covel Commons on November 18, interrupting a presentation given by UC President Mark Yudof regarding the budget cuts and fee increase proposal—raising fees by 32 percent—that the University of California campuses will face in two phases beginning in January 2010.
The UC system has experienced a serious budget cut in the last year, causing many campuses to layoff instructors, cut classes out of their schedules and increase tuition for the fall quarter of 2009; the budget cut had already frustrated many students, parents and faculty members of the UC system and now University of California students can expect to see two more waves of fee increases to come their way. A University of California Board of Regents committee today approved fee hikes which will increase in two different phases. The first will come in January, a mid-year tuition increase of $585. The next increase will take place in the in fall of 2010, the next school year, with an increase of $1,344. This increase will raise UC education fees to $10,302, plus about $1,000 in UC campus charges, plus an estimated additional $16,000 for room and board and books—making fees comparable to those of the private school system. When asked how he felt about the fee increases, UCLA senior, Bryan Yip told Canyon News, “It doesn’t affect me much since I’m graduating but I have a sister probably coming into the UC system. [The increase] will be a bigger strain for my parents because of the economic downturn.” Shortly after the board meeting began, 14 protestors interrupted Yudof’s presentation. Those protestors were handcuffed and escorted off the premises by UC police and were cited for misdemeanor unlawful assembly. Outside of the hall meeting, about 300 students and union activists gathered in protest of the tuition increases. Those demonstrators were met by UC police in riot gear and non-lethal weapons as they pushed the demonstrators away from the hall door.
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